Can You Eat A Gingerbread House? Secrets You Don’t Know
Gingerbread houses have always been a fun tradition that people tend to make in the month of December to celebrate the Holidays.
On the contrary to their delicious name, gingerbread houses have a dense and hard texture that might not seem edible at first. Thus, many people also wonder, “Can you eat a gingerbread house?”
Gingerbread houses can be more than just a fun decoration if you know how to build them correctly. Let’s find out whether this beautiful decoration can also be a delicious treat in my post below.
Table of Contents
What Is A Gingerbread House?
Since the 16th Century, gingerbreads have been traditionally made with all-edible materials like cardamom, ginger candy, cinnamon, and cloves. Over time, people started to sell these gingerbreads outside of churches on Sundays.
As the images popularized, gingerbreads became the regular cake for the holiday spirit. Nowadays, you will find gingerbread houses with various styles and shapes. The look doesn’t have to be a house all the time.
You can order them in castles, cabins, sports stadiums, art museums, and churches. These gingerbread houses are super stable, firm, and long-lasting for weeks. With such texture, are gingerbread houses meant to be eaten? Let’s find out the answer for “Are gingerbread houses edible?” below!
Can You Eat A Gingerbread House?
Gingerbread houses are known for their decorative purpose. However, do you eat the gingerbread house? Traditional gingerbread houses are commonly made with all-edible materials like sweets, gingerbreads, and royal icing. Therefore, it is certain that those types of gingerbread houses can be eaten
If you made a homemade gingerbread house, then you will know for sure that eating that gingerbread house is ok to enjoy a bite or two of.
Regarding store-bought gingerbread houses, as their main purpose is decoration, the experience might be different.
Can You Eat Store-Bought Gingerbread House?
Most store-bought gingerbread house kits are made to last for half a month, which means all the windows, roof, floor, and walls are made with hardened materials. So, are store-bought gingerbread houses edible?
Yes, you can eat them without upsetting your stomach. However, it would be best to remember that it would be a challenge when chewing on these rock-like decorations, as they are harder than regular gingerbread cookies and bread rolls.
Therefore, to save you from a tooth aching experience, you should test the texture first with your hands before tasting. You can use two fingers to squeeze one of the gingerbread walls without any white icing. If the wall is curved softly, then it is soft enough for you to enjoy them pleasantly.
Can You Eat A Wilton Gingerbread House?
A Wilton gingerbread house is a popular brand for your Christmas decoration. Their gingerbread house kits are detailed and creative, with various sizes and shapes. The kit will have multiple parts which you can use to put them together. All of these parts, according to them, are edible, so you can also enjoy them if you know how to preserve them properly.
Normally, the Wilton gingerbread houses come with a plastic wrap that you should use to cover it overnight. This is due to the high possibility of dust appearing in the gingerbread house. Once there is dust settling on the walls and roofs, you won’t eat them anymore.
Some premade gingerbread houses might even have preservation which is acrylic spray and cardboard cut to reinforce the house’s structure. So, how long can you keep a gingerbread house kit?
Under full preservation, the whole decoration can stay longer for months and years. At this point, certainly, you cannot eat these pretty decorations.
How To Eat A Gingerbread House
If you look at the gingerbread house as old stale bread, it will be easier to know what to do with gingerbread house.
To process a big stale “bread,” you need to break them into small parts before processing them in a food processor. As they have a hard texture, they are unintentionally delicious bread crumbs for your pie crust or as a crumbly topping for cereal and ice cream.
They can also be wonderful ingredients for your homemade chocolate truffles. The coarseness and firmness texture of gingerbread is a great cover to keep all the cream cheese and pumpkin purée inside.
You can treat the batch of icing as hard candies and process them into powder as a brown sugar substitute or sprinkle material for many baked goods recipes. The globs of icing powder can also stick to the glass rim, making a delicious martini and many other cocktail recipes.
How Long Are Gingerbread Houses Good For?
It is always common to see gingerbread houses in public places long after the Christmas holiday. This is because the gingerbread houses have a particularly long shelf life when you preserve them carefully. Let’s find out “How long is a gingerbread house edible?”.
Unlike most food, gingerbread houses are made to withstand the temperature and condition to last throughout all these fun activities of the holiday week. After a while, gingerbread will become denser and drier with all the glues and preservatives spray. Considering all those factors, how long do gingerbread houses last?
Normally, a gingerbread house, when covered and preserved properly, can last up to a year. If you let insects or mold infest inside, the shelf life can drastically shorten.
Nevertheless, even though gingerbread houses can last significantly longer than most food, you should take them down within a couple of weeks. It would be at the best stage, edible and delicious, to be made into different sweet treats for your new year’s party.
FAQs
What Can You Do With Old Gingerbread Houses?
Sometimes, gingerbread houses can be left out for years in a home as they make a great decoration. Suppose you want to make some rooms for a refreshing decoration, what to do with gingerbread houses?
You can always use a hard and firm leftover gingerbread house to be a bird feeder place. With some delicious nuts, the birds would make themselves comfortable in no time.
Will Gingerbread Houses Attract Bugs?
Gingerbread houses can be delicious decorations, but those that taste the most flavorful tend to attract more unwanted guests, like bugs and insects. These insects can be quite annoying to deal with as they can infest and nest in your own home. As a result, these insects can ruin your pretty gingerbread house and other decorations as well.
To avoid this incident, the best way to preserve gingerbread house is using plastic wrap to cover the decorations overnight. If you want it to last longer, you can also store it in the fridge to prevent any outsider contacts.
Conclusion
Gingerbread houses are an iconic symbol of the Christmas holiday and a wonderful decoration for your house. Being made of natural ingredients, gingerbread houses can be a delicious treat if you store them properly and enjoy them within their best-used date.
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