Gingerbread Boxes Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses.
• In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

Steps:

• Make half of the batch: In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together half the butter and half the sugar for 5 minutes, until fluffy. Scrape down sides.
• Meanwhile, sift together the dry ingredients - the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt - and set aside half.
• With mixer running at low speed, add two eggs, one at a time. Mix in 1 cup molasses. Scrape down bowl.
• In 3 batches, add half the dry ingredients, mixing just to combine. To prevent any flour from flying out, make sure the mixer is off when adding each batch, and drape a towel over it when mixing. Mix in zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange.
• Pull dough out of mixer, and wrap in plastic wrap, or transfer to a resealable plastic bag. Repeat Steps 1 to 5 to make the remaining dough. Refrigerate overnight.
• When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Roll out dough: For each square, weigh out about 20 ounces of dough. The goal is to end up with five 9-inch squares, so you'll roll them out a bit larger, bake them and trim off the edges.
• Lightly dust a large piece of parchment paper with flour. Place the chilled dough on top. Roll side to side and up and down to make a rough square shape. While you roll, make frequent quarter-turns so that the dough remains even.
• Roll until dough is about 10 by 10 inches and a generous 1/4-inch thick. Transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. (Any dough left after the squares have been prepared can be rolled out 1/4-inch thick and used for cookies.) In the oven, the slab will rise to about 3/8- or 1/2-inch thickness, which will make the house extra sturdy.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until even and firmly set. Place pans on racks to cool. To prevent bending and cracking, carefully transfer to racks by lifting parchment paper. When completely cool, stack the slabs, still on parchment, and set aside to dry out at room temperature for 3 to 7 days. (When ready to assemble, see How to Make a Gingerbread House guide for full instructions.)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced.
• Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
• Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy and then add golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined.
• Add sifted flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda, using a knife to mix until evenly combined.
• Gather dough together and turn out onto a sheet of non-stick baking paper.
• Divide the dough into 2 even portions, wrap one portion in cling wrap and set aside.
• Roll the other portion out to a rectangle about 26cm x 18cm and trim the sides to give straight lines, but don't make it any small than 24cm x 16cm.
• Cut dough into 12 pieces (four rows of three).
• Transfer pieces to one of the prepared trays, leaving a little room between them for spreading.
• Place trays in the fridge and chill while you roll out and cut the other piece of dough as you did the first.
• Bake first tray for 10 minutes, while chilling the second tray, then bake that tray for 10 minutes.
• Leave on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Whisk egg white until frothy, then gradually add sifted icing sugar to make a stiff paste.
• Place paste into a small plastic piping bag and snip off the end and pipe this icing on the outside of joins of the square to cover any gaps and then decorate with cachous.
• Pipe a cross onto the box tops and decorate and ;leave to set.
• Fill with chosen sweets.

Steps:

• Combine egg, sugar, molasses, butter and water; mix well. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, ginger and salt; add molasses mixture. Beat until well mixed. Pour into a greased 8-in. square baking pan. Bake at 350° until cake tests done, 20-25 minutes. Cut into squares; serve warm with whipped cream.