"Gingerbread house" news and stories

There's trouble in Candyland. Whole Foods and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have announced a recall of gingerbread houses produced by Rolf's Patisserie and sold in Whole Foods stores. The reason? There's a possible connection to outbreaks of Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning, according to this F.D.A. press release. It says that the assembled gingerbread houses are decorated and packaged in clear plastic wrap and sold with a Whole Foods Market scale label; some scale labels also may list "Rolf's Patisserie" as part of the description.

The recall affects all gingerbread houses sold after November 1, 2010, in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

The FDA adds that customers who have purchased any of the listed products from Whole Foods Market may return them to the store for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact Whole Foods Market at 512-542-0878 weekdays between 8:00am and 5:00pm Central Standard Time.

Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread rocks. We know people get creative with this stuff but never realized you could do more than just craft a little man to chew on later after the Kettle Chips ran out. No, a Gingerbread Wonderland contest this month at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, New Jersey, revealed some real Robert Moses-Baron Haussmann-Type A bakers out there who are capable of Eiffel Towers, Taj Mahals and suburban homes ("House on Ridgedale Avenue," which, if memory serves, is one block over from Freddie's place on Elm Street). We've even spotted a gluten-free, dairy-free house, which causes us to ask: "Doesn't gingerbread taste bad enough without having to make it totally inedible?"

But by far the winner of the Most-Disheveled-Joint Award, the one that pulls at our cramped-for-space heartstrings is the hoarders' house (above), with messy little stacks of gingerbread books and gingerbread trash, and well, who knows what's under that gingerbread carpet? What fresh Wonderland is this?

Photo gallery of Gingerbread Wonderland houses.

Gingerbread houses are going up all over this season. When White House chef Bill Yosses and First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the annual edible home of the prez, reports our sister site Luxist, this year's model came complete with a marzipan rendition of the First Family's dog, Bo, as well as the kitchen garden. (Can we just add that if these are Bo's true proportions, we need to either call the Guinness Book of Records or run in fear... now!) (Visit Luxist for a photo gallery of the gingerbread White House.)

Here in the house of AOL, the teams from Slashfood, Shelterpop, ParentDish, Holidash, Lemondrop, and DIY Life did a little gingerbread-house building of our own, creating a six-foot-tall candy-covered dream cottage that we sent down to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, for the kids' annual holiday party. Watch the video of how we did it, after the jump.

Now that we have you fired up, how about exercising your own DIY baking skills? Visit KitchenDaily for gingerbread-house recipes and how-tos, including templates. And if you love gingerbread but house construction isn't your thing, how about a town-house cookie? Or try these pull-apart cupcakes to create a chubby, whimsical gingerbread man.

Has Dylan Lauren been listening to a continuous loop of Sammy Davis singing "Candyman?" The CEO of Dylan's Candy Bar is bringing out her inner Gretel with a more-than-six-foot-tall edible gingerbread house she's selling through Neiman Marcus.

Guaranteed to give the kiddies a sugar high that'll last well into the new year, the almost 400 pounds of gingerbread and 517 pounds of royal icing has been shaped into an over-the-top playhouse with lollipop buttresses and a sweets-embedded roof. And isn't it worth $15K to keep the little ones occupied for a week or so? (Oh yes, you read that right -- maybe we all have a future in candy-playhouse construction.)

Yes, Hansel, you can even eat the dishes.

Nothing smells like the holidays more than a spirited serving of gingerbread. From gingerbread houses to gingerbread men, the dessert is deeply rooted in holiday tradition.

Dating back to 2000 B.C. when the Greeks sampled "spiced honey cakes," the treat has been variously adapted and differentiated by regions, from honey-and-allspice pain d'épice in France, to Queen Victoria's influence on the creation of gingerbread men in England, to New England variations relying on local ingredients like maple syrup or molasses.

Today we enjoy the complexity of spices in baked goods, from Gramercy Tavern's moist molasses-stout gingerbread or unique varieties like Gingerbread Bars or Gingerbread Truffles. And for the ultimate inspiration for gingerbread crafting, observe our step-by-step guide to crafting the perfect gingerbread house by the Black Cat Café's expert Vanessa Daou.

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