This may sound like an odd question but we just finished our regular tradition of building a few gingerbread houses. Store bought ones with candy, frosting, etc.
I'm assuming you CAN eat them but I'm wondering about the quality of the contents really, my better half tells me it's not the best gingerbread to eat!
Just curious if others devour these or just toss them and go by gingerbread cookies for the edible enjoyment later.
They're pretty awful, but they're edible. Gingerbread is too soft, so these are made to be thick and rigid .. not really a quality you want in baked goods. I'd buy gingerbread cookies instead for snacking.
We have done both.
I have resorted to a glue gun to make our store bought ones stick together as we are not talented and they fall apart.
One of my kids would eat anything, and he'll gnaw away at our gingerbread houses if given chance. Ours can break your teeth (it's something we make early in Dec). By then, it's so hard by the time Christmas comes around.
It depends on how long you'd leave it out. It's not the nicest gingerbread (low quality) but depends on the kit. I get the cheapy ones as ours look mangled and are purely for sentimental factor.
But yes, edible (provided you don't do glue gun).
I'm sure they are edible but totally stale. We have never attempted to eat ours.
No its not the best tasting gingerbread since the kit is just made to give the look of a ginger bread house and nothing more. You can eat them but we usually just make them and leave them as a display for the holiday season.
You are probably better off just making the house and having gingerbread cookies while doing it.
I'm not sure what the kits have in them but it's likely to optimized for building, not eating. My sister makes the gingerbread for her house using a gingersnap recipe, so it's both hard enough to build with and also tastes delicious - true gingerbread would be too soft to hold up.
Personally, my family uses graham crackers to build - no kit required. We don't eat them because they get stale, but since it's just cheap graham crackers, I don't feel badly about pitching them at the end. The kids are all about the candy anyway.
Sometimes the kits' gingerbread is not the best quality eating gingerbread *but* that's because it is very "stiff" to build a house. Basically, there is a difference between the best gingerbread for eating and the best gingerbread for building! Similar to cookie ornaments not necessarily being the best first choice of a cookie to eat.
But, it is certainly not going to hurt you if you eat it. Maybe enjoy looking at it for a few days and then eat it alongside a cup of hot cocoa to "dunk" and soften a bit that way as necessary.
(Side note: if you ever want to spend money for something that really serves both needs, like for a fancy holiday party, some high-end candy stores and bakeries make them. La Maison du Chocolat and Jacques Torres are two examples of stores that make things like "houses" or "holiday sculptures" that are decorative and are also intended to be eaten.)
We always eat them. It's a lot of sugar, so we also don't always make them. But it never occurred to me that anyone wouldn't eat it.
I have eaten every single one I’ve made, along with my kids.
edible but not yummy. especially after a week or more.
khairete
S.
