Leibkuchen: Test of Manhood

Being in Germany for another Christmas, to contribute to the festive season, I thought it would be a great opportunity to try my hand at the ageless craft of  Leibkuchen houses. Some days later this plan was reveled to the master of the house who approved of the project, on the condition that it was sufficiency complicated, and not some simple 7 year old T house style construction. So as a test on manhood, in the masculine art of baking Gingerbread houses...

First of all I needed a plan. Something sufficiently impressive, but no overly complicated. Not to set myself up to fail, so to speak. A quick browse on teh Interwebs and I came across this:

It was labeled as "Victorian Villa". Well then that does not look too complicated then does it. I mean come on. Sure the roof is a bit tricky, and the bay window as well but... Next we will need candy, and much there of and dough all ready to be crafted into an miniature, edible adobe.

Well that looks more than sufficient. With everything ready I was feeling a bit hesitant and under pressure, like most heads of construction, on there first job must feel. But there was no turning back. ( failure would still mean we can eat all the candies, and the Leibkuken if it is not burnt..)

After some further discussion, it was decided that the original plans were too small for a house to later feed 6 or so. So to keep things simple (of which I am great fan) we just doubled every measurement for our   "Victorian Villa" 2.0.  So we made custom templates, doubled and backed on recycled cardboard.  

With these the plan was to bake the dough in a full sheet and then just as it comes out of the oven, cut the shapes quickly. This seemed to work well, but as expected one had to work fast before the bread becomes too hard. So we then changed out method to cutting it before baking it. Of which I was very concerned as one can stretch the dough and change the final shape, which would spell DOOM for our house and my masculinity. It changed the shape a little, but greatly speed up the process.

A quick, or not so quick check, to ensure all the parts are ready led us to conclude that we had enough left to make some Tannenbaum and fences. 

All and all I think we used about 300% of the dough required to make just the house, but hey its Christmas time. Next comes the crucial assembly. With some portions about 2mm think and it being   "Victorian Villa" 2.0, containing a doubling in height and length, but not in thickness, I had my doubts.... 

...I had underestimated the  power of icing sugar. How much? Lots of. In this shot you can also clearly see the red transparent and edible windows. A gap was left at the rear to mount a candle inside. With the shell complete and drying fast, it was time to decorate. 

I insisted that the first roof be orderly. So that when the folks come home from work at least that part is in order. The rest was pretty much a free for all. While we had followed the instructions to the T, with our intention to put a candle in the middle, we had no holes in the bay window. So we just did not include it. 

So with it finished, we added Christmas trees and a fence around the outside. Being my slightly twisted self I wanted to add a slightly Halloween touch to our otherwise happy home...It was time to add a Witch and small kinder.

..and a close up shot

Wunderbar! Its kind of Hansel and Gretel meets, Christmas. I love it, turned out heaps better that I thought and the best thing is, we can eat all of it! ...with the exception of the people. Challenge completed.

Fin