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A Village of Gingerbread

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A Village of Gingerbread

Written by Frank Isganitis

Saturday, 03 March 2007

Side Story
Gingerbread Recipe

“Uncle” Frank’s Gingerbread Recipe
1 1/3 cups honey
3 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup lemon juice 
2 beaten eggs 
2 beaten egg yolks 
12 cups all-purpose flour 
1/3 cup baking powder 
2 tsp ground ginger 
2 tsp ground cinnamon 
2 tsp ground cloves 
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 
1 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 350˚

Uncle Frank's Gingerbread

Frank Isganitis of Rockland’s LimeRock Inn spends months planning his original gingerbread house designs. Each year young nieces and nephews arrive at his family party in eager anticipation of the personal gingerbread house each will build. Workstations are set up with candy and tubes of frosting, and the family goes to work. In Frank’s eyes, it takes a family to create a holiday village. Start early. Gingerbread keeps for a long time, so don’t wait until the December “holi-daze” sets in to start creating your gingerbread house. Baked gingerbread can be stored for up to one month in airtight plastic bags.

Divide the steps into baking, assembly and decorating to keep from suffering gingerbread overload. For example, make and bake the gingerbread one week; assemble it the next; then decorate it after that. A single gable house is the easiest to build and is probably best for the novice. For the adventurous, there are no limits on unique and creative designs.
For complicated designs, Frank recommends making a cardboard template. It takes extra time to make the model, but you can use the cardboard pieces as patterns when you’re cutting out the dough, and it will save time on assembly since the house can then be built atop the cardboard model.

Assemble gingerbread houses in stages. Assemble the sides first, and then let them sit for at least 3 hours to ensure that the “glue” (i.e. frosting) sets. Follow next with the roof pieces, and again, let them set before beginning the final decorating.

An inside secret: canned frosting works great. Says master designer Frank, “One year, I could not get my frosting recipe right, so I ‘cheated’ and bought canned. The rest, as they say, is history.”

When decorating, remember nothing is off limits as long as it’s edible. Don’t confine yourself to holiday candy: Jelly beans, gummy worms, pepperoni, Raman noodles are good, too…. Original Good and Plenty can be set like bricks for a fireplace. A gumdrop or chocolate chip makes a great doorknob. Crushed chips become interesting wall textures.