Gingerbread Cottages

COTTAGE
Christmas candies – assorted
Wafer cookies for shutters
-and doors
Necco candy wafers for roof
Peanut brittle for pathway
Sugar cones and gumdrops for
-trees
Pastry bag with tips

-ROYAL ICING-
3 Egg whites
1/2 ts Cream of tarter
1 lb Confectioner’s sugar

Directions: Gingerbread: Beat together the butter and sugar in a large
bowl. Add molasses and water. In a separate bowl, combine the dry
ingredients. Add the dry to the wet ingredients, 1 cup at a time. Mix on
low to avoid fluffiness. If dough is too stiff, mix it by hand with a
spoon. Divide in half and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough 1/4″ thick on parchment
paper. Dust the pattern pieces with flour and lay on the dough. Cut out.
Leaves the pieces on the parchment paper and place on cookie sheets. Allow
at least 1/4″ between pieces. Before baking, cut the windows and doors, but
do not remove the cutouts. Bake for 1-15 minutes for larger pieces, and
8-10 minutes for smaller pieces. Gingerbread should be firm and lightly
browned to ensure a rigid cookie that will stand up without bending.

Royal Icing: Beat all the ingredients at high speed for 8-10 minutes. This
is a hard-drying icing, and must be kept tightly covered at all times.

Cottage: Separate the candies into muffin tins. Ice everything that
requires white icing first, and tint the rest of the icing as needed. Join
one side wall to an end piece by piping icing along one edge and pressing
the end of the other piece into it. Prop the pieces at right angles so they
stay together until they are dry. Allow the icing to dry thoroughly before
handling the pieces. When the first two pieces are hardened together,
attach the other end piece or wall. Allow the wall to dry before adding the
roof. Attach doors, shutters, roof tiles, and cookie and candy trims with
tiny dabs of icing.