Gingerbread Houses

Ingredients:

*This recipe make 4 small houses

250 mL shortening
250 mL sugar
1 egg
250 mL molasses
15 mL vinegar
500 mL flour
5 mL baking soda
2 ml salt
5 mL ground ginger
5 mL ground cinnamon
5 mL ground cloves

(you may not need all of this)

* Preheat oven to 375 F or 190 C

1. Cream shortening well
2. Gradually add sugar and cream well again
3. Beat in egg, molasses, and vinegar
4. Stir together 250 mL of the flour along with the baking soda, salt, and spices
5. Gradually blend that first cup of flour and spices into the creamedd mixture and mix well.
6. Add another 250 mL of the flour gradually, blending well. Your dough should feel soft and workable so you might not have to work in all the flour.
7. Gather the dough into a ball and then flatten it into a disk and roll it out to 3mm thickness
8. Cut into the shapes you want your house to be made out of.
9. Place on parchment paper to line a cookie sheet
10. Bake for 5-6 miuntes or until hard. It will be soft when it comes out of the oven but should harden the longer it sits out.

Looking Back:
This recipe is stressful, not going to lie. My friends and I went through 2 hand mixers and we had to redo the dough 3 times. Once the mixing bit is over though, the decorating is really fun.