We are back for our third year of Peanuts holiday cookie scenes — we celebrated Christmas in 2022 with the skating rink from It’s A Charlie Brown Christmas and the iconic scene of Linus and Sally waiting for the arrival of the great pumpkin from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was the inspiration for last the Halloween bake. This year, we’re revisiting the Halloween special and recreating the Halloween party scene where all the characters are in costume, bobbing for apples, while Linus and Sally are out waiting for the aforementioned pumpkin. Think of this year’s gingerbread scene a follow-up to last year’s cookie pumpkin patch. These two moments happen simultaneously in the movie, and I wish I still had last year’s scene so I could put them side by side.
A Charlie Brown Christmas Skating Rink (2022)
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (2023)
This year’s living room display is slightly smaller than last year’s pumpkin patch, but we make up for that in the amount of details in this cookie scene. There are eight characters including Snoopy, there are extra isomalt features (the television screen, the rotating bucket of apples, and the little dust clouds around Pig Pen) in addition to the backdrop, and we built some gingerbread furniture!
I shared the majority of my tips and tricks in last year’s post, and I’ll leave the highlights again here for you to use as reference, adjusting a few details for this year’s cookie scene:
Why Gingerbread?
Gingerbread is the material for the whole display because it is the sturdiest cookie for making structures and it makes the apartment smell so good and festive when you leave it out afterwards. I used this great recipe from Food52 once again for the gingerbread. It’s one of the best gingerbread recipes out there — minimal spread (all the pieces retain their shape during the baking process), it doesn’t puff up much (any designs you carve on the gingerbread before baking will stay), and it’s sturdy enough to be a base for a larger displays that have many other cookie elements on top. I’ve also made ‘gingerbread’ houses with shortbread before and it is the next best thing. It’s a bit more delicate than gingerbread but it’s my preferable cookie medium if you intend on eating it afterwards or need something with a more neutral colour for the structure.
How to determine the size of the display
Before you get started, you want to measure the turntable you will be using for the moving element. The rest of the display depends on how tall and wide the turntable is because it has to fit inside the display. The turntable I used was 5.5-inches in diameter and 1-inch tall, so the base of the gingerbread display had to be larger than those measurements to allow the turntable to move freely. The final base was 9-inches wide, 8-inches deep 2-inches tall (the latter two are the more important elements that will allow the turntable to be slid inside the display). In total, four pieces will need to be made for the base of the display: large rectangular panel for ground of the living room, two wooden panels that will elevate the scene, and a ‘window’ panel to be filled with purple isomalt that will become the wall of the room (it’s colour-matched to the scene in the movie!). To summarize, here are the measurements:
- The platform is 9 x 8 inches, with the front being 9 inches wide and the sides 8 inches deep
- There are two panels to raise the surface and these are 9 x 2 inches. You only want to make two panels (for the front and back) because you need the sides to be open to slide in the turntable. You want to make sure there is room for the ‘ground’ to spin below the platform without brushing the surface. For example, if you spinner is 1.5 inches tall, then you want to make your platform pieces at least 2 inches tall
- The back piece can be as tall as you like it to be — mine was 9 x 8 inches
How to make the characters move
To create movement for the scene, cut out a hole in the centre of the base panel. It’s easier to centre the turntable when the cutout is closer to the middle of the platform piece. Save the cut out so you can use it on top of a turntable for the moving element to be placed on, in this case it’s the bucket of apples.
Royal icing vs. isomalt — which is better?
Royal icing is the easiest ‘glue’ to assemble the whole display but it’s not as strong as using melted sugar like isomalt. Royal icing also takes much longer to dry, which can slow down the whole process. I prefer to make extra isomalt mixture when making the backdrop component but leaving it clear to act as a the glue. The packaging for isomalt will have instructions on how to use the isomalt — I melt 1 cup of isomalt crystals or powder in a small oven-safe pot over the stove on medium-low heat and once it has fully melted, stir in half a tablespoon of water to the mixture (careful, it will bubble up) and place it in the oven at 175F for ten minutes for the air bubbles to disappear. Once it’s ready, simply dip or apply isomalt to pieces that need to be adhered and the isomalt will set in 15 – 30 seconds. If isomalt starts firming up, return the isomalt to the oven until it becomes runny again. Isomalt is really hot, so be careful when using it to build the gingerbread display or pouring it to form the back panel.
Any other tips?
Once all the base pieces have been assembled, add your characters, pumpkins, and any details you want on display. Use the movie scene as your guide or be as creative as you want to be! Here are some other tips you might helpful for creating your own gingerbread pumpkin patch:
- Decorate all your pieces before assembling! This way you can decorate on a flat surface.
- If you are not confident with piping the details for characters faces with royal icing, use a edible marker pen! I used the edible marker pen to draw the faces of each character once the royal icing has set. I actually like the look of it better because it reminds me of the way the comics are drawn.
- If you are not able to find isomalt, crushed hard candy like jolly ranchers can be used to create a similar effect for the backdrop, you will just need a lot of candy. To use hard candy, fill the unbaked frame with the crushed candy, making sure the candy covers the entire surface of the ‘window.’ I like to overfill the frame a bit because the candy amount will shrink when heated. While the frame is baking, the crushed candies will melt and form a glass-like surface.
- Leaving the gingerbread pumpkin patch out on display will make the apartment smell like fresh baked cookies
![day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨
the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)
vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
strawberry dough
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar
for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls
place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough
remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min
[recipe cont’d in comments]
#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating](https://constellationinspiration.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
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