How to Make a Gingerbread Church

What could be more seasonal than a little white church dusted with snow? It's easy to make a classic gingerbread church - and its nostalgic appeal reminds us that beneath the gifting, there's "a reason for the season."

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Gingerbread Dough And Mortar
• Lots Of Candies
• Kitchen Utility Knives
• Rolling Pins
• Scissors
• Paper And Pencils
• Rulers

Make a Pattern

1. Gather a ruler, pencil and paper.
2. Make a pattern for the long church walls: draw and cut out a rectangle 10 inches long by 6 inches high. Make windows: measure and draw horizontal lines 3 and 5 inches up from the bottom. Measure and draw vertical lines at the 2-, 3-, 4 1/2-, 5 1/2-, 7-, and 8-inch mark (measuring in from either side). Cut out the three rectangles.
3. Make a pattern for the short church walls: draw a square 6 inches by 6 inches. At the center of the top edge of one of the sides (the 3-inch mark) measure and mark an additional 3 inches - this is the roofline. Draw lines from this point to the top corners of the square (essentially, you're adding a triangle that sits on top of the square). Cut out this shape in one piece.
4. Make a door in the short wall: draw a horizontal line 1 1/2 inches up from the bottom edge. Measure another 3 inches up from this line and draw another horizontal line. Measure in 1 1/2 inches from each side and draw vertical lines. Cut out the square.
5. Make a pattern for the church roof: draw and cut out a rectangle 5 inches by 11 inches.
6. Make a pattern for the steeple: draw and cut out two rectangles, each 2 inches by 4 inches. Put one of these aside. Take the other one and measure in 1 inch from the center point of one of the short sides. Draw lines from this point to the two corners (you're essentially taking a triangle-shaped bite out of one of the short sides; this is so it will straddle the roofline). Cut out the triangle.
7. Make a pattern for the steeple roof: draw and cut out a square 3 inches by 3 inches. Mark the midpoint (1 1/2 inches) of one of the sides. Draw lines from this point to the two opposite corners to make a steep triangle. Cut out the triangle.

Cut Out Your Church

8. Roll out gingerbread dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch.
9. Use the pattern pieces you've just made to cut out four church walls (two long, two short), two roof pieces, two of each of the steeple pieces, and four steeple roof pieces.
10. Cut out the windows on the long church walls.
11. Cut out the door on one of the short church walls. Trim 1/8 inch off the door piece, all the way around, and cut it in half lengthwise to make a double door.
12. Use a round cookie cutter (or jar lid) to cut out a round window in the other short church wall (center it roughly over the line where the triangle and square meet). Cut out some long thin strips and divide this circle window in pie wedges, if you wish (sixths or eighths).
13. Cut out stairs from the scraps: you'll need 3 pieces, each 3 inches long with the following widths: 1/2 inch, 1 inch, and 1 1/2 inches.
14. Bake as directed in "How to Make Gingerbread for a Gingerbread House."

Construct Your Church, Roof and Steeple

15. Spread frosting "mortar" thickly along the short edges of the church walls.
16. Stand them up on a tray and join them together to make a box with an open top; let dry for about an hour.
17. Build the steps while the walls dry: stack the strips in front of the door beginning with the widest (1 1/2 inches) and ending with the narrowest, using thin coats of mortar between them.
18. Spread mortar thickly along the top edge of the church walls all the way around and on the long edge of one of the roof pieces.
19. Place the roof pieces on the roof, pushing them together firmly so that they meet solidly at the roofline.
20. Prop them with something solid (cookbooks, for example) so that they don't slide down the roof as they dry (they should be reasonably solid in about an hour).
21. Take the door pieces and use mortar to prop them at an inviting angle while the roof dries.
22. Spread mortar along the inside of both the cutout triangles and along the long sides of all four steeple pieces.
23. Build your steeple near the door-end of the church. You can't prop anything on the church roof (it's not strong enough) so have something ready - a piece of plastic wrap or a clean strip of rag or cheesecloth - to wrap around the steeple to hold it steady while it dries.
24. Make the steeple cap while the steeple dries: spread mortar along the two long sides of each triangle and join the triangles together.
25. Use mortar to attach the cap to the steeple.
26. Decorate your castle with candy, using the mortar to secure it.
27. Drip some mortar from the eaves to suggest icicles; dust with powdered sugar for snow.

Tips & Warnings

• Cut out the big pieces first and fit the others in as you can.
• If you want stained glass windows, fill the window openings with varicolored hard candies before you bake. Be very careful when taking them off the pan - hot sugar is just about the hottest thing that can come out of an oven. Once it cools it will be very brittle.
• Build the church on a tray large enough to accommodate whatever "setting" - trees, an old graveyard, a cornmeal path - you want to add.
• Use soup cans to prop up the walls and hold them until the mortar dries.

Who Can Help:

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