Grandma's Gingerbread House Dough

Source: My Grandma, Margaret Elwood

Just one of many, many, many houses that have been
created using this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

2/3 cup molasses

1 egg

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Use electric mixer to mix all ingredients together.  Use hands to then compact dough into a ball.  Put dough in a zip lock bag or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Place dough on a greased jelly roll pan and roll out to evenly fill pan.  Place gingerbread house pattern (I'm working on getting this!) on dough and lightly mark outline.  Bake at 300 degrees F for about 30 to 35 minutes.  Remove from oven and use marks to completely cut out shapes (this must be done before the dough cools and hardens).  After cutting, remove pieces from pan and cool on a wire rack.  Once cool, the pieces should be very hard.  If not, place on a cookie sheet and return to oven for 5-10 minutes longer.  Pieces can then be assembled using icing or hot glue (I think that hot glue was added by my uncle, Bryan - the cheater!  ;)  We have found that using meringue powder works wonders for making a really stiff, hard setting royal icing that holds those houses firm . . . though there were years in the early days when there were a few tears shed because of a sinking roof and I really would have loved to use glue!)

Notes:

This is one of those traditions that has been going on and on for as long as I can remember.  I've never missed a year of the gingerbread house making extravaganza at Grandma's house (usually takes place Thanksgiving weekend, but not always) till this year.  Luckily, my mom whipped up a batch for me and Gregg to take home with us after our trip to Utah for the wedding.  She even included a little baggie of meringue powder and directions for making the royal icing.  Then we just scrounged around our apartment for "decorations"* and voila!  A masterpiece.  (*My grandma has been doing this for so many years that she has a big bin of candy that we just keep reusing - think old, hard, stale stuff - replenishing just a few things each year as needed . . . this worked fine till Gregg came along because we never ate our gingerbread houses before - he had a different idea about things, and as it turns out, the houses are pretty dang good to nibble on, too!)