Piparkökuhús

Skógasafn, December 2011

Gingerbread house

I once tried to model my gingerbread house on the Icelandic sod houses!


Recipe for Einfaldar piparkökur

Ingredients

250 g sugar
200 g syrup
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp baking soda
250 g butter
3 eggs
800 g flour

400 g powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice


Preparation

Put the sugar and syrup together in a large pot and heat gently. Add the spices and mix everything well.Add the baking soda to the warm mixture and stir everything quickly until the mixture bubbles.

Put the butter in a mixing bowl, pour the warm mixture from the pot over it and stir until the butter has completely melted.

Then stir in the eggs.

Finally, add the flour and work until the dough is nice and smooth.

Cover the bowl with the dough with cling film and place in the fridge overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

Roll out the dough between two layers of baking paper to about 1/2 cm thick.

Print out both sides of the template on DIN A4...

...cut out the motifs and place them on the rolled out dough, then carefully cut out the individual parts with a sharp knife.

You need 18 “stones” of the “grass sods” for both sides and the back of the “grass sod house”, i.e. 54 pieces in total.

Then distribute the individual components for the house with enough space between them on 3 trays lined with baking paper and bake one after the other in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) - the trays with the larger components for 20 minutes, the trays with the "large sods" for approx. 10 minutes.

Then let it cool down well.

Then stir the icing together as an "adhesive agent" - mix the powdered sugar with the egg white and the lemon juice and then carefully coat the "adhesive edges" of the individual house components with a teaspoon and the icing and then put them together.

"Pile" the sod between the two gable sides and attach them to each other with the icing, if necessary placing the frontmost "stone" across so that it gives the front gable side more support.

Then “put on” the two roof panels and layer the sod on the back wall.

Allow to dry thoroughly and, if necessary, store in a breakfast bag or something similar if the house is not eaten straight away so that it stays reasonably moist.

[Translated from here.]