Sant'Apollinare in Zenzero

Gingerbread houses are one of those northern Christmas traditions that became more real to me during years living in the US, where this sort of construction is a more common enterprise than here in Australia.

I had used a kit from Fox Run Craftsmen for the previous versions, with fairly good results. This year we decided to something different and slightly more ambitious. The simplicity of the Romanesque basilica, as in the remarkable buildings that survive at Ravenna in northern Italy, was the inspiration. "Sant'Apollinare in Zenzero" is a nod to these Churches - "zenzero" is ginger, although I could also have said "panpepato", which is gingerbread.

This is not an exercise for architectural purists, but a sort of whimsical variation on the gingerbread house idea. What follows is a sort of guide to its construction, in three parts: templates, recipes, and assembly. While I don't expect late antique basilicas to appear in all your kitchens next Christmas, it's partly a demonstration of how you can take off the training wheels of the standard kit or mould, be a bit more original, and still succeed. So go make up your own, I say.

TEMPLATES
The hardest thing about designing S. Apollinare was the design of the shorter, "east" and "west" walls which are the most distinctive architectural feature. I pored over quite a few photographs including our own, primarily of S. Apollinare Nuovo and S. Apollinare in Classe, both in Ravenna. I then had to allow for some distortion of the proportions given the medium we were working in - the basilica had to be somewhat foreshortened in width and length. The result shown here was produced using both Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Photo Editor (both found on most Windows computers). The first allows drawing straight lines; the second provides a ruler to check measurements. The image did not translate perfectly between the two programs, but it was close enough.

This was the only drawn template I produced. We decided that the basilica would be less than half as long again as the width of the facade. There were two sets of walls, inner and outer - what appears as the clerestory (the short vertical wall immediately under central roof) actually extends to the ground inside the house and is, with the facade, the mainstay of the structure. The aisles were then relatively straightforward to add to the outside.

So we had to bake: 2 facades; 2 high inner walls that emerge as the clerestory; 2 low aisle walls; 2 roof panels for the central vault; 2 roof panels for the aisles. The last 8 pieces were all close to the same length, which made things relatively easy. In fact I should have made the roof pieces about 1 cm longer than the walls to allow for better butt joints (we wanted to avoid an overhang). I traced the facade template onto cardboard, and then used the facade template shown to determine the width/height of the 8 other pieces, and made 4 more card templates (each to produce 2 pieces).

RECIPES
Two recipes are involved: for gingerbread itself and for 'Royal' icing. This is in addition to any candy items for decoration.

Gingerbread
5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp nutmeg [or cinnamon, or extra ginger]
1 tsp baking/bicarb soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (c. 250 g) solid vegetable shortening/copha
1 cup molasses (or treacle)

You will need two large bowls. In one, combine sifted dry ingredients. In a saucepan, melt shortening and add molasses and sugar, and stir to dissolve sugar completely. Empty into second bowl, and add dry ingredients 1 cup at a time, stirring to combine. The last cup may not integrate fully; turn dough out and knead to finish combining ingredients.

Divide dough in three parts and roll each directly on a baking tray/cookie sheet to 1/2 cm (1/4") thick (you may have to do these in sequence depending on oven size and number of trays/sheets).

On the first tray, cut the two facades. Remove the excess. On the second, cut the two main/"clerestory" walls, and remove excess. On the third, cut as much as you can of the remaining material: 2 aisle walls and 4 roof sections. Use excess from the other sheets/trays to make up for any shortfall and bake remaining sections from this on a fourth tray sheet. There should still be enough for any late antique accoutrements you feel like providing, or a gingerbread saint etc.

Bake in a pre-heated 190C/375F oven (less for fan-forced) for 12 - 14 minutes or until browned. If the panels have bowed or expanded along the straight edges, carefully re-cut the edges while still hot. Cool on racks.

Icing
More than one batch of this icing, which is the 'mortar' for construction as well as necessary for decoration, will be necessary. An icing set with a syringe is very helpful.

Classic 'royal' icing:
Beat 1 egg white until frothy with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, then gradually add 1 1/2 cups pure icing/confectioner's sugar and beat until soft peaks form. Cover with cling wrap pressed down to the surface until needed. This is good hard stuff.

Chocolate 'ducale' icing:
Although pure icing sugar produces better results, we used a CSR Chocolate icing mix that (like other 'icing mixes') includes cornflour, as well as cocoa, and found it satisfactory. The advantage was colour, which is close to that of the cooked gingerbread. Proceed as above but use 1 cup of the mix at first and add more only until the mixture is thickened. This icing will take longer to dry. No guarantees this will work for more elaborate chocolate frosting mixes found in the USA, but I guarantee the project won't work with pre-mixed frosting.

ASSEMBLY
Choose or cut a heavy card (cardboard) base about 18"/45 cm square (or as you prefer), and cover if and as you wish. Pipe a heavy bead of icing/frosting on the board along the positions of one facade and one main/clerestory wall (n.b., the wall bead goes not at the outer edge of the facade but in line with the clerestory), and along the vertical edge of the wall that butts the back of the facade. Put facade in place and then the wall, pressing the joint between them carefully together, and flushing the interior joint with more icing to build it up. If using white icing take care to place beads where they will be less visible after assembly. Place some cans or glasses in position to hold these as they dry.

When these joints have some strength, repeat with the other end and main/clerestory wall, with additional icing for interior joints. Support with cans/glasses again as necessary. When ready, ice/frost the ends of the smaller aisle/outer walls and place them carefully in position, adding additional icing to flush the interior joint, and support while drying.

As noted, the roof panels should be slightly longer than the walls to allow for the width of the facades and the need for a joint. The aisle roof panels can be added simply by icing the aisle section of the top of the facade walls and placing the panels carefully on. The central roof panels require an additional step: lay the two roof panels together, upside down, with the edges that will form the apex of the roof abutting. Cut a piece of heavy paper (construction paper or a section of a grocery bag) about an inch shorter and narrower than the combined area of the roof panels, paint liberally with icing, then place it across the two panels and allow to dry. This should produce a pre-fabricated roof with a flexible apex. Place a bead of icing along the tops of the two clerestories, and place the roof carefully on.

If you use brown 'ducale' icing, additional icing can be used to make good gaps at this point, such as at the apex of the roof, before further decoration.

Decoration
Roof tiles are created by vertical lines of royal icing and then a looping set of horizontal lines. Having left no real windows, we decided to use round shapes to evoke them in both the clerestory and the aisles. The 'royal' icing is strong enough to hold small candies attached to vertical walls, if held in place for a few seconds. We trimmed some fruit jellies to create arched windows in the facades, and cut sections of licorice to suggest a narthex at each end.

Allora...