Gingerbread House Recipe

The Cooking Of Germany - Foods Of The World
This gingerbread recipe is great for making houses. It dries nice and hard. I highly recommend you use a stand mixer for this recipe. This recipe is from The Cooking of Germany by Nika Standen Hazelton. I always test the recipes before I post them. This one I made the original way the first time, but changed it a little the second time (see notes in parenthesis).

3/4C Honey
1 3/4C granulated sugar
1/4C unsalted butter
1/3C lemon juice
6 1/4C all-purpose flour
6T baking powder
1 1/2t ground cinnamon
1t ground cloves
1/4t ground nutmeg
1/4t ground cardamom (I use ground ginger)
1/8t kosher salt
1 lg egg (I use 2 eggs and omit the extra yolk)
1 lg egg yolk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 12x17" rimmed baking sheet with Baker's Joy, or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the honey, sugar, and butter and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Transfer the mixture to the large bowl of an electric mixer.
3. In a separate large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt.
4. Using the paddle attachment, beat 2C of the flour mixture into the cooled ** honey mixture at medium speed. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat on medium speed until combined, then add the remaining flour mixture and beat until the flour is thoroughly incorporated and the dough is smooth.
5. Immediately press the dough evenly into the prepared pan (I used two pans in order to make the dough thinner). Then using a lightly floured rolling pin smooth and even the dough out.
6. Bake for about 35 minutes, until firm and browned. Place a large cutting board on top of the gingerbread and flip it over to unmold. It is now ready to be cut into the shapes for your house. The gingerbread must be cut warm or it will harden to much.

Note: I used two 12x17" sheets, and lined mine with parchment paper.
** do not cool the mixture! I cooled it the first time and it was very hard to work with. Just mix it in as soon as you have added the lemon juice.

I have seen gingerbread houses made where you cut them out prior to baking, cut after baking and even do some cuts in the middle of the baking. Use what method you're comfortable with.

To glue the pieces together I use a sugar syrup glue. However do not use this with children around. To make the sugar glue: Pour 2C sugar into a heavy 12" skillet. Add water to cover the sugar. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat and cook until it reaches hard ball stage (250-265 on candy thermometer). Keep on medium-low heat while gluing pieces so it doesn't crystallize on you. Be extra careful not to get burned by the glue.