It’s that magical time of the year when supersized candy canes and giant dessert towers look totally normal and commonplace! One of the best giant dessert marvels in the world is definitely the gingerbread house at Disney World, which sits within the lobby of the Grand Floridian Resort. The Grand Gingerbread House as it’s called is 7 feet tall and 12 feet wide and is basically an assembly of edible baked displays.
This giant gingerbread is actually a replica of the hotel and is created from more than 600 pounds of gingerbread, 600 pounds of powdered sugar, 250 pounds of fondant, and one pound of pixie dust, Moreover, it has 25 hidden Mickeys! Chef Allie who heads the dessert team at Grand Floridian recently shared details about the cookie house which attracts visitors during Christmas.
Though there are several smaller gingerbread houses muttered across Disney World, the one at Grand Floridian is the biggest. All the pieces are baked, designed, painted and assembled manually just like any other gingerbread house, from baking to sugar-ing and icing. And some of these tips can actually help out your Christmas baking as well!
Why Use Cured Gingerbreads?
Chef Allie revealed that most gigantic gingerbread displays including the gingerbread house use, cured gingerbread. This refers to gingerbread pieces that have been left to rest in the fridge before its baked. In Disney World, they actually cure their gingerbread dough for 30 days. Fun fact, the displays are usually up in November so the dough has to be ready by July for the team to get started on the giant gingerbread house.
And this is a hack which can help your homemade gingerbread house as well. Allie shares that curing the bread firms it up so it doesn’t dismantle or break when it’s being used to make a house. Letting it sit in the fridge for 4-5 hours is fine, but before you start building it try resting the dough for a day or two so it hardens.
Chocolate Is The Secret Glue
Allie shares that while most people think the giant display is kept in position using glue, bakers at Disney World actually use the baker’s glue for that, which is chocolate. The gingerbread pieces used in the gingerbread houses are all individually backed into chocolate. The trick is to use coating chocolate, or couverture chocolate which is also the ideal chocolate type for tempering. It’s fluid and not dense, and it can help the bread stay in place.
However, if you’re using sugar snowflakes or fondant-based decorations on your gingerbread house and want to prevent them from breaking, Allie suggests tylose powder which is also called CMC gum. Tylose powder can be used when you’re mixing in your fondant, to make it resemble a sort of gum paste which will make sure the fondant decorations stay in place.