4TablespoonsVegan Butter (Coconut Oil works too but must be very cold and solid)
⅓CupDate Syrup(you can also use Maple Syrup)
1Egg
To Put Together The Village
1Chocolate Sheet Cake
1JarVanilla Frosting
White Sprinlkes
Green Sprinkles
Rosemary Sprigs
Special Equipment
110x15 Sheet Pan
13D Mini Gingerbread Cutter
1Christmas Tree Cutter
1Mini Bear or Gingerbread Person Cutter
Instructions
Make the Chocolate Cake First
The ingredients above are just for the gingerbread houses. For the recipe for the chocolate ginger village follow this recipe. Make the chocolate sheet cake first. Make sure to cool it at room temperature first to let the cake rest and finish baking. Once the chocolate cake is fully cooled down stick it in the freezer while you are making the cookie dough.
To Make the Gingerbread Houses
Place the pancake mix, all the spices and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
Add in the vegan butter and process until it resembles fine crumbs.
While the processor is running pour in the egg and it will start to turn into a dough.
Add in the date syrup to fully bind the dough.
Place the cookie dough in a one gallon ziplock bag and zip it closed. Press the dough out to the edges of the bag and place in the refrigerator for an hour to rest.
Baking Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 325 Degrees and line 2 cookie sheets
Rolling out grain free dough is quite different from regular dough. Idealy use a large silpat to use as a base.
Cover the silpat with cling wrap and take out the dough from the refrigerator and cut it out of the ziplock bag. Place the dough on top of the cling wrap.
Cover the dough with another piece of cling wrap and then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to a ¼ of an inch. Use the 3D Cookie Cutter to cut out as many as possible. Then cut out a few trees and bears. Keep cutting until you use up all the dough. If the dough starts to get really soft place in the freezer for about 5 minutes to make it easier to handle again.
Place on a lined cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes. The edges should just start to get brown. Take out and cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cookie rack to fully cool down.
To assemble the Gingerbread Houses and Trees and Bears
Using a knife line the edges of the cookie with vanilla frosting to build the houses. Follow the directions provided by the cookie cutter packaging. Set aside. Frost the tree and bear cookies with frosting and decorate with sprinkles.
To assemble the Minimalist Gingerbread Village
Take the chocolate cake out of the freezer and frost with the remaining vanilla frosting.
Arrange the houses on top of the frosted cake next to each other to resemble a village. Then take some white chocolate sprinkles and let it snow over the village. Be as heavy handed as you want with the sprinkles.
Then add in the cookie trees and rosemary sprigs to create a feel of a forest. Finally add in your bears to finish the cake.
Lay it out on the table and watch the kids go ooohh and ahhh.