Halloween-inspired gingerbread house made from scratch

The+final+product+%28front+view%29

Crystal Flores

The final product (front view)

Crystal Flores, Reporter

While gingerbread houses are traditionally made around Christmas, there is no reason why they should not be made around Halloween.

After not having luck finding a gingerbread house kit at Target, Walmart or Bed Bath & Beyond, I decided to make one from scratch.

Some suggestions I will give is you should get help from a minimum of at least one person. You may do the gingerbread house alone, but it is time-consuming and the construction process is difficult for one person.

The pieces are very fragile depending how thin you rolled out the dough. Ideally, it should be one-fourth of an inch, but they may break, so that’s where the second helper comes in to help you hold the pieces together.

When getting my supplies ready, I first gathered all of the ingredients necessary, and I followed a recipe I found online.

The easiest part of the whole process was making the gingerbread dough as it just consisted of mixing the ingredients well.

Most of the dry ingredients go in one bowl, except sugar, which gets mixed with the molasses and water in another bowl.

I have never created a gingerbread house on Halloween– let alone from scratch– but I found it very fun and exciting to decorate the house with a different holiday theme.

My mom helped me cut the pieces from the rolled out dough and bake them, while my brothers helped me put the house together.

One suggestion: have some spare gingerbread pieces in case your pieces break during the building process.

Also, try using melted marshmallows instead of icing as a binder because it is stickier and better for building.

No matter what, have some fun and get creative with the decoration process. Get crazy and make it your own.

I have provided the ingredients below, as well as the link I used as reference to make the gingerbread house. Give it a try and invite family and friends to help you out and create those lasting memories.

Ingredients:
· 6 cups all purpose flour
· 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
· 4 teaspoons ground ginger
· 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
· 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) butter, softened
· 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
· 2 large eggs
· 1 cup dark molasses
· 1 Tbsp water

Sources:

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_a_gingerbread_house/