I've seen them made with graham crackers.

just out of curiosity, I did a google image search of alternative gingerbread houses & there's a lot of example out there

Log cabin made with pretzel rods.

wow... great suggestions...

I really didn't think of doing the non-cookie thing...
opens up whole new vistas of thought.


thinkin now of a dilapidated house made out of crackers....
a holiday crack house!

Okay, here are my ideas for an alternate. You could use pretzel rods as mentioned before, and either melted white chocolate chips or cream cheese for the "frosting". You could also use peanut butter as mortar - though it's not white. You could add some dill and other dried greens to the cream cheese to make it similar to a dip. Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are great as decorations and can be sliced in many shapes - especially if you can find ones with a big flat side to them. Carrots are also good for either disk or log type trims and celery cut in a few different ways - if you cut it in a stick, and make narrow slices in the stick (but not all the way along the length) and put it into ice water, the thinly sliced areas curl (think trees or bushes). Slices of cheese for the walkways, as well as other embelishments. The possibilites are quite endless going with pretzels as the structure. You could even use the shaped pretzels as the frames for your windows.

Hmm, my creative juices are really flowing with this thread - I love cooking and crafts, so I'm really loving this one. You might have inspired me to do my own alternative house this year.

melted gummy bears make great stained glass windows

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I have to admit I hadn't really thought at all about the savory route...

I was always thinking cookie based...

but, one could almost make a craker thing with rice cracker "bricks" and triscuit style roof thatching...

and now, I am amost at the point of going cookie or going cracker... I am leaning more toward cookie...
since as a kid I never did make one, but always admired with such sweet sparkling fascination.

and isn't our task as adults to do those things that always fascinated us, but we never did?
if not that... then what?
make money... and then die?
or to finally give our permission to play... in the ways that we were always limited away from?



so... cookie house it is... and lil' tommy is pretty stoked!



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hehehe... gotta say, i LOVE the fairy tail ideas... three pigs, lots of choices! goldy locks...

this isn't health concious, but a few weeks ago I was talking with my boyfriend about holiday desserts, gingerbread houses vs sugar cookies... and I said, fuck it! I hate ginger bread anyway, so why not just make a sugar cookie house?

so tempting... but I'm starting to lean more towards the savory pretzels. I think it'll go over better with my boyfriend's family at christmas

I saw "pomegranate molasses" at bristol farms (local spendy-type supermarket)...
gingerbread made with this might give it kind of a redish "brick" look!



worth pursuing.

What about fruit roll ups for stained glass. They even have rainbow ones. Also, maybe do a fruit theme. Like using a pineapple for a house kinda like spongebob with windows cut out and little plantain people . Cut up coconut shell for all sorts of stuff-tree tops, roofs. I don't know but it could get interesting. It could all be sitting in cinnamon and sugar for sand. A tropical theme. Sorry-now I am rambling. Need to go to bed now.

Wonderful Ideas.. great laughs and now I want to go build a whole city.. with a castle at the top of the hill with a mishmash of all the ideas in this thread.. lol

So Tom, did you make your house? Have you posted pictures? How about anyone else? I didn't get to make one this year as I had a nasty cough - didn't really want to be coughing all over edible art - and I'm sure my guests would prefer that I didn't do that as well - lol.