It Takes a Neighborhood to Raise...A Gingerbread Roof

There is a reason why my mother never had us make gingerbread houses growing up. A very good reason which I have recently discovered (as of 2 1/2 weeks ago and continuing into this evening). This reason is also why I didn't get my planned post written and ready for the morning. Currently I'm saturated with candy (Why oh why oh why did I eat that much?) and tired after spending the last few hours attempting to construct a gingerbread house (I know, I know, I'm about a lifetime and a month late). Mostly the sugar is getting to me (and I'm working on a new habit of writing in the morning instead of when I'm supposed to sleep -oh, and it's bedtime right about an hour ago). Seriously, why, Meaghan? You know better.

Around Christmas we were thinking of things we could do that would be Christmasy. For the first time, it'd just be my parents, my sister, and I. My dad's suggestion was gingerbread houses, but we all got sick, and nothing happened. Around New Years' my mom and I made the dough. A few days later we cut it out and baked it.

Now I'm a decent baker. I make good stuff, but growing up, my mom was always careful about how much sugar we ate so dessert of any kind was rare. There's things about cookie baking that I don't know. Like sometimes people forget the importance of making sure you roll cookie dough out evenly because you mostly don't make cookies the size of walls. Also cookie dough does rise. And sometimes unevenly, especially if the cookie sheet you cook them on has a bowed in base. Also something you might not consider when you make smaller cookies. Lopsided cookies are great. Lopsided walls/roofs/bases? Not so much.

2 1/2 weeks later...You know how they call the stuff sugar 'cement' that keeps the walls of a gingerbread house together? Here's some advice: There's a reason why they call it that. This cement stuff is just white sugar, and I've never melted it in a pan on the burner before. I didn't know how it worked. But one minute it was still sugar, next minute it was clumping and sticking, then it was syrup. As soon as it turned to syrup, we hurried to dip the edges of our lopsided walls and roofs into it and stick them together. Another small issue with this cement - it's hot (which...makes sense...but when you're making houses in madness, you forget). Six hands were present, but six hands were not enough.

With six hands present (and six hands not enough), we got the biggest house put together, and as we stuck the last roof section on, we noticed that the syrup had dangled off the spoon and turned into brittle string (and cement - if this should happen to you and you're worried about the pan, just boil water in it until all the cement melts off the sides. Also careful with your teeth. This stuff is hard). Great - because we only had three more houses to make. Mad rush ensues. Unlike other situations, the first time was the charm - the house you see in the pictures (quality isn't the best. Didn't plan on them being blog-worthy, just memory keeping) because all the others fell apart.

But in the midst of the crazy and not exactly as planned, I had a great time, especially in the actual decorating. This part was just my mom and I, and that was okay. It was late, but we weren't in a hurry. And it made the whole attempt worthwhile. Who cares about perfection? I'm delighted by the finished result. It might be lopsided and silly, but it is gloriously lopsided and silly.

I have other baking accomplishments that have turned out looking great, but so many of them are things I did by myself. And this isn't. It was art, in a way. It might look like eight-year-old art, but it was a lot freer than what I've been doing lately. Instead of being frozen, I just thought 'what if we made a pathway with the walls of one of the houses that didn't make it?' and did it. So do things like this. Do things with other people that might turn out into a wonderful mess (and mess it was. We had bits of brittle sugar cement everywhere). Perfectionism is crippling. It wasn't until recently that I realized how imprisoned I am by it.

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What about you? Have you ever made a gingerbread house? If you have, was it created from scratch or one of those kits? And if you made some wonderful gingerbread house from scratch, how? Just how? Any other baking mishaps (on the surface, anyway)? Last time I decorated dessert was when I made melting snowman cookies with some friends.