A Very Blanket Christmas.

Merry Christmas, my darling Blankies!  My gift to you is a special Christmas recipe!

Look, I know it's Christmas Eve Eve and that by the time you read this it might be regular Christmas Eve, or even Christmas, or if you aren't a dedicated fan, AFTER Christmas (shame on you) and this recipe will be mostly useless for a year.  I been busy.  No hatin'.

My Christmas post is brought to you by my BFFL Emily.  Have I told you about Emily?  Emily and I are the same person.  She's awesome.  For those of you who have not met us, our relationship can be summed up like this--

Understand?  Good.  Let's proceed.

Emily invited me over to make a gingerbread house this week.  From scratch.  Because she's awesome.  Here's our creation--

Sorry if our talent hurts your eyes.

I know it looks like a pretty standard gingerbread creation, but remember the number of kits involved here: zero.  Not to mention that was the tastiest gingerbread I ever did eat--very light and sweet.  Here is the recipe she used, brought to you by the incredibly helpful gingerbreadlane.com.

6 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
2/3 cups shortening
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 eight-ounce container sour cream
2 eggs


To prepare dough: Into large bowl, measure 3 1/2 cups flour and remaining ingredients. With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With hand, knead in remaining 2 1/2 cups flour to make a soft dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until dough is not sticky and is of easy kneading consistency.

Look! It's even all red and Christmasy.  Note the fact that the recipe contains no molasses, which is a typical gingerbread ingredient.  That's why the dough is so light and it didn't taste like suck.

Emily made the dough ahead of time, so by the time I showed up we were ready to roll it out.

She could be a hand model.

Roll the dough out thin and even, then stick a toothpick in the dough and mark where the dough is.  Use this toothpick to check that all of your dough is an even thickness.

Search online for the pattern of the house you want and print it out on heavy paper.  Here's the one we used--

D'awwwww.

Lay the pieces on the dough and cut them out.

I have little stubby baby hands.  Whatever.

The easiest way to do this is to roll the dough out on parchment paper, cut the piece out, then lift away the excess and put the parchment paper right on the baking sheet.  This will keep your pieces from getting distorted.

You can cut little shapes out of the dough if you'd like.  We cut a door and a window out of the front panel.

Put all the pieces on baking sheets and get cooking.

I only surround myself with cute people.

Bake the dough at 350º until the dough is firm to the touch, about 10-12 minutes, then allow it to cool.  While you're waiting, you can occupy yourself by making cutouts with the extra dough...

EEEEEEE!!!!

...finding strange things in the drawer that you use to drink juice out of an orange, and trying them out...

EEEEE HEHEHEHE!!!!!!

...or doing something useful, like making the icing.  Here's the recipe, also from Gingerbread Lane--


3 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 (16 oz box) confectioners powdered sugar
In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Beat 7 minutes with an electric mixer until smooth and thick. A good test is when a knife blade drawn through the icing leave a clean cut. Store in a tightly sealed container if you are not using it right away.


This recipe was really easy and worked fantastically for holding the house together, but please, please, please, DO NOT eat it.  This is why--

The egg is so gross but the separator is so cool!
Also I can't figure out how to rotate this photo.

Please don't eat raw eggs, children.  Gross.  When you're done mixing, the icing should look like this--

Is anyone else noticing that Emily's kitchen is full of
awesome things?

Scoop the icing into ziplock bags and trim a little hole in the corner to use for piping.  By now your pieces should be cooled, and you can start putting the house together.

Find a stiff surface to build the house on, like a piece of thick cardboard.  We used a wooden cutting board wrapped in aluminum foil.  Start by attaching one side of the house to the board.  Pipe icing down the edge of the cookie, hold it upright on the board, then pipe more icing down along either side.  When you start attaching other panels, do the same thing, but also where the two cookies meet.

Cans can help keep everything in place, but this icing was
actually pretty awesome and cement-y.

Get the first four walls together and let them dry in place.  Decorate the roof pieces before you put them on the house.  Emily made a really pretty lattice thingy.

Such class.

I put the chimney together while she did the roof, but I got scared it would fall apart and used way more icing than I needed.  Mysteriously, no pictures of just the chimney exist.  Huh.

Attach the roof using the same technique as before.  Ours happened to be the perfect size to be held in place by tuna fish cans.

Once the house is together, you can decorate it however you'd like.  I went into the bulk candy section at a local supermarket and found all kinds of Christmas candy.  This is the fun part.

On our house, we added lots of little touches.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Candy cane cookies on the back wall--

Mine is on the right.  I can't make stripes.  I don't know why.

Cotton ball chimney smoke--

I'm a champ at chimney smoke.

And her dog, Sam, peeking out the front door.

I also have a dog named Sam.
WE ARE THE SAME PERSON.

Overall, this house was a huge success and we got to eat a bunch of delicious gingerbread cookies.  An excellent way to spend an evening.  Wanna see one more picture?  Huh?  Huh?

Oh, if you insist.

Now I know what some of you are thinking.  "Blanket, you do so much for me.  My life is essentially spent waiting for another post full of your wisdom and loveliness.  I, and all the other Blankies, should be showering you with Christmas gifts!"

That's sweet, my children, but you forgot that I am also humble and totally not materialistic at all ever.  Like Mother Theresa.  Besides, I had the best gift I could ever ask any Blankie for waiting in my inbox the other morning.

The perfect blend of thoughtfulness and creep.

Merry Christmas, my dears.