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IT’S FINALLY DONE!!!

I know a lot of you have been eagerly awaiting the results of my gingerbread stress tests and I’m happy to report that they are finally here!

The amount of information I have in this post is CRAZY. This experiment was stressful and time-consuming, but I learned so much from it and I hope you will, too.

Let’s start from the beginning.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Grier Rubeling and I’m a wife, mother, entrepreneur, blogger, and gingerbread enthusiast. I started doing gingerbread back in 2014 when I entered a local competition in Raleigh, NC. I ended up winning and was HOOKED from there. I competed for a few years in the local competitions and in 2018, I set my sights on the National Gingerbread House Competition at the Grove Park Inn, in Asheville, NC. I went with low expectations, major nerves, but high excitement.

As soon as I arrived in Asheville, I knew I’d found my people. The gingerbread world is AMAZING! Wonderful people (we call ourselves Gingerfriends) with outrageous talent, bold personalities, and a love for creating art with food. I was lucky enough to take home 3rd place on my first try that year, with my entry, Reindeer Playing Poker.

From that point on, I committed myself to sharing what I could with the world. I already had this blog with tons of fun furniture projects and crafts, but I started slowly adding my edible art and gingerbread contributions to it.

Now, I spend a lot of my free time on gingerbread. It’s a year round sport for me, so I’m constantly trying to improve my skills and find awesome new tools and techniques. I’ve been using the same gingerbread recipe for years. It’s my go to Construction Grade Gingerbread Recipe.

It’s not perfect. It’s inconsistent and frankly, a little ugly when baked. So, I decided it was time to test out some new recipes and see if I could find something better.

My Pinterest research produced 4 recipes. I had 2 recipes of my own. One being my construction grade recipe, and the other being one I’d been using since 2014 as my tasty gingerbread recipe. A request to my Gingerfriends produced one more recipe, and I ended up with 7 in total to test.

DISCLAIMER: I say 7 recipes, but in reality, it’s only 6. Two of them are the exact same recipe. It took me an EMBARRASSINGLY long time to figure that out.

The Story: I’d been using my construction grade gingerbread recipe for the past few years, but before that, I had a recipe that was one that could actually be used to build and eat. I’d had it on my blog for so long that I forgot what the original source was (even though I had a link to it right in the blog post). I printed the recipe from my own blog and added it in with the others. Turns out, the original source was one of the blogs that I’d already printed a recipe from. Rookie mistake.

Because I had 6 other recipes and I was making and baking them in random order, I didn’t notice they were the same until I was almost finished my stress tests. By then it was too late to abandon one of them because I already had so many pictures, videos and notes with both of them.

All in all, I think it was a blessing in disguise. I made notes on both versions of the recipe, and while they were fairly consistent, they did differ slightly. They are my proof that not all recipes are going to produce the same results every time, and now I have notes about the inconsistencies.

The Recipe Sources

I want to make sure that I properly credit those who originally created these recipes. I’ve provided links for the sources I got the recipes from, as well as some additional information for who the original contributors were.

HGTV Recipe: The original source of this recipe is from Heather Baird and her Sprinkle Bakes blog.

Pampered Chef Recipe: I cannot find any information on who the original source of this recipe is – a random user on Food.com.

White House Recipe (Tikkido): The original source for this recipe is Nikki Wills and her Tikkido blog. This is the one I accidentally duplicated.

Sugar Geek Show: The original source of this recipe is Elizabeth Marek and her Sugar Geek Show blog.

Food Network: The original source of this recipe is Colette Peters and her cake business, Colette’s Cakes.

The Craft Crib: I can’t find the original source of this recipe – let me know if it’s yours!

Disclaimers

Bear with me while I provide a bunch of random disclaimers…

1. I want to be as fair and impartial as I possibly can be with these recipes. I’m not here to pick a winner. I’m here to educate. I’m not trying to question the validity of the recipes or turn anyone off of any of them. I’m simply sharing my experiences and giving you the data so you can make your own decisions based on that.
2. I put my gingerbread through the ringer. I am not your typical house builder with candy canes and gum drops, eating as I go. No. I like to build things that are unique, not necessarily structural, and definitely not anything you’d ever want to eat. I use power tools. Yeah, it’s weird, but it’s me. I did put all of these recipes through the power tool test. That might not concern you at all, but it’s a major deciding factor in my gingerbread recipe selection.
3. I am not a baker. I know that sounds strange, as I claim to be a gingerbread enthusiast and I’ve been featured on the Food Network, but it’s true. I cannot bake without a recipe. Even with a recipe, I can still royally screw stuff up (just wait, there’s proof). That being said, it’s entirely possible that my experiences with these recipes, this one time I baked them, would be entirely different than your experiences.
4. I’m lazy when it comes to baking. I prefer recipes with less ingredients, fool-proof, self-explanatory instructions, and measurements that don’t require me to use more tools than necessary. For example, if you have a recipe that deals in halves (1.5 tsp, 2.5 C, etc), I’m already rolling my eyes. I don’t like having to use a full teaspoon and a half teaspoon tool to make the recipe, or to double up the amount of half teaspoons I have to measure. That’s just more stuff I have to clean and more effort I have to make. That being said, these things all weigh in to my decision making.
5. It was impossible for me to do every single thing the recipes called for. I had 7 of them. What I did do was mix them all, put the dough into bags, place them in the fridge overnight, then roll, cut and bake them all the next day. Those pieces were used to build the houses and do the power tool stress tests, but not until several days later. So, the baked pieces did sit out for a few days before I finished my tests. That may not be the ideal situation for each recipe, but it’s how it was done.
6. I LOVE the smell of molasses. I think it’s the ingredient that really makes me think a recipe smells good. It might also play into the taste factor. So, when I talk about which recipes smell good, take that into account.
7. I get a little annoyed with recipes that don’t use much ginger. It is “ginger”bread after all. I know, super random, but hey, I feel like it needed to be said.
8. I live in North Carolina and I performed all of these tests in late October when the weather fluctuated from super cold and rainy to super warm and muggy. Unfortunately, weather affects gingerbread. Recipes that might normally be firm could end up soft and crumbly. Nothing to be done about that. Just thought you should know. The weather was definitely wreaking some havoc on this experiment. I had a lot of soft gingerbread I was dealing with.

The Tests

I am going to go through several sets of tests I did. Some normal, some weird. I put a title and quick description of each one below, so you can understand just how in-depth this project was.

MIXING – This is the actual making of the gingerbread recipes. I noted their recipe difficulty level, smell factor, color, cleanup, texture, speed, amount, stickiness and more. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer with paddle and dough hook for each recipe. I also used my Silpat and Wilton roller for the dough. Finally, I put each recipe into gallon freezer bags for storage in the fridge overnight.

ROLLING & BAKING – I rolled out and baked fronts, backs, sides, and roofs of houses for each recipe. The dough had been sitting in the fridge overnight for each one. As I noted in my disclaimers, this may not be what the recipes called for, but it is how I did it. In this test, I recorded the rolling difficulty, taste, texture, expansion, rise, stickiness, timing, and look of the edges after being cut. I baked each recipe at their stated degree, and tried my best to bake them for the times the recipe called for.

AFTER 3 DAYS – I recorded what each recipe looked like after sitting out for 3 days in my dining room, uncovered.

BAKED AT 350 – I baked a second set of pieces at 350 degrees to test out what they really all looked like baking next to one another at the same temperature and time.

COOKIES – This wasn’t a test for all of the recipes, but I did make some cookies with a few of the doughs, so I took some notes on those.

SCROLL SAW – I cut each of the recipes with my scroll saw. I took a video and wrote notes on each one. My scroll saw is one of the tools I use the most in gingerbread creation, so I wanted others to see how I work and how the recipes held up.

DREMEL DRILL – I drilled three tiny little holes in each recipes to see how they would stand up to that pressure.

DREMEL SANDER – I used the small sanding attachment on my Dremel to smooth the edges on each recipe and recorded the findings on that with a video of the process.

PALM SANDER – I used my palm sander to get straight, smooth edges on each piece. I took a video and recorded notes.

SNAP TEST – I used both hands to snap the pieces directly in half and see just how they held up to pressure. I have a video and notes for this test as well.

HOUSE BUILDING – I built small houses using royal icing as glue for each recipe. I took notes on the process and lots of pictures of the structures.

THE FINDINGS

There’s no easy way to relay all of this information, but I’m going to try and be as organized as possible.

First, I will take you through each of the tests and list out how each of them performed. Then, I’m going to put together a section for each of the recipes, so you know exactly which one to use for which process in the future.

Strap in y’all. It’s going to be one long, wild ride. HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

TEST #1: MIXING

Sugar Geek Show Recipe

Ingredients (10):

30 oz Flour
3/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Cloves
3/4 tsp Salt
7 oz Vegetable Shortening
6 oz Sugar
16 oz Molasses
1 Egg

This recipe did NOT like me. I had to make it 3 times to finally get it to a point that it could be baked. I admit, it was mostly user error, but it was still a very difficult recipe to get right. The measurements are in weight, not volume, so you have to use a scale for it. At first, I tried converting the recipe to volume and that failed miserably (I didn’t read the blog post in full). I had to throw that mix out. Then, I baked it again and accidentally added too many ingredients. I blame Pinterest for that. I wasn’t reading from the actual post. I was just adding the ingredients from the Pinterest pin. However, the pin is deceiving and actually added the ingredients from the royal icing into the ingredients from the gingerbread, so that was also a bust. Eventually, I did manage to make the recipe exactly as stated, but it still just didn’t work well for me. So, I’m chalking this one up to it being too advanced for me. Do what you will with that information.

NOTES: You have to have a scale in order to use this recipe, as it measures in ounces, not cups. It uses A TON of molasses, like more than a jar of molasses. I thought that made the recipe smell amazing, but it also made it fairly expensive. It produced a nice, rich, dark brown color. The mix was way too goopy and stuck to the sides of the bowl. It was also extremely greasy and stuck to my roller.

Pampered Chef Recipe

Ingredients (10):

3 C Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Cloves
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Vegetable Shortening
1/2 C Molasses
1 tsp Ginger
1 Egg

NOTES: This recipe was easy to mix, smelled fantastic, had a nice, rich, dark, color, and was easy to cleanup. It didn’t crumble or stick to the sides of the mixer. It rolled easily without sticking to the mat or rolling pin. It fit nicely into a gallon freezer bag. It was quick to make, but it didn’t make very much.

HGTV Recipe

Ingredients (10):

3 1/2 C Flour
2 tsp Ginger
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 C Unsalted Butter
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Molasses
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

NOTES: This recipe was fairly easy to make. It required room temperature butter (which annoys me because I don’t like waiting). It was a little time consuming (especially because of the butter) and somewhat messy. It came out way too sticky, which made it impossible to roll. I ended up having to wrap it to put it in the bag and refrigerate it. I did end up removing the wrap eventually so I could have some pictures of it. It was a medium brown color that I would call dark tan. The smell was just ok and it was difficult to clean up.

Tikkido Recipe (Same as White House)

Ingredients (10):

2 C Sugar
1 C & 2 TBS Brown Sugar
1 C Vegetable Shortening
4 Eggs
3 TBS Molasses
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 TBS Ginger
1 TBS Cinnamon
6 C Flour

NOTES: This recipe took a while to mix and it was tough on my mixer. It’s a large recipe that barely fit in the mixer, which made it messy. It scraped out of the bowl nice and clean but required a lot of cleanup. It had a medium color that I’d describe as a dark tan. It rolled out VERY easily and did not stick to the roller or mat. There wasn’t much crumbling and it fit nicely into the gallon bag.

White House Recipe (Same as Tikkido)

Even though this is the exact same recipe as the last one, I decided to add my pictures and notes anyway, since they were slightly different than the other version of the recipe I made. Do what you will with that information.

Ingredients (10): Same as Tikkido

2 C Sugar
1 C & 2 TBS Brown Sugar
1 C Vegetable Shortening
4 Eggs
3 TBS Molasses
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 TBS Ginger
1 TBS Cinnamon
6 C Flour

NOTES: This recipe was fairly easy to make. It used a ton of flour, so it was very messy. It had a decent smell and not as much cleanup as some of the others. It was tough on my mixer but came out of the bowl very easily. It rolls super easy but was a little greasy.

 

Food Network Recipe

Ingredients (9):

1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Vegetable Shortening
1 C Corn Syrup
4 C Flour
2 1/2 tsp Ginger
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice

NOTES: This recipe is super easy to make. It didn’t have any of the great gingerbread smells and it was pretty hard on my mixer. It came out a bit crumbly, but easily and rolled fine. It was a very light tan color.

 

Craft Crib Recipe

Ingredients (8):

2 C Sugar
1/2 C Honey
1 TBS Water
4 Eggs
2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Cloves
2 TBS Ginger
6 C Flour

NOTES: This recipe is easy to make. It is a little messy because it uses so much flour. It is very easy cleanup. There are no great gingerbread smells and it’s a very light color, almost not gingerbread looking. It rolls fairly easily but it can be a bit sticky. It uses a lot of ginger. I’ve made this recipe A LOT and it can be a tad inconsistent.

TEST #2: ROLLING & BAKING

Sugar Geek Show Recipe

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight needed a lot of flour in order to roll out on the mat, but it rolled easily. It was VERY greasy, but it didn’t crumble or have any scaling. It called for 50-60 minutes of baking, but the edges started burning at 30 minutes, so I removed it (I wish I’d left it in longer now). It was a very dark brown color, which I really liked. I did roll it once mid-bake to flatten it a little but there wasn’t much rise to begin with and minimal spreading. The edges cut off very easily when warm but the crumbs became messy.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 50-60 Minutes at 30 Degrees (I took it out after 30 because the edges were burning, but I’m starting to think maybe that’s what was supposed to be happening)

TASTE: No flavor – chewy and yucky

FIRMNESS: Soft

 

Pampered Chef

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight was crumbly and hard to roll out. It was a bit scaly and was tearing a lot. It did spread easily but it was sticking to the roller, so I had to dust is with a bunch of flour. It was a very pretty color. There wasn’t enough dough to cut out all the pieces I needed in one roll. I had to move the scraps around to the edges and keep rolling in order to fit one house. I baked it for 15 minutes and the edges were burnt. While it was still hot, I cut the edges off but it wasn’t super easy to do. The dough baked fairly flat. I tried to roll it mid-bake, but it was too hard. The surfaces of the baked pieces came out a little cracked and ugly. The cut edges were messy. The pieces themselves were firm.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 17-20 Minutes at 350 Degrees (I baked for 15 and thought it seemed a bit burnt)

TASTE: Kinda bland and burnt tasting; Husband said “Nah, but better than the last one (Food Network)”

FIRMNESS: Firm

 

HGTV Recipe

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight had a bit of weird discoloration to it, and it stuck to the inside of the bag when I took it out. I had to use A LOT of flour to roll it out because it kept sticking to the roller and the mat. There was no cracking or tearing and it rolled out fine when floured. It was almost too soft to cut. I could barely use it. I like the color a lot. It rose quite a bit but I was able to roll it out to flatten it mid-bake. It also expanded quite a bit but the edges cut off very nice and easy. The crumbs were kinda messy.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 8-15 Minutes at 350 Degrees (I baked for 15 and thought it stayed soft the whole time)

TASTE: Quite yummy – probably my favorite; Husband said it was good and my 4 YO liked it

FIRMNESS: Soft

 

Tikkido Recipe (Same as White House)

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight was a little crumbly, flaky, scaly, and had some tearing. It rolled out very easily but not very smoothly. It didn’t really stick to the mat or my roller. I was not able to roll it thin. Dusting it with flour helped a little but I had to use a lot of it. It was easy to cut but it took me a long time to get it right. When I baked it, it had a slight rise or puff to it. I rolled the puff out mid-bake and it fixed the issue. It did expand a little when baked, but I was able to cut the edges off while it was still warm. I baked it for 10 minutes and it smelled a little burnt. The cut edges ended up very messy, ragged, and crispy.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 10-12 Minutes at 375 Degrees (I baked for 10 and it smelled a little burnt – but didn’t taste burnt)

TASTE: Tasted yummy! Husband and both toddlers approved the taste as well

FIRMNESS: Firm

 

White House Recipe (Same as Tikkido)

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight was easy to roll and spread easily. There was some tearing and it was a bit scaly and crumbly. When baked, it rose slightly and I rolled it mid-bake. It expanded slightly, but I was able to cut the edges off. The edges were crispy and messy.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 10-12 Minutes at 375 Degrees (I baked for 10)

TASTE: Very tasty; Husband said it tasted the same as Tikkido (which we now know is the exact same recipe – well done, hubby)

FIRMNESS: Firm

Food Network Recipe

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight was a little tough to roll out. It had some big tears in it but no small ones. There was no crumbling or scaling and it didn’t stick to the mat or the roller, even without flour. It bubbled up during baking a little, but I was able to roll the bubbles out mid-bake. I baked it for 14 minutes and the edges looked a little burnt. The edges would not cut at all but they barely needed it because there wasn’t much rise or spread. It baked at a very light color – not very gingerbreadish. I thought it felt rock hard and very light. There were no crumbs and no mess.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 10-15 Minutes at 350 Degrees (I baked for 14 minutes)

TASTE: No flavor – very hard

FIRMNESS: Hard

Craft Crib Recipe

NOTES: The dough that had been refrigerated overnight was a little stiff. It was tough to roll (it gets easier as it warms up). There was no crumble and no scales. It stuck to the mat a little but was remedied with some flour. It didn’t cut very well. During baking, the sugar crystals rose to the top (I usually roll them out mid-bake and it’s fine). It baked hard in 20 minutes and stayed hard. I was not able to cut the edges, but it doesn’t rise or expand much. It didn’t make much mess and it was a little tough to roll it out thin. The color was probably the worst. It looked a little mottled and ugly. It was the only one that dried with a bit of a bend to it eventually.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS: 15-20 Minutes at 325 Degrees (I baked for 20 minutes)

TASTE: No flavor – very hard – yucky

FIRMNESS: Hard

TEST #3: AFTER 3 DAYS

Sugar Geek Show – Super Soft

Pampered Chef – Hard

HGTV – Soft

Tikkido – Firm (Not Hard)

White House – Soft

Food Network – Hard

Craft Crib – Hard

TEST #4: BAKED at 350

All the recipes baked at similar speeds and they all came out firm. They didn’t stay that way over the next few days, but they came out of the oven that way.

TEST #5: COOKIES

I ended up only making cookies with 3 of the doughs, but here are my notes.

HGTV – Soft and tasty cookies

Tikkido – Firm and tasty cookies

White House – Firm and tasty cookies

I let my kids decorate them for Halloween. Yikes!

TEST #6: SCROLL SAW

I made a video of me cutting each recipe with my scroll saw (highly recommended gingerbread tool). Turn the sound up and watch. You can get a pretty good idea of which pieces are soft and which ones are nice and hard.

In addition to the video, I have notes for each recipe.

Sugar Geek Show – the piece was still really soft but it cut just fine

Pampered Chef – the piece was nice and firm and it cut really well

HGTV – this one was still a little soft but it still cut very smoothly

Tikkido – this one was solid and firm and cut very well

White House – cut easy enough but was a little soft

Food Network – this one performed the best; it was easy, firm, and hard

Craft Crib – this was the thickest and strongest, which actually made it a little harder to cut strength-wise, but it worked well

TEST #7: DREMEL DRILLING

I made a video of me drilling small holes into each recipe with my Dremel (also a highly recommended gingerbread power tool). Turn the sound up and watch. You can get a pretty good idea of which pieces are soft and which ones are nice and hard.

I don’t have any good notes for this test because they all performed fine and held up nicely to drilling.

TEST #8: DREMEL SANDING

I made a video of me sanding each recipe with my Dremel. Turn the sound up and watch. You can get a pretty good idea of which pieces are soft and which ones are nice and hard.

In addition to the video, I have notes for each recipe.

Sugar Geek Show – this piece was way too soft and the Dremel cut right through it with little resistance

Pampered Chef – this one smoothed well as it wasn’t too soft or hard

HGTV – this one was a little too soft and didn’t have much resistance

Tikkido – this one worked really well because it wasn’t too soft or too hard

White House – this one was a little too soft and the Dremel ripped right through it

Food Network – this one was solid and firm and sanded great with resistance

Craft Crib – this one had the most resistance, which actually made it the hardest to sand through and took the longest

TEST #9: PALM SANDING

I made a video of me sanding each recipe with my palm sander. Turn the sound up and watch. You can get a pretty good idea of which pieces are soft and which ones are nice and hard.

In addition to the video, I have notes for each recipe.

Sugar Geek Show – this one barely made it through the test and I could feel it bending in my hand

Pampered Chef – this one sanded just fine and smoothed out really easily

HGTV – this one was a little soft but it still sanded fine

Tikkido – this one smoothed easily and held up fine

White House – this one was the only one to unfortunately not make it through the test

Food Network – this one smoothed great

Craft Crib – this one took the longest and took the most effort

TEST #10: SNAP TEST

I made a video of me snapping each of the recipes in my hands. You can get a pretty good idea of which pieces are soft and which ones are nice and hard.

In addition to the video, I have notes for each recipe.

Sugar Geek Show – this one was super soft and bent way to easily; there was no actual snap and it felt more cookie-like

Pampered Chef – this one had a small snap to it but it was still a little soft

HGTV – this one was very cookie-like and didn’t have much of a snap

Tikkido – this one was solid and hard and had a full, good snap

White House – this one had a good snap but not a ton of umph to it

Food Network – this one was very hard and made a full, hard snap with an audible noise

Craft Crib – this one was solid and hard and snapped full on but without much noise

TEST #11: HOUSE BUILDING TEST

I made a video of the quick gingerbread houses I made with each recipe. I glued them together with royal icing. If you look closely enough, you can see which ones were bent and starting to fall apart at the seams a little.

I made some quick notes on each of them as well.

Sugar Geek Show – this was was still way too soft and crumbling under the pressure – it ended up collapsing in on itself eventually

Pampered Chef – this one was pretty soft but it’s still standing after a week

HGTV – this one was also pretty soft but still standing

Tikkido – this one worked out just fine and is still standing

White House – this one also worked out just fine and is still standing

Food Network – this one was the lightest and easiest to build and move around and it is still solid and standing

Craft Crib – this was the thickest and heaviest one, but it was solid and is still standing

THE RESULTS

Below, I break down each recipe, summarize the information from all of the tests into one place, and give tips, tricks, and suggestions for each recipe’s ideal usage.

SUGAR GEEK SHOW RECIPE

This recipe was not for me. I’m not going to lie. I struggled with it. Most of the issues were definitely my fault and other people might find it to be an amazing recipe for gingerbread, but I doubt I will ever attempt to make it again. I tried the recipe 3 different times. I’m going to chalk it up to just being too complicated for me. I can’t even come up with a good recommendation for using it because I don’t think the final result of what I made was at all what the recipe was supposed to produce. Try it yourself and let me know if you get better results. I would love to know if it was user error all 3 times or if the recipe is just not ideal for building gingerbread.

PROS: Beautiful color and great smell

CONS: Weighted measurements, too goopy when mixed, very greasy and sticky when rolled, too soft when baked, didn’t hold up well to power tools, collapsed when building, not tasty

RECOMMENDED USAGE: Filler (I would use this to give bulk to projects I am going to cover in something else, because of how soft it is)

 

PAMPERED CHEF RECIPE

This recipe was the first one I made and I got very excited about it. It was super easy, smelled fantastic, and left me thinking this project was going to be smooth and fun. How wrong I was. I wouldn’t recommend it for eating, but it’s a decent option for building houses. I wouldn’t use it for anything that needs to stand up for a competition, but it could be a great recipe for family fun time.

PROS: Easy to make, easy to cleanup, great smell and color, not sticky when rolled, bakes hard, held up to the power tool test

CONS: Small serving size, gets fairly soft after a few days of sitting out, not very tasty

RECOMMENDED USAGE: Family fun gingerbread house building (but not eating)

 

HGTV RECIPE

This recipe was annoying to me. Any gingerbread recipe with room temperature butter as an ingredient is not going to be a recipe I use on a regular basis. It was the tastiest of the bunch though. I wouldn’t use it for any building, at least not anything that needs to stand for long, but I would use it for cookies. The house building was doable, but the soft nature of the recipe made it not ideal.

PROS: Fairly easy to make, nice color, very tasty,

CONS: Time consuming, messy, too sticky, significant cleanup, too soft, hard to build with

RECOMMENDED USAGE: Delicious gingerbread cookies or small houses intended to be eaten

 

TIKKIDO (WHITE HOUSE) RECIPE

This is the one that I made duplicate batches of because I didn’t realize I had two of the exact same recipes. The first batch I made was great. However, the second batch didn’t turn out as well as the first which gave me a little pause. The second batch was the only one to not survive the power tool stress tests. It broke while I was sanding the edges. I will say that both of them were very tasty. I made cookies with them and everyone loved them, including my husband and kids. I have used this recipe for a few competitions before and I won them, so it can definitely be used for building. However, it doesn’t stand up well to weather or time.

PROS: Fairly easy to make, rolls easily, makes a lot of gingerbread, not sticky or crumbly, great color, great taste

CONS: Tough on mixer, messy, a little greasy

RECOMMENDED USAGE: Gingerbread cookies or houses intending to be eaten or used in indoor competitions

 

FOOD NETWORK RECIPE

This recipe is my new favorite! It’s not one that I would use for eating, but it is one I will definitely use for competitions in the future. It rolls out very thin, much thinner than I could ever get my recipe. It bakes rock hard and stands up well to my power tools test. It has a nice light, even color that is great for coloring and painting. It stayed hard throughout all of my experiments despite the challenging weather. I’m just so glad someone recommended it. It didn’t have any of those great gingerbread smells and it didn’t taste like much of anything. I found that intriguing since it is being advertised as a great cookie recipe by the Food Network.

PROS: Super easy to make, came out of the bowl easily, rolls flat and thin, stays rock hard, performs great with power tools, good color for manipulating, made a great house

CONS: No great smells, hard on my mixer, not tasty at all, can bubble up when baking

RECOMMENDED USAGE: Competition gingerbread – will stay hard and be very light and easy to create, color, paint, and construct

 

CRAFT CRIB RECIPE

This is the recipe I’ve been using for competitions for years. I understand it. I like it. I know how to manipulate it so that it works for me. But, it is not perfect by any stretch. It can sometimes bubble up when baked (I usually roll it out after 10 minutes of baking). A lot of times, it has little sugar crystals that rise to the top during baking (I roll those out when I do my 10 minute roll). The crystals can make it hard to decorate, a weird texture, and ugly. I think it’s because there’s no fat in the recipe to absorb the sugar (suggestion from a reader – I don’t really understand that concept). But, I think that’s what makes it so hard and durable. I have pieces that have been sitting in my garage for over a year and I use and cut them as if they were wood. It’s the closest recipe I’ve found to actual wood, which is what makes me so comfortable with using it. It is nasty tasting and might break a tooth, but it’s rock solid. It will occasionally get a bit of a bend in it when left out, but I like to keep stuff stacked on top of it to avoid that situation. I like that it’s simple, minimal ingredients. I don’t like that it’s so hard, in some cases. For example, last year I made a gingerbread wave. It was gingerbread stacked and glued together. I used a carving knife and my palm sander to get it smoothed and made into the shape I wanted. I wish I’d used a much softer gingerbread than this recipe. This recipe made it super difficult and time consuming, and I think that’s why I ran out of time to produce everything else I wanted on that piece.

PROS: Easy to make, least amount of ingredients, easy cleanup, bakes rock hard, stays rock hard, easy to color or paint, lasts forever

CONS: No great smells, inconsistent, not tasty, can bake with bubbles, can bake with sugar crystals, ugly, bends a little

RECOMMENDED USAGE: Competition gingerbread – to be used as though it were wood – best for power tools

TIPS & TRICKS

Regardless of which recipe you’re using, I have a few helpful tips and tricks to share that should help you get the most out of any gingerbread recipe.

1 – Refrigerate the dough. Even if it’s just for a few hours, refrigerating the dough after it’s been mixed helps firm it up. It’s especially helpful when making cookies.

2 – Roll the dough mid-bake. I like to pull my dough out of the oven a little past the halfway point, to roll it out. This helps flatten it, get rid of any rise, and eliminate bubbles and air pockets. I usually roll it again when it’s finished baking as well.

3 – Use a silicone baking mat. This makes it super simple to roll, cut, bake, and cool, all in one. I like using a Silpat.

4 – Put pressure on it. Especially if you use the Craft Crib Recipe. When the pieces come out of the oven, place something heavy on top of them to flatten them out while they cool a bit. I actually like to bake the gingerbread on my Silpat, with my baking pan turned upside down in the oven. When it’s finished, I just slide the mat off the top of the upside down pan and flip the pan over and place it right on top of the baked gingerbread.

5 – Avoid rainy or muggy days. I know this isn’t always possible, but rain and humidity will do quite a number on gingerbread.

6 – Cut the edges. Whether you slice them off while the gingerbread is still warm, or you sand them with a sander, or cut them with a scroll saw, you’ll have much better building success when your edges are completely straight.

7 – Think outside the box. You don’t have to stick with the royal icing and candy. There are so many awesome food ingredients out there, tasty or not, that you can use to create awesome edible art.

 

RANKED LISTS

In order of preference

 

TASTE

HGTV

Tikkido (White House)

Pampered Chef

Food Network

Sugar Geek Show

Craft Crib

 

BUILDING

Food Network

Craft Crib

Tikkido (White House)

HGTV

Pampered Chef

Sugar Geek Show

 

MY TAKEAWAY

All of these recipes could be used for the holidays. It just depends on what you’re trying to do.

If you want to chat with me about gingerbread, reach out! Follow me on Instagram @thecraftcrib, like my Facebook page, or subscribe to the blog to get updates every time I post new tutorials.

In some instances, I may include affiliate links in posts where I recommend specific products. If you purchase something through one of my affiliate links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These links are always disclosed.

Other Gingerbread Posts:

Gingerbread Nutcracker

Gingerbread Wave

Ginger Clay Recipe

Gingerbread Barn Wood

Gingerbread Farm Tractor

Gingerbread Creepy Tree

Edible (Clear) Tylose Glue

Gingerbread Reindeer Playing Poker

Gingerbread Reindeer Stable

Gingerbread Mountain Chalet

Gingerbread Santa’s Sleigh

Gingerbread Reindeer

Gingerbread House Construction Tips

Royal Icing Recipe

Edible Glass Windows