Recipe of Today: Gingerbread House

Ingredients:

• 4 sticks unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
• 2 ½ cups plus 3 tbsps dark brown sugar
• 12 ¾ cups plus 2 tbsps all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsps ground ginger
• 2 tbsps ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsps baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups molasses
• zest of 2 lemons
• zest of 2 oranges

Instructions:

• Get your Kitchenin KM50 Stand Mixer, combine half the butter and half the sugar in the mixing bowl and beat for 5 minutes with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides. With your mixer running on low speed, add two eggs, one at a time. Mix in 1 cup molasses. Scrape down the bowl.

• At the same time, sift together the dry ingredients of flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, then set half aside. Add half of the dry ingredients in 3 batches and mix well. Combine the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange.

• Remove the dough from your mixer and wrap in plastic wrap, or transfer to a resealable plastic bag. Repeat all steps above for the remaining dough. Put in the fridge overnight.

• Heat oven to 350°F when you are ready to bake.

• For each square, weigh out approximately 20 ounces of dough. The goal is to end up with five 9-inch squares, so you'll roll them out a little bigger, bake them and trim off the edges.

• Lightly flour a large piece of parchment paper. Put the frozen dough on top. Roll side to side and up and down to form a roughly square shape. When rolling, make frequent quarter turns to keep the dough even. Roll out until the dough is about 10 x 10-inch and ¼-inch thick. Transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. 

• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until evenly and firmly set. Cool the pan on a rack. To prevent bending and cracking, lift the parchment paper and carefully transfer to a rack. After cooling completely, stack the plates still on the parchment and set aside to dry at room temperature for 3 to 7 days. Then assemble the gingerbread together to a house and decorate the icing as you like. Merry Christmas!