Homemade Gingerbread House cookies

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The perfect christmas tradition of making gingerbread cookies is complete with these spice loaded homemade gingerbread cookies recipe with tips and tricks to get them perfect. Template for your own gingerbread cookie houses included.

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

One day to Christmas and I finally have a gingerbread house cookie recipe for you. Ever since I started this blog I have on most christmases made gingerbread cookies. But I never got around posting a recipe. This time I have just about managed to post this recipe of gingerbread cookies.

These gingerbread cookies are bursting with spices and a subtle hint of orange zest in them. They are sturdy enough to be made into gingerbread houses but still have a slight soft chew in the center. While I love the grandiose vibe of a gingerbread house, I think these cookies in the shape of a house and decorated with royal icing are a great substitute for the house, and definitely not as much effort or planning that gingerbread houses generally requires. You can add a hole on the top and these gingerbread cookies would be lovely as edible ornaments for your trees, or to use to as gift tags, or even to put in place of napkin rings for your dinner table. If nothing else, just pick them and eat. No one is judging. Its christmas 🙂

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

GINGERBREAD HOUSE TEMPLATE

If you have a house shape cutter, go ahead use that. You could also use this dough to make gingerbread men, stars, trees, christmas ornaments and whatever your cute little christmas imagination thinks of. I made houses and trees. While I have one house cutter (which I only realised while I was typing this post), I wanted houses of different shapes and sizes, so I just made my own template.

I made the gingerbread house template in Microsoft word, and honestly if I can make it, so can you. I am uploading my template for the houses here but feel free to adjust sizes and shapes- or even add a chimney to your template to make it more fancy. I print the template on an A4 card stock so that it is a bit sturdier and stick parchment paper to the side that will be touching the cookie dough. That ways you are sure to be using a food safe template to cut your gingerbread shapes.

For the design with the royal icing, I was inspired by this pinterest vector image. And that’s what I went ahead for the houses. There is plenty of inspiration online, or if you are an arty crafty person I am sure you can think of one in your head.

This dough is sturdy enough to make gingerbread houses too. Hopefully next year I will have a proper tutorial for that as well.

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

SUBSTITUTES, TIPS and TRICKS

Here are some tips and tricks to make sure you get the perfect gingerbread house cookies.

  • Molasses substitute: For the molasses, I actually used this easy substitute made from palm jaggery. I used this for my christmas cakes too, and it worked well here as well.
  • Egg substitute: While personally I haven’t tried this recipe without eggs, you can easily use any of the traditional egg substitutes like flax/chia egg, or even cream to bind it all together. It should work. In case it doesn’t please let me know.
  • Rest your dough before rolling out: I used to do this step always because most recipes say to do it, but only recently understood why. The primary reason to rest your cookie dough, is so that you give the flour time to hydrate and soak up the liquids in the dough. Cookie dough is generally dry and thick fats like eggs take time to be absorbed by the flour. This resting period helps in better flour hydration, yielding cookies that will bake and brown more evenly. For this gingerbread cookie dough a 1-2 hour rest in the fridge is sufficient, but for the chocolate chip cookies on the blog I prefer atleast a 24 hour rest period for a slighltly more complex flavor. If you have the time, these gingerbread cookies will definitely benefit from an overnight rest too.
  • Rolling your dough: I always roll my dough out between two sheets of parchment paper. This way I do not need to add any additional flour to the dough. Also keeping to chop sticks on each side while you are rolling out, will help in the rolled out dough to have even thickness. This video where I am rolling the air dry clay explains it better how I use the chop sticks.
  • Making windows: While I did not cut out any windows and made them with royal icing once the cookies were baked, in case you want to Tip No. 5 in this article, sounds quite helpful.
  • Chill your dough once you have your cut out shapes ready: Chilling the dough allows for the fat (butter) in the cookies to chill and firm up. Cold fat will melt slower while baking, preventing the cookies from spreading too thin and losing its shape. So once I roll out the dough, I like to chill it again for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. In colder seasons 30 minutes refrigeration is enough time, but if you are in a warmer climate you might need little more. The cutouts should be firm to touch before you start baking.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes:  The biggest size of cookies (in my template) took no more than 10 minutes to bake, so keep an eye out. Depending on your oven you might need to move the tray once so that all cookies are baked evenly. DO NOT lift the cookies from the tray as soon as you remove them from the oven. They will still be slightly soft. Let them cool a bit on the tray till you can easily lift them without breaking them. Then let cool completely on a wire rack before you ice them.
  • To make ginger cookies crisp, you can leave out the baking soda. The main difference between soft and crispy ginger cookies has to do with this leavening agent. I like the centers to be a little soft, so add a bit of baking soda to it.
  • Make ahead: The dough will stay good in the fridge for about 2 days wrapped in plastic wrap. Let it come to a pliable temperature before you roll it out. The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months, thaw at room temperature before using. If the disc feels super stiff, just let it be on your counter for a bit until it’s more pliable.The cookies can be made up to 1 week in advance, cover tightly and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

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Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Ganache frosting

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A one bowl chocolate cake layered with whipped salted caramel ganache. A great crowd pleaser. Perfect as a layered cake, but for a fuss free version turn it into a layered dessert/pudding.

Chocolate Cake with salted caramel ganache frosting

It rained yesterday, because of which this post that should have gone live yesterday got pushed to today. The rain got with it a slightly grey, wrap yourself in blanket with good coffee, music and movies kind of day. I did get around to doing some baking in the evening. The soaked dried fruits needed to get in the cake batter to be ready in time for Christmas. I am already late in my plum cake baking but my oven has been giving some trouble and the guy who was supposed to come to fix it did not show up last week. I thought I would let him look at it before starting the bakes, but since that was not happening did my first trial bake.

But today we are not talking about plum cakes. We are talking about this insanely good Chocolate cake with salted caramel ganache frosting. I first saw this whipped salted caramel ganache on The Boy who Bakes instagram page. I love salted caramel. I love chocolate. I love this salted caramel ganache. And then you add a rich and moist chocolate cake to the mix, you have a winner dessert, my friends. One bite, and you are in heaven. In Chocolate cake, salted caramel, ganache heaven.

While I go through a ton of recipes, there are some that are bookmarked to be my go-to recipes. They are my fail safe recipes and this  chocolate cake with salted caramel ganache frosting is one of them. I have made it a few times now. I have passed on the recipe to a friend too, and this recipe is a keeper. Make it. Make it for yourself. Make it for your guests. And trust the winter woollen layers to cover the extra weight you put on after you cant stop at one bite. Or exercise. Or portion control. Or eat mindfully most of the time with an occasional binge here and there. Do you. Always do you.

So what makes this cake? Let’s break it down for you, shall we.

Chocolate Cake with salted caramel ganache frosting

The Chocolate cake Layer

The recipe for the chocolate cake is adapted from this one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe that I keep returning to. Its also the recipe where I first tried the divine combination of chocolate with salted caramel. I have tweaked the chocolate cake since then and am sharing that chocolate cake version here. I probably should do a separate chocolate cake post. Hopefully some time in the future. You know me. I promise a lot of things, procrastinate, then don’t deliver- so do not hold your breath on this.

The chocolate cake recipe yields a nice chocolatey cake that is moist (yes, I use that word to describe cakes that are moist- I do not know what else to use.  None of these words make the cut ). It is also fairly easy to put together. One bowl, people. One bowl. No creaming. No fuss. And good results. That’s what you want!

The cake is NOT eggless. But since I know a lot of you will ask me about an eggless version, do not worry. I have you covered. You could sub the eggs with yogurt or even cream. For every egg replace with 1/4 cup yogurt -just make sure it isn’t too tart. If you have access to greek yogurt use that. For a vegan version try my vegan chocolate cake.

I use two 7 inch cake pans, and then tort each cake in half for the layers. I generally end up with a few scraps which are so perfect to dunk in the leftover syrup and ganache and make a pudding. This chocolate cake with salted caramel ganache frosting recipe actually makes a lovely pudding too. If your cake breaks- DO NOT FRET. Make the pudding. Your guests will love it still, or even more.

The Whipped Salted Caramel Ganache Frosting

The salted caramel ganache is the star. That salty, caramel-y chocolat-ey goodness. So good. Caramel can be sweet but with a touch of salt it becomes a mix of sweet and salty and if you are the kinds who is always struggling in the vicious circle of sweet-then savory-and back to sweet and then wanting something savory to keep the balance in your mouth then salted caramel is for you. To that you add chocolate. Mix. Whip. And get something so luscious. You have to restrain yourself from licking the entire bowl. We do need to frost the cake, remember.

And while the salted caramel ganache is the star it is also the trickiest part of the cake. Caramel always is. I was watching an episode of Nigella the other day, and she was making caramel. Her advice was to never have anyone in the kitchen when you are making caramel. Any distraction and you could go from the perfect rust penny color to bitter tasting burnt sugar and will need to start again. You can not rescue burnt sugar. So pay close attention. The moment you see that rust penny color, remove from the gas, give the pan a swirl so that the heat spreads across and then add the butter. This is the next crucial step. If you do not mix the butter well you could end up in a separated caramel and you do not want that (you can recover from it, but its not always a smooth sail). Stir the butter well, bring it back on the stove and then add the cream in two additions.  Once the cream is added and mixed well, you remove the caramel off the heat. Add the vanilla and salt. Then pour it into the chopped chocolate. Post that you wait for it to thicken to be able to whip it to spreadable consistency.

Now Edd insists on using milk chocolate for this frosting else the salted caramel flavor would get lost. But I did not. In fact I use dark chocolate and honestly I wont change a thing. Milk chocolate to me would be too sweet. And if you do not like your desserts overtly sweet, I would suggest stick to the dark chocolate.

Chocolate Cake with salted caramel ganache frosting

The Assembly

If you follow my layered cake recipes and actually read through these long drawn blog posts you might probably remember how I like to soak my cake layers in a little syrup. I do it to get an added assurance that the resulting cake will be moist (yes, moist) and delightful. I also do it as an opportunity to add some liqueur. Yes, I love boozy desserts. And so do my friends. So why not! For this cake I used Cointreau. I think the slight hint of orange liqueur adds to the whole cake. I do not add too much, just a hint and it does the trick. We still want the salted caramel and chocolate to be the star. And they are. This is just to elevate it. You could choose to add whiskey too. I think it would do well here.

I hope that helps in demystifying this recipe. And in case it doesn’t feel free to ask your questions/doubts in the comments in the below. And I will try my best to answer. Also have a look at The Boy Who Bakes blog post – he has a video and you can see the exact color you would want your sugar to reach before adding the butter. If its not dark enough your caramel will be too sweet. If its too dark, your caramel might taste burnt.

So without any more delay, here is the recipe for this chocolate cake with salted caramel ganache frosting. Make it, tag me, share pictures, spread the love 🙂

Happy Sunday!

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Paneer Makhani Pizza

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An easy from scratch paneer makhani pizza recipe with a homemade whole wheat crust. A great vegetarian option for pizza and paneer lovers. 

Paneer Makhani Pizza

The recipe for the Paneer Makhani Pizza should have been posted last week. Last week and most of this week has been a little stressful and as a result I could not. I also missed my 10 year blog anniversary which was on 27th July. Yup, its been 10 years of blogging on novicehousewife.com ! I was supposed to do an update post which was not going to be a recipe post but more personal. Instead life came in the way and I could not get the post up. I will definitely do that post but it will take a few days to have it live.

We had to go to Chandigarh for my passport work last week. It was great seeing my parents after 5 months, the longest I have gone without seeing them after I got back from the US. I also got to see a few of my Chandigarh friends and family after a very long time, and it was nice to get a glimpse of how life was back when things were normal. We still took our precautions but I didn’t realize how much the both of us had been missing company and the joy of a small get together.

We have done absolutely no socializing the last 5 months. With the exception of Anubhav’s brother and dad, it has just been the two of us in the house day in and day out. And while there were issues too personal to talk about on the blog during our Chandigarh visit, it was nice meeting our family and select friends. I also got to meet my darling niece who is staying with my parents, and we baked cupcakes together. These chocolate cupcake recipe with vanilla frosting, and it was so much fun.

Paneer Makhani Pizza

Once back, we learnt that Anubhav has got a kidney stone.  Since the pain was so severe the first day, we were scared it could be appendicitis. Fortunately it wasn’t but not that having a kidney stone has been any better. And its been a constant worry for both of us as he is not sleeping at all during the night. In the midst of all this I had my first outside shoot after 5 months of working from home.

Since Anubhav still is experiencing pain, mentally it has been exhausting. Pain killers help but once their effect wears out the pain returns. I am reading up on home remedies that can help break the stone- lots of water of course is one. Adding lemon juice in the water, basil, pomegranate juice plus working on including horse gram in our diet.

Meanwhile the house is in a mess.

I haven’t been able to unpack and sort out all the props. The shoot was a tiring 10 hour long shoot with only a small lunch break in between. Styling jobs even though for the client might seem like a one day job, in reality even with limited sourcing/pre production are 3 day jobs for the stylist. One day before the shoot goes in sourcing ingredients, sorting props and packing them. The day after the shoot goes in unpacking props and placing them back. Shoot day, besides the 8-10 hour on set shoot, 2 hours go in packing and unpacking the props, and another hour or so goes in loading and unloading the car. Traveling time is additional. Effectively it becomes a 12-14 hour day. And in some cases, not only are you styling the shoot, you are also donning the cap of the art director for the shoot.

But that’s enough of the reality check, and a small explanation why I have been away and why this post for paneer makhani pizza got delayed. Let’s get to the recipe then.

Paneer Makhani Pizza

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