Vegan Gingerbread House

Many, many hours later the vegan gingerbread house is done! I learned a lot about gingerbread, house building, and icing. I am not sure I am cut out for gingerbread house making--I am an anal retentive perfectionist when it comes to food and gingerbread houses are messy and sticky with goopy icing and nary a straight line anywhere. But, the kids thought it was the best gingerbread house ever, and they had fun "helping," so that is all that matters.

VEGAN GINGERBREAD

The gingerbread recipe comes from the Vegan Lunchbox blog. It is awesome--durable, pliable, and reliable.

- 1/3 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, at room temperature

- 1 cup packed brown sugar

- 1 cup sweet unsulphured molasses

- ¾ cup water

- 6 cups all-purpose flour

- 2 tsp. baking soda

- ¾ tsp. kosher salt

- 1 tsp. cinnamon

- 1 tsp. ground ginger

- ½ tsp. cloves

- ½ tsp. allspice

METHOD:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the margarine, brown sugar, molasses, and ½ cup of water.

2. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, adding just enough of the water to incorporate all the flour and form a dough that holds together well.

3. Turn the dough out of the bowl and form into four equal balls. Wrap each ball well with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 350º. Line some baking sheets with parchment and spray with nonstick spray. Set aside.

5. Working with one ball at a time, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. Roll the dough about ¼-inch thick and cut into desired shapes.

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the surface is firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Some sagely advice: make the supporting walls thickish, but make the roof pieces thinner. Any tricky pieces, like dormers, should be cracker thin.

VEGAN ROYAL ICING

The icing comes from http://www.goodbaker.com/.

- 1 lb. confectioners' sugar

- 1/4 cup powdered soy milk

- 6 tbsp soy milk

- 6 tbsp light corn syrup

METHOD:

In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar and soy milk powder, then add most, but not all, of the soy milk. Add corn syrup just until combined. Add remaining soy milk if the icing consistency is not smooth enough, but be careful not to add so much that it will be too runny or fail to harden.

SOME TIPS:

1. Go small. Don't try to be a hero and try to make a scale version of your own house.

2. Make sure the afternoon is free. This is going to take a while.

3. Make the icing is as thick as possible. You really can't replace egg whites in royal icing, as it turns out, and gravity is not your friend.

4. Thin is good for gingerbread. Things can get unruly if the pieces are too thick.

5. Be patient. Let base pieces set and dry before you start building up.

Gingerbread House Update

Well, I have almost done everything thing I said I would do on the blog this month to prep for Christmas. The chestnut stew was tasty, as were the vegan cookies, and the cranberry glazed tofu made me enjoy cranberries more than I ever have before. So, that only leaves the gingerbread house--the plan is to make a model of our house. I completed my cardboard model, which I posted here, have found the perfect gingerbread recipe and a vegan royal icing recipe. Son #2 and I hit the bulk food store yesterday and loaded up on vegan candy. Tomorrow is construction day. If all goes well, I will have pics for tomorrow's entry.

It's Time to Party

You are most likely going to host a party this holiday season, or go to one.  Vegan Mom and I have hosted/helped host two parties thus far.  The first was a neighbourhood affair with about 50 people in attendance so I thought I'd share what we did to help you with your own partying over the next week or so.  Many apologies for the quality of the pictures; they were snapped rather quickly right before guests came through the door.

We tried to do a mix of savoury and sweet.  On the savoury side we had a corn and bean salsa with chips, as described here.  You can also see a fruit tray, some mixed nuts, veggies and hummus, and pretzel bites for the kiddies.  

 The biggest hit by far on the savoury side was a large crockpot of Creamy Zucchini Soup (not pictured here) with baguette slices and focaccia for dunking.

 And now the sweet: If you look at the top picture again you will see mini chocolate cupcakes with mocha frosting (all from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World).  People love those things!  Vegan Mom went to town with the cookies.  Here we see Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Men.

 Also: lemon tarts (Isa's lemon square filling from Veganomicon) and mincemeat tarts (if you are not making your own mincemeat, make sure the stuff you buy does not have suet (i.e. beef or mutton fat) in it).

 Chai Shortbread from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

 And, of course, stollen.

Anadama Bread: Baking Through The Bread Baker's Apprentice

I love baking. I love bread. There is nothing quite like kneading together the perfect dough, caring for it during the fermentations, anticipating its flavour as the house fills with the smell of baking bread, then finally cutting into the finished loaf and enjoying a still warm slice of perfection. Perhaps it's because Vegan Mom and I just watched Julie and Julia, but I have decided to bake through Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (not even an original idea, as it turns out). I have made several breads from this book, and have made no secret of the fact that I totally love it, so I am going to make them all. I will veganize when necessary, but I have no plans to alter the recipes in any other way. I will do a quick post about each bread for anyone interested.

The first bread is Anadama Bread: a loaf made of cornmeal (polenta), flour, and molasses of New England origin. The bread takes 2 days to make, with the first 24 hours taken up soaking the polenta in water to help release the natural sugars during baking. Reinhart made a note that his recipe testers preferred a light molasses so the flavour did not overpower the final loaf. I just used the molasses I had on hand, the same stuff I use for gingerbread, and did not notice any adverse flavour. The end result was amazing--a soft and light loaf with a bit of texture from the polenta. I found 40 mins of baking to be just right. We enjoyed a slice soon after baking with a bit of margarine, and then I made some classic PB and J sandwiches for lunch the next day.

Holiday Roundup

With the cookbook(s) done and the trip back home for the holidays done, I finally have some time to blog again! No real recipes in this post, I am sorry to say, just a tour of some of the gastronomic holiday highlights.

First up, birthday cake (sort of). If you have been reading this blog for a while you know that I decorate a cake however the birthday boy wants for his special day. This year, under the influence of the Christmas cards arriving daily at our door, Son #1 requested a gingerbread house. Vegan Mom and I thought it would be a good idea to let each kid at the party decorate his own house, so I made these four houses (thankfully, Son #1 only had one friend over for a sleep-over party, plus his two brothers). I used the same recipes as last year, except I tried something new for the icing to hold the houses together. I heated 1/3 cup of light corn syrup in a small pan, then added enough icing sugar to form a thick paste. I let it cool a bit, then rolled strips of it in my hands to create a mortar-like substance. It held really well.

For Christmas dinner with my in-laws I made the roast from Everyday Dish. No pic, I am sorry to say. I found the whole thing rather disappointing--bland and tough. For Christmas with my parents I made seitan cutlets cooked in apples, apple juice, roasted chestnuts, dried cranberries, and thyme. The recipe was rather like this one, and was very tasty.

Here is an apple frangipane tart that my sister-in-law made. My plan is to veganize this puppy in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

Other dishes in the recent past that were simple and tasty but not novel enough to warrant their own post: red peppers, onions, garlic and seitan chunks (could be tofu), and rotini tossed in olive oil, nooch, and plenty of basil.

Rice vermicelli, tofu, and bok choy in and orange ginger sauce. Kind of like this recipe.

Candy Cane Cupcakes

Today is Son #1's 7th birthday. Hard to believe, but true. He wanted to bring in cupcakes for his class (increasing his popularity exponentially), and wanted them to be Christmas cupcakes. I had some mints leftover from the gingerbread house, as well as a few candy canes. I know I saw this idea on some other blog, but I can't remember which one. I ground up 2 large candy canes in my coffee grinder (about 1 cup), folded it into the buttercream frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, spread it over the basic chocolate cupcakes, and topped with a mint. I think these would be great for holiday parties.