The 2021 Unofficial Heroes' Feast Gingerbread Showcase - Blog Posts

Homely Halfling House (Gringerbread)

“A traditional treat served in the waning light of the month of Sunsebb in Greyhawk, this style of gingerbread man memorializes a legend about the ancient ruins of Castle Greyhawk.”- Heroes’ Feast, p. 43

Here’s my entry for the unofficial 2021 Heroes’ Feast Gingerbread Showcase that I’m participating in with:

@afinickyguide

Samantha Nahra

Luboffin_ (Luna)

Check out their gingerbread houses and use this Survey Monkey link to vote for your favourite! : https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LHFG8PD

As the chilly winds descend on Fearûn, there’s nothing more comforting to a halfling than cozying up in their house by the fireplace with their favourite book and a steaming cup of cocoa broth.

So, as we all settle in for the winter months ahead, bring some cozy warmth and joy to your holiday season and create your own halfling house!

Spiced without being overbearing, these cookies are a great dessert to serve with coffee or hot chocolate, or pack them in a cookie bundle with some Earl Grey cookies and Banana-Cranberry muffins!

Remember to vote for your favourite house using the Survey Monkey link!

Check out below for my process in creating the house and for some helpful tips and tricks when making this yourself! Get Heroes’ Feast here: https://dnd.wizards.com/heroes-feast

Prep: 10 mins            Cook: 2 hours 15 mins*            Overall: 2 hours 25 mins

* Includes time for dough to chill

Ingredients for the dough:

3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour

¾ cup (75 g) dark brown sugar

1 tbsp. (8 g) ground ginger

2 tsp. (6 g) ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. (5 g) baking soda

¾ tsp. (4 g) kosher salt

¾ tsp. (2 g) dried mustard powder

½ tsp. (1 g) freshly grated nutmeg

⅛ tsp. (.3 g) ground cloves

12 tbsp. (170 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

⅔ cup (160 ml) unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap)

3 tbsp. (44 ml) whole milk

½ tsp. (3 ml) pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for decorations:

1 ⅓ cup (175 g) confectioners’ sugar

1 egg white

¼ tsp. (2 ml) pure vanilla extract

kosher salt

In a food processor, combine flour, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, mustard powder, nutmeg, and cloves. Pulse several times to mix.

Then, add the melted butter, molasses, milk, and vanilla and process until the ingredients form a dough with no remaining streaks of flour, 15 to 30 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides of the dough as necessary. (Picture 1) )

Lightly dust a work surface with flour, scrape the dough onto it, and knead briefly until the dough forks a cohesive ball. (Picture 2) )

Divide the dough in half, and flatten each half into a disk ~¾- to 1-inch thick. (Picture 3) )

Wrap each half in cling film and allow to chill in the fridge for one hour or up to 24 hours. (Picture 4) )

Preheat the oven to 350F (177 C) with the racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Making regular gingerbread cookies

Unwrap one of the dough disks and lay it between two pieces of parchment paper on your work surface. Roll out the dough until it’s roughly 11-inches (28 cm) in diameter and ¼–inches (0.5 cm) thick. (Picture 1) )

Cut out as many cookies as possible using your cookie cutter of choice. You’ll get more than I did here since I used the dough scraps from the house. Heroes’ Feast used a 3 ½-inch (1.3 cm) gingerbread man cookie cutter for all of theirs. (Picture 2) )

Peel away the dough scraps so that all you have left is the shapes. The dough is super sticky and a nightmare to transfer. The easiest way that I found to transfer the cookies was to cut out the parchment around each cookie (Picture 3) ) and use it to flip the cookies onto the baking sheet.

Once the cookies have been transferred, peel away the parchment. (Picture 4) )

Making a gingerbread house

Roll out the dough the same way you would for the gingerbread cookies. (Picture 1) )

Next, trace any shapes you want to use for the house onto parchment paper and cut them out with a sharp knife. Do not lay down regular paper as the stencil for the cookies - the dough is way too sticky and makes it a nightmare to peel off.

To get the right dimensions for the house, I first traced out the shapes with a ruler onto graph paper and cut them out to use as stencils for the parchment shapes. (Picture 2) )

Peel off the parchment paper stencils and cut out the bottom parchment piece the same way you would if making regular gingerbread cookies (previous step). Use the cut out parchment to flip the shapes onto the baking sheet. Once transferred, peel away the parchment (Picture 3) ).

Dimensions

Front and Back: 5-inches (13 cm) base, 2.5-inches (6.5 cm) wall height, 3.5-inches (9 cm) diagonal for the roof

Side Walls: 6-inches (15 cm) base, 2.5-inches (6.5 cm) wall height

Roof*: 7.5-inches (19 cm) length, 4-inches (10 cm) width

* Meant to hang over the edge of the front, side, and back pieces.

Making a 3D Christmas tree

To decorate the house, I really wanted to make a 3D tree. To attempt this, I cut out two trees and created small slits to allow them to slide together.

Making regular gingerbread cookies

Bake each tray of cookies until they begin to set and the edges and are slightly puffed, about 9-11 minutes, rotating the pans 180 degrees and switching racks halfway through baking.

Cool the cookies on the sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. (Picture 1) )

You won’t be able to cook all of the cookies on two baking sheets. Make sure to let the baking sheets cool before loading them with more cookies.

Making a gingerbread house

Since these cookies were so much larger than their cut-out cousins, I left them in the oven about 5-6 minutes longer.

I also left them to cool on the rack for a few hours to harden up a bit so they wouldn’t be as flexible when building the house.

Like if you’re making regular cookies, you won’t be able to cook all of the cookies on two baking sheets if you’re using up the scraps from cutting out the gingerbread house shapes. Make sure to let the baking sheets cool before loading them with more cookies.

Decorations

For the frosting, add the confectioner’s sugar, egg white, vanilla, a pinch of salt, and 1 tbsp. water to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium-low until combined, about 1 minute.

Adjust the speed to medium-high and beat until glossy, soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl as necessary. (Picture 2) )

For decorations, Heroes’ Feast uses chopped up walnuts and currants. I wanted to make a wreath for the house, so I used chopped pistachios instead. (Picture 3) )

Using baking soda in gingerbread cookies is great when making cookies that you don’t need to retain their original shape too much. But, it’s a bit of a pain when trying to make a gingerbread house.

After doing some sleuthing on Sally’s Baking Addiction, it looks like the best thing to do for gingerbread houses is cut the amount of baking soda used by ¾.

To fix my cookie-spreading problem post-baking and make everything a bit more manageable, I started by re-cutting out the slits I had made in the 3D tree before baking. (Pictures 1) and 2) ).

Next, I used the graph paper stencils I had made as guides to trim the cookies back to their original dimensions. (Pictures 3) and 4) ).

In hindsight, to save myself from the gingerbread crumb apocalypse, I would have trimmed them before I let them harden for a few hours.

To decorate the house, I used these Wilton products:

#16 decorating tip (open star)

#2 decorating tip (round)

4 piece, quick twist coupler system

16-inch featherweight decorating bag

To start, I used the #16 tip to pipe a line of frosting onto the base of one of the front/back walls and attached it to the serving platter. Then, I piped icing along one of the long and short edges of the side walls and attached them to the serving platter and front wall. (Picture 1) )

I attached the back wall by piping icing along its base and inside edges and securing it to the serving platter and side walls. (Picture 2) )

Because the roof was pretty heavy and I didn’t want it to fall, I tried to attach it extra securely by piping icing onto the slanted edges of the roof and one of the long walls while also piping icing onto the edges of the roof where it would attach in those places. (Picture 3) )

I wanted the roof to overhang on the front and back of the house, but since I hadn’t accounted for the extra length on the sides from the width of the front and back walls, they were actually a bit short*. I used scraps from cutting the gingerbread back into shape to pad the edges. (Picture 4) )

* The dimensions provided in a previous section take this extra width into consideration.

To clean up the “structural frosting” of the house a little bit, I used the #16 tip to add little dots of frosting along seams and a line of frosting connecting the two halves of the roof. (Picture 1) )

After, I switched out the the #16 tip for the #2 tip and used it to pipe on the shingles. (Picture 2) )

Again, I used the #2 tip to pipe on windows and a door. (Picture 3) )

Finally, I used frosting to attach little pieces of pistachios to create a wreath and put together the 3D tree - it stands on its own! :D (Picture 4) )

Overall, I would give this recipe a 5/5. Not only are the cookies well spiced without being overbearing, you can also have a lot of fun and be creative with it!

If you’re making regular gingerbread cookies, they come out really nice - crunchy on the edges and soft on the inside!

For making a gingerbread house, all I would change would be to lower the baking soda by ¾ to not have them spread out as much and use crusting buttercream frosting instead of royal icing. But that’s just because I like buttercream more.

I highly suggest using this recipe and trying to make your own gingerbread house with friends! It’s a lot of fun and you get to eat it afterwards - win-win!

Happy Holidays everyone and thanks again to:

@afinickyguide

Samantha Nahra

Luboffin (Luna)

For participating in this years unofficial showcase - this couldn’t have happened without you all! <3

Check out their gingerbread houses and use this Survey Monkey link to to vote for your favourite! : https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LHFG8PD