Bauernhäuser

In November I did a hike in the beautiful Simmental. There is a trail called the Obersimmentaler Hausweg that leads to the most notable historic farmhouses and buildings in the valley. This hike inspired me to make these Bauernhäuser, or farmhouses, to give as Christmas gifts.

I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the dough, and then made a very simple cardboard stencil of a house. I rolled the dough out quite thickly and cut it with a paring knife. It was then baked, and decorated with royal icing.

For roll out cookies, I always use Martha Stewart's Dark-Chocolate Cutout Cookies.

180 g flour

70 g cocoa powder

1 tbsp ground coffee

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

165 g butter, soft

170 g icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, coffee, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Beat in the vanilla.

Add the dry to wet and gently stir together.

Separate the dough into two discs and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.

If you like, you can use a simple cardboard template, otherwise you can cut out your houses freehand.

When you’re ready to roll

Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4

Roll out dough to desired thickness (the thinner you roll them, the harder the cookies) and cut out the cookies with your templates.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until you can smell them and the tops are firm.

Roll a piping bag and fill with royal icing (recipe below).

1 egg white

Icing sugar

Start beating the egg white. Once it is foamy and the runny, transparent part is gone, start adding icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time. At first this will dissolve easily in the liquid, then it will start to thicken up. Once you reach the pictured consistency, it is ready to pipe.

Fill your piping bag about two thirds full. When you close the bag, roll the top down away from the seam.

To make a piping bag, you can follow the instructions here. Alternatively, this video from Wilton shows a live action version, which is probably easier to follow.
Do not overfill your bag!
Often it is easier to just make a new piping bag, rather than trying to re-fill a sticky one.
Wet a paper towel and use this to cover the remaining icing in the bowl so it doesn’t dry out.