Bake your own Halloween Gingerbread House

This is part one of a three part series on making your own Halloween Gingerbread House.
You can read the second & third part here: 
Put Together a Halloween Gingerbread House 
Decorate a Halloween Gingerbread House

Last year at Christmas I begin a tradition of baking and decorating our own Gingerbread House and made it into a party to invite some friends and family as well. It was so much fun! I opened up my first blog just for the annual tradition, you can read it here. Since it was my first blog, it's nothing fancy, I haven't added anything to it since then, but I will be updating it more this year. I bought an actual gingerbread mold so I thought I would try it out and make a Halloween Gingerbread House. I have invited just a few of my family members to come over and join in the Halloween fun.

Last year at Christmas I downloaded a template online and cut out my pieces with a knife. It didn't work too well because all the pieces were different thickness and once I moved them to the cookie sheet they were not straight. You can imagine what it's like trying to glue that together! The last few months I've been looking on eBay for various templates. I ended up buying a cast iron mold by John Wright. It is a two sided template. One side is a traditional log cabin style and the other a victorian style house. The only thing that stinks about it is you have to cook one side twice for one house. I'll be adding more molds to my collection to help speed up my baking time!

*You can click on the photo to see larger*

I started out with the same recipe I used last year since I really liked the flavor. I made one batch at first thinking that I was able to make two houses. I made 3 houses for decorating so I also made one batch of dough out of the John Wright pamphlet since it said it made one house. I ended up with way to much dough! I could have used just the recipe I used from last year and had more than enough for these 3 houses.

I am going to share with you the recipe out of the John Wright pamphlet. This dough is lighter in color and the flavor is not as strong either.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark molasses

2 tablespoons cold water (I ended up using much more)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream together shortening, sugar, molasses and water. Sift together flour, spices and salt. Add dry ingredients to shortening mixture and mix well. Dough will be stiff. Chill at least 1 hour. Grease or spray mold with vegetable stray. Press dough into the mold. Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Let gingerbread cool in the mold for 10 minutes. Carefully remove each piece of gingerbread to cooling rack, flat side down. Repeat with other side, front, roof and chimney.

I section out a piece then roll it out on a floured large wooden cutting board. Drape it over the mold and press in and remove all the extra dough. It was so much easier than trying to cut around a paper template!

Here it is after it's baked. Can you smell it??

Next post, gluing the house together!