Make Cinnamon Bread Houses Instead of Gingerbread
 
 
Ingredients
  • ⅓ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temp
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (skip if salted butter is used)
  • 2 cups flour, plus more as needed
My Substitutions:
  • ⅓ c Dark Karo Syrup + an additional ⅓ c brown sugar (instead of ⅓ cup molasses)
  • 2 medium egg yolks, beaten (instead of 1 large egg yolk, beaten)
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon (instead of 2)
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't use it)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325*F.
  2. Place brown sugar, molasses, and cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda. It may foam and "pouff" up.
  3. Add butter a tablespoon or two at a time, stirring well after each addition until the butter is incorporated.
  4. Add the egg, vanilla, and salt and stir to combine.
  5. Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring well to incorporate the flour after each addition.
  6. Flour your work surface (I used wax paper) and turn out the dough. Knead the dough, adding flour, if needed, until the dough is no longer sticky. It should still be soft - it will firm up a lot as it cools.
  7. The original recipe suggested allowing the dough to chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. I skipped this step. It only needs to be firm enough to roll the dough evenly, cut it, and move the pieces without losing their shapes.
  8. Turn dough ball onto waxed paper and lightly flour to roll.
  9. The directions recommended rolling the dough out to ⅛" thick. It is extremely easy to roll it thicker in some spots than it is in others. Use wooden boards (bought at Lowe's) of the same height to make sure dough is rolled to the correct height. Wipe down with a soapy sponge when finished and store for the next use.
  10. The dough needs to be turned each direction so that it is stretched evenly when rolling. The directions recommended rolling out on a silicone baking mat. I don't have one, so I used wax paper instead.
  11. After rolling out the dough, use the Haunted House Cutter Set to cut house pieces from the dough. Used wax paper to roll the dough out, to later transfer entire cut out directly to baking sheet.
  12. After cutting out the front and back of the house, the excess dough was lifted away, and thrown back into the bowl. The excess dough was rolled back into the dough ball for additional cuts.
  13. Use scissors to cut the wax paper apart before putting pieces on the baking sheet to allow them plenty of room to expand when cooking.
  14. Bake the cookie pieces at 325 degrees until the cookies are barely lightly browned on the edges for about 12 to 18 minutes.
  15. Move the pieces to a cooling racks to cool completely before removing wax paper, assembling, and decorating.
Notes
Recipe Adapted From the GingerBoo Haunted House Recipe on the 7 Piece Haunted House Cutter Set from Good Cook: http://www.goodcook.com/decorating/seasonal-themes/halloween/haunted-house-cookie-cutter-set-p-1053.html
Recipe by DealsFromMsDo.com at https://dealsfrommsdo.com/bake-cinnamon-bread-houses-instead-gingerbread/