The Gingerbread Queen

Interview with Nikki Wills
Photos courtesy of Tikkido.com

Baker and cookbook creator Nikki Wills discusses her adore of making gingerbread homes and reminisces about her expertise on Meals Network’s Vacation Gingerbread Showdown.

How did you open baking gingerbread homes?

My mother began making them when I used to be an infant the use of a published recipe by frequent White Home govt chef Hans Raffert. It makes savory, hardy gingerbread that’s supreme for constructing all styles of gingerbread creations. Around Thanksgiving every twelve months when I used to be rising up, my mother and I would open making gingerbread homes for ourselves and our friends and family, including my classmates and my dad’s fellow engineers on the Air Force Institute of Abilities; she would assemble me wait until Christmas to eat mine. I in level of truth possess many fond memories of those times.

When did you first bake gingerbread in your personal?

I began to omit gingerbread whereas studying for my first-semester finals at Vassar College. I asked the college if I could well well even use the mixer within the eating hall and used to be commended that the pastry kitchen wasn’t frequent on Sundays. I used to be granted the tear of the full facility, including the big mixers and expert ovens. The use of my mother’s recipe, I made a gingerbread home that my friends and I embellished; I also proficient every of my professors their very personal home.

What are your guidelines for making gingerbread homes?

The dough must be thick and sturdy, and also you shouldn’t tear through mixing it. It also helps to possess a appropriate mixer. I esteem my 13.5-liter expert one—I will put together a triple batch of dough in it.

When assembling a gingerbread home, it’s priceless to position the partitions up first, pipe your icing to precise them, and allow them to air-dry in a single day so they’ll be additional sturdy; potentialities are you’ll possibly well then attach your roof on the following day. Royal icing is foremost for constructing gingerbread homes due to the because it hardens, it glues every little thing together. Royal icing is generally made with raw egg whites, nonetheless you presumably could well well even additionally replace powdered egg whites, meringue powder, or aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas.

You moved from the US to St. Albans, England, about a years ago. What inspired you to assemble gingerbread likenesses of the pubs there?

The pubs are gorgeous and operate family-pleasant neighborhood residing rooms, so I desired to honor them in gingerbread make. Plus, I expertise having an elaborate gingerbread mission to work on in addition to my genuine baking at some level of the vacation season. For Christmas 2023, I made a gingerbread home of the Robin Hood Pub. It used to be later served on the pub at some level of a colossal gingerbread occasion, which I in level of truth liked—especially since I didn’t must eat all that gingerbread myself. [Laughs]

What used to be it esteem competing on Meals Network’s Vacation Gingerbread Showdown?

Terrific, especially due to the my mother used to be my baking partner. We competed in opposition to two varied opponents in nine total rounds—we received the tasting snort nonetheless sooner or later lost. We every had a blast, even supposing the opponents’s chaos and time constraints had been traumatic. I always expertise myself when making gingerbread homes. It’s laborious to possess a harmful time whereas making a gigantic cookie home and adorning it with loopy amounts of candy.

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