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ST
OCKF
OOD/JONES
,HUWThese articles are
posted each week at
newscientist.com/makerIngredients
For the biscuit:
200g butter
200g brown sugar
7 tbsp golden syrup
600g plain flour
3 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp ground cinnamon
Half tsp ground cloves
For the icing:
2 egg whites
500g icing sugar
Hard sweets for windows
More sweets for decorating
CREATING a gingerbread
house is a fun festive activity,
but shoddy construction can spoil
the party and put any gingerbread
inhabitants in serious danger. This
recipe and some tips will help you
avoid catastrophe.
First, create a design. It is helpful
to draw the pieces for your house
on paper, then cut these shapes
out to use as templates. The
quantities of ingredients listed
will give you enough gingerbread
to make a structure 30 centimetres
tall with walls 20 cms wide.
Building requires a strong and
stable biscuit. A dense dough with
a low moisture content is ideal,
so that the pieces stay flat. This
means no eggs or raising agents.
A high flour-to-fat ratio also makes
for a tougher biscuit: proteins in
flour form a gluten network that
provides strength and elasticity to
help the pieces resist deformation.
Melt the butter, sugar and
syrup in a saucepan. Mix the flour
and spices in a large bowl, then
stir it into the butter mixture. If
necessary, add a splash of water
to help the dough come together.
Roll out your dough on a sheet
of baking paper the size of your
baking tray and cut the pieces
guided by your paper templates.
Ensure the pieces share edges
wherever possible to make the
most of the space on the tray.
The dough will tend to expand
when baking, so it is a good idea to
leave some excess dough in place
around the edges of outer pieces,
to help them maintain their shape.
Bake the biscuits at 200°C for
12 to 15 minutes, until they start to‘Tis the season to erect beautiful gingerbread houses, but make
sure your building materials are fit for purpose, says Sam WongThe science of cooking
Home sweet home
darken at the edges. On removing
from the oven, immediately recut
the pieces before they harden.
For an impressive decorative
feature, create window holes in
the gingerbread, place crushed
boiled sweets in the windows and
put the pieces back into the oven
for about 5 minutes to melt the
sweets and form colourful glazed
windows. If you have a small light
that will fit inside the house, they
will look truly spectacular.
You will need something to
bond your pieces together. Some
websites recommend melted
marshmallows and gummy bears,
but I found these much too sticky
and tricky to work with. Royal
icing is easier, looks better and
has plenty of strength. It contains
protein-rich egg whites. These
proteins denature and coagulatewhen beaten, making the icing
hard when it dries. Mix the beaten
egg whites with half the icing
sugar, then slowly mix in the rest.
Use a piping bag to apply the
icing to the edges of the pieces and
wherever else it is needed. Stick the
base of the walls to the board you
are building on. To keep the roof
panels from sliding down before
the icing dries, first stick a big
square of baking paper to the
underside of the two panels with
icing, so they are held together by
the paper. Then stick the roof on.
Have fun decorating the house.
The low moisture and high sugar
content means the biscuits should
The science of cooking be good to eat for about a week. ❚
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