Penn State bakery prepares a holiday feast for the eyes
And you thought that your kitchen was crowded during the holidays.
Penn State’s Housing and Food Services Building is a labyrinth of corridors that are nearly indistinguishable from one another. Visitors hoping to get anywhere require either an experienced tour-guide or an acute sense of smell.
The scent of freshly-baked bread is the one that leads back into the industrial kitchen, a magical place where sheets of Christmas cookies multiply with wild abandon and brownie pans spin like rotisserie chickens inside ovens the size of a small closet.
There were about a dozen different things happening here at once, a fluid stage choreography that has been polished by thousands of encores for a rapt (and hungry) audience of college students across the University Park campus.
It looks really pretty when it’s done. It makes a lot of people happy.
Executive Pastry Chef Heather Luse
Executive Pastry Chef Heather Luse arguably has the best seat in the house, the one way down the hall and around the corner, if only because it’s one of the few rooms on the lower level with an actual chair — which at the moment was not of very much use.
Luse was busy laboring over a piece of 3-by-4 feet plywood, the foundation for an elaborate gingerbread reconstruction of The Nittany Lion Inn.
Each year, the finished project is carefully transported from the Housing and Food Services building to a predetermined spot in the hotel, a sweet treat for the eyes if not for the stomach.
“It looks really pretty when it’s done. It makes a lot of people happy,” Luse said.
Still, Rome wasn’t built in a day — not even with gingerbread.
Luse’s prep work began before Thanksgiving, baking sheets of gingerbread that she would use to construct the inn and the nearly 20 other houses that are usually requested each season.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. The perfection is that it isn’t.
Heather Luse
This stage of the process can make or break a house.
“If you don’t bake it enough, it won’t hold itself,” Luse said.
It’s a realistic concern, especially considering that the gingerbread inn had to survive a van ride over to its brick and mortar antecedent.
To help fortify the structure, Luse relies on a popular after-school snack. Her inn is insulated with 30 sheets of Rice Krispie Treats, shaved molded and shaved to accommodate the contours of the roof.
She also uses hot-glue to help seal the different pieces together.
“Because we’re dealing with humans here, it needs to be more sturdy,” Luse said.
Mistakes can always be covered with icing.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect. The perfection is that it isn’t,” Luse said.
Top ten tips for a sturdy, delicious gingerbread house, from Heather Luse
1. Have fun! There are no rules. All candy and nuts in the household are fair game!
2. If you are using the house for a lengthy display and it is not intended to be eaten, secure edges with a hot glue gun for stability. Cover glue with royal icing.
3. If you are making a certain house, think of cutting out stencils so measurements are more accurate — out of cardboard for example.
4. Don’t be stingy with the royal icing. It’s the glue for your candy, nut, etc., that you are adding to your house.
5. These recipes can be cut in half or doubled.
6. You can use colored fondant for windows, doors, place mats.
7. Use upside down sugar cones for trees.
8. My favorite roofs are nonpareils, peppermints, crushed nuts and Frosted Mini-Wheats.
9. My favorite candy to use includes gumdrops, Hershey’s Kisses, peppermints, candy canes, Smarties, Necco Wafers and licorice.
10. And to top it off at the end, sprinkle with a light dusting of powdered sugar to create fresh fallen snow on your gingerbread creation.
Want to make your own gingerbread house (but on a much, much smaller scale)? The following is Penn State Bakery Executive Pastry Chef Heather Luse’s recipe for gingerbread and icing — the rest is up to the decorator!
Gingerbread house
Ingredients:
1 pound, 4 ounces cake flour
1 pound, 8 ounces bread flour
12 ounces brown sugar
12 ounces unsalted butter, soft
1 pound, 2 ounces molasses
1/2 ounce baking soda
1/4 ounce ground ginger
1/8 ounce cinnamon
1/8 ounce nutmeg
1/8 ounces ground cloves
Directions
1. Beat the butter and sugar very well.
2. Add the molasses on low speed and beat into the sugar and butter mixture well
3. Add all of the dry ingredients on low speed and mix on low until it starts to form a dough together. (Note: This is a very stiff dough — a stand mixer is probably best to use. Make sure to wrap the dough in plastic wrap right after mixing and keep covered as you roll out the dough. It’s best to use the dough the day you make it.)
4. Roll the dough to 1/8”-1/4” thickness into desired shapes.
5. Bake at 350 degrees 15-20 minutes for smaller pieces, 35-40 minutes for larger pieces (Note: Do not overbake. You can tell it’s done when it’s starts to darken on the edge slightly and when you press the center lightly, it will be stiff and you won’t be able to let an impression.)
6. Allow to cool completely before using. You can use a wood planer to shave the edges after it cools.
Royal icing
6 ounces egg whites
1 pound, 2 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 ounce cream of tartar
Directions
1. Mix together on low speed until desired consistency.
2. After mixing and while using, place plastic wrap directly on top on the icing as you work. It will start to dry out if you don’t.
This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 1:16 AM with the headline "Penn State bakery prepares a holiday feast for the eyes."