(Christmas music)
- [Claire] We made this video selfishly for me,
because I was so obsessed with reliving my childhood.
My grandmother lived pretty close to me growing up,
and every year she would have each of her grandkids over
to do fun holiday-themed activities.
It's one of those things where as a kid
you don't realize how special that is,
but it's been super nostalgic.
So my Aunt Ginger went through
all of my grandma's old Christmas stuff.
It took her a few weeks.
She finally dug it up, and she sent me a photo of it.
Honestly, I kinda gasped when I saw the recipe,
because it had handwritten notes all over it.
Some of the bits were highlighted; it was discolored.
It was so old my grandmother had written it
on her old typewriter.
Like, it pulled at my heartstrings when I first saw it.
It was, well, it was really cool,
'cause especially, like, when I was a kid,
I never saw the recipe, 'cause she would always make it.
So being able to kind of look back and see this was,
I don't know, it was really special.
It's a reminder that all recipes are living.
And this is at least how I do it.
Like, I always take notes myself.
We use kosher salt here at Tasty.
It's not gonna sift the way all the other ingredients are,
so I just put it in separately.
So much can change in a recipe when different people do it.
My grandma recommended using nonstick spray
on the Dutch oven that you're using.
So even if you're using, like, a nonstick surface,
it still helps it release a little bit better.
So this is actually called a melting-method cookie.
We're making it in a pot,
which is not typical of a lot of cookies.
But because this has so much liquid in this recipe,
it's a perfect method.
Melt it, oh, my gosh, it's a perfect melting-method cookie.
So what we're really trying to do
is dissolve the sugar in all that liquid
and bring this to a boil really quickly
just to make sure that all of the sugar is melted.
A cup at a time, we're going to incorporate
the dry ingredients into the blend.
You don't have to be super precise about this.
It gets very hard to stir
once you incorporate more of the flour.
She says use four cups, and then use the remaining cup
when you're kind of kneading the dough together.
It smells so good.
What do they say?
The smell is the closest tie to memory?
My grandma always said we don't eat this gingerbread.
Maybe that was just so that we wouldn't eat it,
so we could use it for the house.
We tried it, and it's pretty good.
Thanks for your help.
It's heavy; there's a lot in there.
You want to work this when it's pretty warm.
It's going to settle a little bit.
It'll be kind of a loose dough,
but it shouldn't be super, super sticky.
A lot of her notes were basically saying
don't use all the flour.
So I was trying to be aware of that
as I was kneading this together.
It's funny; I wish I could ask her
these questions, but I can't.
So she was very precise in saying
that you needed to divide this dough into three pieces
and use the three different pieces
to cut out the different shapes.
I'm gonna put these two pieces back in that warm Dutch oven.
Again, you want to work this when it's pretty warm.
So as with anything that you're rolling out,
you want to be ware that you're starting
with the shape you want to end with.
And I'm gonna do that thing with my rolling pin
where I kind of press the dough before I start rolling,
always rotating the dough
about a quarter turn every now and then,
just to make sure that the dough is not sticking.
Between, like, a quarter and a third of an inch
is probably a good thickness for this.
The thing about making a house
is you do want to be careful
that you're cutting straight lines.
While a ruler is not totally necessary,
I would recommend it.
Wait until you guys see this.
We have templates for you to use.
You can print them out and use them
for your own house at home.
This is a top tip that my grandma left in the recipe,
so cut out windows and stuff,
but leave them in place; don't take them out.
And then just recut them
when the pieces come out of the oven.
And that will ensure that the windows
and the doors stay intact.
Just make sure you have, like, super-crisp edges.
I mean, definitely, like, use your discretion here.
And it comes out pretty easily.
You do want to use a knife again.
It's not too difficult.
You just cut it and pry it out, no big deal.
So here you can see on the left
is where we left the pieces in and cut them afterwards.
And on the right we took them out before baking.
That's kind of a cute look,
but wasn't the look that we were going for.
You definitely want to let these bad boys cool
before you do anything with them.
I would even make these a day ahead of time
if you know that you're gonna be making these.
And we figured we'd throw in
a bonus recipe for you guys this year.
It's a softer gingerbread,
'cause you won't be eating the house.
This is, like, a little bit more palatable,
a little bit softer, you know, and more edible.
It's honestly like a really similar recipe.
Butter makes it better,
so we're gonna use butter in this one
for, like, a little bit of a softer effect
and then a little bit of better flavor.
We're gonna add our brown sugar to this
and completely dissolve it.
It gets pretty thick with this one.
It's really, like, nice and shiny.
So once the sugar is totally melted
and you can't really feel any more granules,
go ahead and turn off the heat.
We're gonna add a little bit of lemon zest.
And then we're gonna mix in one egg.
We beat the egg before just to make sure
that it incorporates really evenly into that mixture.
Same deal, we're just gonna
gradually add our dry to our wet.
And mix it all in until it's a good, homogenous dough.
That's gonna prevent lumps
and just make it a little bit easier
to hydrate that flour more quickly.
And hopefully you have a friend around
to help you get this out of this Dutch oven.
And go ahead and kinda smoosh this together
so it's one nice disk.
And you're gonna let this chill in the fridge
for about two hours, or overnight would be great.
So now that our dough is completely chilled,
roll it out to about a quarter of an inch thickness.
And then again, just making sure
the bottom's not sticking to the board,
so get your hands under there
and make sure you're using
enough flour that it's not sticking.
I don't need anything to be, like, a perfect shape here.
Again, always making sure
that it's not sticking to the board,
now you can start with the cookie cutters.
Now I do put a little bit of flour
on the side of the board whenever I'm using cookie cutters,
because you want to flour the cutter a little bit
so that it doesn't stick
or take any of the dough back with you.
Knock off any excess and then go ahead
and make little cuts in the dough.
Press down evenly, a little bit of a shimmy,
a little bit of a shake, to make sure
that you're really getting, like, a good cut,
and that you're separating the shape
from the rest of the dough around it.
If you like a much softer gingerbread,
definitely take these out when they're just set.
But if you like to have more of that snap,
bake 'em a little bit longer.
And then once they're cool enough to handle,
you can eat them as is.
You can decorate them if you want, add more candy to these.
Not my gumdrop buttons!
Name the movie; just kidding.
This is a pretty classic royal icing.
So she uses egg whites.
We use pasteurized egg whites with this,
just in case anyone is eating it.
If you don't want to use egg whites,
you could also use meringue powder.
A little bit of cream of tartar.
So the egg whites are going
to not only strengthen the frosting,
but also make it harden.
So this frosting will be super, super hard when it dries.
This is, like, structural icing.
I mean, this stuff is basically spackle.
I'm pretty sure you could
tile your bathroom with this stuff.
I would keep it on the thicker side for building.
But then for decorating you can thin it out a little bit.
It'd be much easier to work with.
So because it's tasty, and we just can't help ourselves,
take it to the next level.
The sides of the walls can expand,
so a really cool trick is to use a little micrograter
and go along the side in a straight line,
and that'll help sand off the sides.
As my grandma always said, frosting can fix everything,
so if there's any little cracks or imperfections,
just put some frosting on it.
Have you seen an old video called aquarium cookies
with this really cool thing
where you can put hard candies
in the middle of a cookie and then bake it?
It gives you kind of, like, a colored-glass window effect.
And we wanted this house to be really colorful and fun,
so we decided to do it with all of our windows and doors.
So the hard candies might not spread all the way,
but you can use, like, a little toothpick
or a skewer if you have one
and just really gently push
the extra sugar out to the edges.
If you're gonna do the glass effect,
make sure that it is very cool.
So don't touch it again until the candy is completely reset.
If you've ever made a gingerbread house before,
the roof can be, the roof?
The roof, the roof can slide down
because of the weight of it.
So she is a genius, and she would frost
a heavy grocery bag to the underside of the roof
and then have it dry with two bowls underneath it.
So if you want to, you can put two little bowls
under each side of the roof
so that it dries in the shape
that it's gonna eventually be in.
And make sure that it's super, super dry
before you keep building.
It'll be pretty much rock hard.
It doesn't take that long,
maybe, like, 30 minutes or so.
We just use a cake board here,
but you can use whatever you have.
Use something sturdy enough that'll hold
the weight of the gingerbread house.
This is good to do while your roof is drying,
'cause you also want the walls to be set
before you put the roof on.
Put your pieces up to it to see
where you should be piping that frosting.
Yeah, a nice, snowy surface.
You want to get the sides set,
and then you want to make sure
that you're putting frosting up the side.
When in doubt, put frosting on the inside when you can,
and that's gonna really help you
have structure into the house.
So I'm gonna hold these pieces here
and then pipe on the inside.
So there will be a bit of extra frosting on the outside.
So you can use your finger
or a knife if you want to clean it up.
Or you can just leave it there.
It's pretty classic gingerbread
to have a bunch of frosting coming up the seams as well.
And you want it to be set so it doesn't move or break.
And then go ahead and put a whole bunch
of frosting all over the top.
And lay on the roof.
So as you can see, the paper bag trick worked.
Thanks, Grandma Kay.
So now with all the remaining frosting that we have,
we're gonna thin it out a little bit
and make it a little bit easier to work with,
more flowy, if you will.
So just put that back into a bowl
and add a little bit of water.
Now it's time to have fun.
Honestly, like, these are an artistic expression.
So you can go, like, really extra.
You can make it really fun
and just throw a bunch of candy on.
Honestly, I think a few years what I just did
was put all of my favorite candy all over the house,
so that throughout the month
I could take the icing off the house.
Whatever your motive is, be real, be you.
Just do whatever you want to do.
First of all, gingerbread houses are a good activity,
because it's just an excuse to eat candy.
It's a great activity to do with people
when it's really cold outside,
and you kind of want to, like, bundle up.
You know, cuffing season stuff.
We did it as a Tasty family this year,
and it was, like, a really fun activity.
I think everyone really enjoyed it.
It keeps everyone excited and kind of brings out
the childlike wonder of the holidays.
I don't know, I really just fell in love
with this process again so much.
You've gotta do this, guys; I can't say it enough.
I hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did.
(Christmas music)
Not my gumdrop buttons!
- [Woman] (laughing) You sound just like him.
- [Vaughn] Onions have layers; ogres have layers.
We both have layers. (laughter)
Oh, you both have layers.
- [Claire] Vaughn, you cannot,
I cannot have my life without you.
The fact that you just perfectly executed that, I can't.