Does anyone know....gingerbread

emiff6

Good evening everyone.
Can anyone tell me how to stop the gingerbread in a gingerbread house from going soft? I love to make and decorate gingerbread houses for Christmas, but even if made only a few days before, by Christmas the gingerbread is too soft to be pleasant eating and the whole thing has to be turned into trifle bases and other "use-me-up" items.

Penelope_Penguin

emiff6 wrote: »

Good evening everyone.
Can anyone tell me how to stop the gingerbread in a gingerbread house from going soft? I love to make and decorate gingerbread houses for Christmas, but even if made only a few days before, by Christmas the gingerbread is too soft to be pleasant eating and the whole thing has to be turned into trifle bases and other "use-me-up" items.

Biscuits go soft because the absorb moisture from the air (unlike cakes which go the other way ).

You could try storing it under a glass cake dome.

lostinrates

In the same vein...does any one have any recipes to share for biscuits for decorating the tree? I want to cu them into shapes like gingerbread men, bells, canes etc and leave some plain and ice some white.

emiff6

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

You could try storing it under a glass cake dome.

That's a good idea. Where would I get one? Cheap?:D

emiff6

It's funny, isn't it, how food that is soft when fresh goes hard when stale, and food that is hard when fresh goes soft when stale? S*d's Law I suppose!

betterlife

i read somewhere if you are storing hard biscuits put a few sugar cubes in the tin or storage box with them as the sugar absorbs the moisture, keeping the biscuits hard and crunchy, hth

diluvsdiscounts

We had this exact problem last year.DD made gorgeous gingerbread men and hearts,iced them,drilled holes in the top,threaded with ribbon and hung on the tree.
Unfortunately one by one they dropped off much to the dogs delight who ate the lot.
So this year we have looked into it and found a thread on tinternet that said for harder gingerbread add more flour.So yesterday she made her mix(flour and butter into breadcrumbs)and then added about another 3tblspns of flour.They are much harder than last year so hopefully should stay on the tree.HTH.

Agapanthus

betterlife wrote: »

i read somewhere if you are storing hard biscuits put a few sugar cubes in the tin or storage box with them as the sugar absorbs the moisture, keeping the biscuits hard and crunchy, hth

That's a good idea. A small amount of salt, or rice grains would probably work too.