happy feat

In the quaint Whoville of a village where I spend Thanksgiving, there is an annual gingerbread competition. Sometimes my family enters.

After taking a few years off, my uncle led the charge with a 'Happy Feet' inspired entry. My mother helped a lot. The rest of us consulted a little.

Check out their our awesome creation--

This is one tall and sturdy penguin. If you want to make a huge piece of gingerbread, and chip your teeth eating it, you should use the recipe (at the end of the post) that constructed this guy.

There were other super entries too. I took pictures of them--it will last longer.

Super Solid Gingerbread Recipe

• 2 cups light corn syrup (or dark corn syrup for a darker house)
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (or dark brown sugar for a darker house)
• 1 1/4 cups margarine
• 9 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, heat corn syrup, brown sugar and margarine until margarine has melted and sugar has dissolved completely. Stir until smooth.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Add syrup-sugar-margarine mixture, making sure it's cool enough for the kids to squish the dough until it's smooth and comes away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest at least 30 minutes at room temperature.
4. If the dough is too hard or unmanageable, you can microwave it for 20-30 seconds. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough 1/4-inch thick onto a sheet of parchment cut to fit your baking pan. Edgeless pans or those with only one edge are the best.
5. Lightly flour the cardboard patterns and place them on the rolled-out dough, leaving a 1-inch space between pieces. Try to fit as many as you can without crowding. For clean edges, cut with a pizza wheel. Remove and reserve excess dough.
6. Grab the opposite edges of the parchment paper and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until pieces are firm and lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely before removing from pans. Reroll dough scraps for the remainder of the pieces.