LEBKUCHEN HӒUSCHEN (GINGERBREAD HOUSE

• Note: This recipe makes enough dough for one 11 by 17 in ginger bread cake. You will need three of these cakes to make the house. You may bake the cakes in three batches (they become firmer and easier to handle as they age, so it is possible to do the baking over a period of several days as long as you cut them as soon as they are baked.) The icing recipe is intended to make enough for the whole, house, but generous decorations may require more.
• Cut out the cardboard templates of the house and its base. Set them aside. Lightly coat an 1.1 by 17- inch Swiss-roll tin with 1/2 oz. of soft butter, using a pastry brush or grease-proof paper. Sprinkle 1oz of flour into the tin and tip it from side to side to coat it evenly. Then turn it over and knock out the excess. Set the tin aside.
• Sift 1 1/2 lbs. of flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt together into a large mixing bowl and set them aside.
• Preheat>the oven to Mark 3 (325 degrees F). Bring the honey, sugar and butter to the boil in a fairly large, heavy saucepan over a high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved and the butter melted. Remove the pan from the heat, mix the lemon juice and lemon rind, and cool to room temperature. Beat in 1/3 of the flour and spice mixture, add the egg and egg yolk, and then beat in the rest of the flour and spice mixture. Flour your hands lightly and knead until the dough is smooth, pliable and still slightly sticky. If it is too moist to handle, beat in more flour.
• Place the dough in the Swiss-roll tin and with a lightly floured pin, press and roll it out as evenly as possible, forcing it into the comers with your fingers. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the cake is firm and the top brown. Let the cake cool in the tin for 4-5 minutes, then, using the templates as your guide cut it into the requisite shapes with a pastry wheel or small knife. No not be tempted to cut the pieces-freehand;-they must fit together precisely to make a stable structure. Set the pieces aside on a rack until they cool completely. Bake and cut the other cakes.

Decoration:

• Beat the egg whites with a balloon whisk or a rotary egg beater in a large bowl until they are frothy and slightly thickened. Sift the icing sugar into the whites 2 oz. at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Continue to beat for about 5 minutes, until a stiff icing is formed. Fill a piping bag fitted with a round decorative tube with about 1/2 pint of the icing.
• While the pieces of gingerbread are still spread out flat, decorate the front, back and sides of the house with windows, shutters, doors and the like. When the icing is completely dry, assemble the base and walls of the house according to the directions, using the icing as cement to hold the pieces together. Let the walls stand undisturbed until the icing is completely set. Cement the roof and chimney pieces in place with the rest of the icing, and after the icing is set, decorate the roof and chimney. Make more icing if necessary. For more elaborate decorations, coat sweets and biscuits on one side with icing and press them gently on to walls and roof. As a final touch, sift snow over the base.

Doug, I forgot to include the dimensions. Here they are.

• The first step is to make patterns for the pieces from stiff cardboard, following the dimensions and shapes. Now back three 11 by 17 inch ginger bread cakes according to the recipe. While the cakes are still in their tins, lay the patterns on the cakes and cut the warm gingerbread with a pastry wheel or a small, sharp knife. If you like, cut out a door and a window or two as well. Slide the cakes on to a rack to cool, using a fish slice. (There will be some scraps of gingerbread left over, including one piece big enough to be cut into gingerbread men.) Then outline door and window frames, shutters and other decorations on the walls with the egg white and sugar icing.
• After the wall decorations are dry, set the base on a cutting board or a large piece of heavy cardboard to enable you to move the house from place to place when it is finished. Assemble the house, using icing to cement the pieces together.
• First ice the bottom of the end wall-the back of the house-and the bottom and one end of a side wall; fit them together and place them carefully on the base. Ice the bottom and two sides of a comer post and place it between them. Hold the pieces upright for 3 or 4 minutes, until the icing has set Ice the opposite end of the side wall and the bottom of the other end wall, and fit that wall on to the house for the front Ice and add the post corner. Hold these pieces until set.
• Ice the two remaining comer posts and put them in place front and back, allowing space for the side wall. Now ice the bottom and ends of the remaining wall and put it into place. Hold the wall until it is set, then let the icing dry for at least 10 minutes.
• Finally, ice the top edges of the end walls and lay the roof over them.. The roof pieces should meet, but do not try to ovr1ap them; simply fill the space between them with icing to make a roof peak. Hold the roof until it is steady. Then ice and join the two chimney parts, ice the bottom and put the chimney in place, holding it until it sets.
• Decorate the house as fancifully as you like with icing and with sweets and biscuits. (If you need more icing, make another batch.) Apply the roof icing first, forcing it through a piping bag or writing it on with a small palette knife. Don’t forget a crown of icing snow for the chimney top. Spread the sweets and biscuits with icing and press them gently into place. When the house is doe to your taste, sprinkle the roof and base with snowdrifts of sugar.
• Fragile though it seems the finished house can be, a delight -for many Christmases. Just wrap it well in plastic and store it in a cool dry place between, seasons.
• 1st 11-by-17-inch pan: Base-11" by 9"
• 2nd 11-by-17-inch pan: Two side walls-4" by 6", two end walls-6" by 4" with 10" peak; Chimney-5" long
• 3rd 11-by17-inch pan: Two Roof pieces-10" by 8", four post-1" by 4"
• Have fun, Nancy