Intricate railings can be crafted from spaghetti that has been cooked to al dente, rolled in food coloring or tinted frosting, then dried. Want columns? Try rolled wafers, wafer cookies or candy canes.Just be sure to put them inside before you put the roof on. If you’d like to light up your gingerbread house, try battery-operated mini lights.Feilmeier recommends decorating the walls before assembling the house because it’s easier to work on a flat surface.You can re-dry the dough in your oven if need be. If your gingerbread goes soft before you put your building together, check the humidity in your home.Gelatin sheets (available online) work for clear windows. They will melt during baking and cool into swirls of color. Before baking, make a hole in the gingerbread dough and drop the candy crumbs in. Crushed LifeSavers make great stained glass windows.Feilmeier uses an old serrated bread knife as a saw. After baking the gingerbread, trim each piece to square.
“You want it to get stiff,” Feilmeier says.
Let cookie sheet cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove sheet and let cookies cool completely.īeat egg whites and lemon juice until foamy. Remove from oven and trim pieces while still warm. Arrange as many pattern pieces as possible, allowing at least 1/2 inch between pieces, and cut out with a sharp knife, saving the trimmed dough.īake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, or until cookies feel firm to the touch. Roll out 1/4 of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness on the foil, covering the whole cookie sheet. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and sprinkle with flour.
Chill several hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll. Stir in flour mixture to make a stiff dough. In a large bowl, beat shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices onto wax paper. Gingerbread (Adapted from Family Circle, December 1970) Perhaps they will inspire you to think outside the gingerbread house kit next year. “I have to do something that I haven’t done before,” she says.įeilmeier kindly shared photos of gingerbread houses past from her massive scrapbook, as well as her recipe and many tips. Another time, she built a stone wall for an Irish castle out of Rice Krispies bars and rock candy. One year, that involved making domes for the Corn Palace out of giant Hershey’s Kisses, whittled down to size. For the January/February 2021 issue of South Dakota Magazine, we talked to Barb Feilmeier, a Mitchell woman who has elevated gingerbread architecture to lofty heights by crafting everything from the grand Victorian Beckwith House in Mitchell to the South Dakota State Capitol out of flour, sugar and spice.Īfter making gingerbread houses for 50 years, Feilmeier has amassed a wealth of tricks to make the process run smoothly while stretching the bounds of her creativity.
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