Dorothy Gingerbread House – The Wizard of Oz

Instructions

Prepare the gingerbread cookie dough.

1. In a saucepan add the honey together with the two types of sugar.
2. Place over medium low heat and, stirring from time to time, let the ingredients melt and integrate completely.
3. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. In the bowl of the KitchenAid add the butter, with the help of the flat beater, start beating on speed 1. Add the molasses that we have prepared in a continuous thread. Mix on speed 1 until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time and wait to add the second one when the first one has been integrated.
6. Add the spices together with the salt and mix again.
7. Begin to integrate the flour little by little. Mix until it is completely integrated and add more flour. We will make this step until we add the totality of the flour.
8. Dump the dough on a clean work surface and knead a little with your hands.
9. Flatten slightly and wrap with plastic wrap or place in a freezer bag.
10. Let it rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours.

Roll out the gingerbread cookie dough.

1. Stretch the dough between two Teflon sheets. We will give it a thickness of 6 mm with the help of an adjustable rolling pin. It is possible that not all the dough will fit in the tray, so we cut a piece and stretch it separately.
2. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until the next day.

Cut the cookies.

1. With the help of the cutters or a template that we make, cut out Dorothy's house.
2. Once we have cut them all, carefully lift them off the Teflon sheet to remove them. If you square the cutters well, it will not be necessary to move the pieces. If you have to do it, I advise you to do it when they are cold to prevent them from losing their shape.
3. Repeat the same process with the other gingerbread dough(s).
4. Below I detail the amount of dough to cut for each part and thickness. To make window frames and tiles, we will do it by hand.
5. For the tiles we will need more than the size of the roof cutter.
6. Refrigerate while preheating the oven.
   

AMOUNT OF DOUGH TO CUT

• For the big house, we need 3 pieces in the shape of a house, 2 for the side walls and two roofs (thickness 6 mm).
• For the small house, we need 1 piece in the shape of a house, 2 for the side walls and two roofs (thickness 6 mm).
• For the side house, 2 shaped pieces, 1 wall and 1 roof (thickness 6 mm)
• For the roof tiles (2 mm thick) and irregularly cut by hand.
• For the porch we will make a floor and 2 bars (thickness 2 mm)
• Window frames, thickness 2 mm (hand-cut and shaped)
• 1 door (thickness 6 mm)
• 1 cartwheel, thickness 2 mm (optional)
• 1 cookie of dimensions x cm to draw the yellow brick road (thickness 6 mm)
  

Bake.

1. Preheat the oven to 330ºF/165ºC with heat up and down.
2. Bake directly from the refrigerator. Place at medium height and bake for 15-18 minutes, making sure they do not brown too much.
3. Notes: Pieces with a thickness of 2 mm will be ready in 12 minutes of baking.
4. Remove and let them cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Once all the cookies are baked, let them rest at room temperature for 14-16 hours in a cool, dry place, if possible.

Prepare Royal icing.

1. Sift royal icing mix.
2. Add with the water and mix lightly with a spatula. In this way we will avoid making a cloud of powder in the kitchen. With this first quantity we will obtain the base/solid consistency of the royal icing.
3. Mix the mixture with the water in the KitchenAid (with the help of the flat beater at speed 1) for approximately 7-8 minutes. We will obtain a white and homogeneous icing.
4. To decorate the cookies, depending on how we want to decorate them, we must add a little more water.
   

ASSEMBLING THE HOUSE OF DOROTHY, THE WIZARD OF OZ

Assembly of the roof.

1. Spread a layer of royal icing thinnedwith a little water, to make it more spreadable, and begin to glue the tiles.
2. When we are ready to place the second row, we will try to place them alternately.
3. Let dry for 12 hours.

Assembly of the house.

1. Before joining the house, we will paint all the walls of the house with Extra White powder coloring.
2. To glue the sides of the walls of the house, use royal icing with very little water added.
3. Tip, do not glue only the sides, reinforce the inside with icing to make sure it will not come apart.
4. Let dry for 12 hours.

Place the roofs.

1. Once the assembled houses have dried, we will place the roofs.
2. I have used royal icing to glue them directly. Due to the inclination and the weight (immense) of the roofs together with the tiles, we will have to place a support for them at the base while they dry.
3. Have a good amount of royal icing to fix the roofs.
4. Let dry for 12 hours.

Glue the ornaments.

1. With royal icing thinned with a little water, place the window frames, the door, the cartwheel and all the details.
2. We will also place on top of the roofs, the union of both, a row of tiles to avoid a gap.
3. If you wish, you can make small pumpkins to place around the house and the yellow brick road.

PREPARE THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Draw the road.

1. With the help of an edible marker, draw the yellow brick road on the cookie.
2. Make sure that the dimensions of this are in accordance with the size of the house.

Decorate with icing.

1. Prepare gray outlining icing, put in a piping bag with outlining nozzle (2 Wilton).
2. Outline the entire yellow brick road.
3. The same glaze, put it in a bowl and add water to give it a flood consistency (more fluid).
4. Put it back into the piping bag and fill the upper circle.
5. Reserve the icing in a small airtight container.
6. Prepare yellow and red icing in the same way as with the gray color, first outlining consistency and then flooding consistency.
7. With the yellow icing, draw the outlines of the bricks. Then we fill these, we will do it alternately and waiting for the first bricks to dry before filling more. The reason is that if we fill them all at the same time, being very fluid, they will join and the volume of each one of them will not be appreciated.
8. With the help of a toothpick, we can spread the icing to reach all the sides of the outline and avoid that it can be seen.
9. Repeat the same process with the red icing and, remember, always wait for the previous one to dry before proceeding to fill in the new ones.
10. Once both paths, yellow and red, are dry, create the details in gray.
11. Stir the leftover gray icing very well and put it in a piping bag with a piping nozzle.
12. Outline the paths with the gray outline.
13. Wait a few minutes until it begins to dry and, at that time, texturize as I show you in the video.
14. Let it dry completely.

Assemble the house.

1. Place the large cookie with the yellowbroick road on a flat surface.
2. Place the house and insert the LED lights inside.
3. Cover the big cookie, except for the path, with decorative moss.
4. Place all the rest of the details, the witch's legs, the pumpkins, the porch floor and the broken railings, the side hut with the roof (I didn't attach them to the house), the cartwheel, the door....
5. And we enjoyed them and their views :D
   

Notes

• Honey and icing sugar can be replaced by molasses if you wish.
• This dough is firmer/hard after baking than other gingerbread cookies, the reason is that we need it to be so that the house remains in good condition over the days.
• It is important to let the cookies dry very well on a wire rack before painting or decorating with the icing.
• When making the royal icing, do not overbeat it. The ideal is 7-8 minutes maximum at low speed or 1 always. The reason is that we will incorporate too much air and, when the glaze dries, many air bubbles will appear giving a porous and fragile texture. In fact, when touching the glaze, it will crumble as if it were sand.
• When we give different consistencies to the glaze, either for outlining or flooding, we must add the water little by little. In my case I always do it with a bottle to avoid adding more unintentionally. Mix very well with the help of a spoon to integrate the water and then check the consistency by taking an amount and dropping it.
• All the excess icing we have left, either royal icing or colored icing, we will keep it in an airtight container covered with cling film. When we need it again, since it will have separated and there will be water, we will mix it inside the container itself with a spoon until it is homogeneous again. Place it into a piping bag and proceed to work with it again.
• The royal icing can be kept at room temperature for 15 days or up to 1 month refrigerated. As long as it is made with a royal icing preparation. If it is made with egg whites, its shelf life is much shorter.
• You can decorate it to your liking.
  

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