Gingerbread Caramel Pie (using up leftover gingerbread dough)

For some reason I have never made a gingerbread house. But my Twitter timeline was full of pictures of fantastic creations this Christmas. St. Stephen's Day was a wash out so what better way to spend a few hours than make one?

Off to Google to find a recipe and a template. The recipe was Mary Berry's on the BBC Good Food website. I followed it exactly but luckily weighed the flour into a separate bowl. I estimate that there was 200g too much which I hadn't added but my dough was still crumbly. I tried to knead it hoping the heat from my hands would bind it, but no luck. I had to add two of my own eggs (scarce at this time of year as my hens are on a go slow). Partial success. At least now the dough was reasonably cohesive.

Then the template. Silly me. Never bothered to check it out when I cut the paper shapes and stuck to the cardboard. The roof was massive. So big it almost crushed the house. But to that later.

It's all a learning experience, right?

I had a lump of the dough leftover. I wrapped it in cling film and put it in the fridge.

A week later I decided that as I had used butter, my own very scarce eggs and muscovado sugar I was not going to throw it out. I remembered a gingerbread recipe I had made from my mother's old cookbook and a caramel sauce I had served it with. Recipe here.

I had enough dough to line two quiche dishes 21cm diameter and 4cm deep with the dough. Blind bake for 10 minutes at 180 deg C.

Cool and pour the cooled caramel into the pies.  Divide the gingerbread mixture and pour over the caramel. Put back into oven at 180 deg C for about 35-40 minutes or until the cake topping springs back to your touch.

You can serve it warm or cold but a scoop of good vanilla ice cream would be lovely with it.

If you want to use up the actual gingerbread house, you could crush it and add melted butter to make a crumb base.

The gingerbread house was a tad amateur but it tasted great.

The roof was so big it meant we couldn't decorate the sides of the house and then it started to crack and slide. A bit of a patch up job with royal icing (made using my own egg whites as well) soon sorted that.

Just remember it's nearly always possible to salvage mistakes when baking and cooking. Upcycling isn't only the preserve of Annie Sloan and chests of drawers.