Building a holiday tradition, one gumdrop at a time
For 43 years, Andrea Resciniti has built grand gingerbread houses for all of Acton to enjoy.
When you step into Andrea Resciniti’s home, nothing immediately hints at the scale of what happens there each year. Her kitchen is comfortable but unassuming — hardly the kind of place you’d expect to serve as command central for a holiday production that borders on fantastical.
For roughly three weeks of the year, Resciniti’s kitchen fills up with gallon bags packed with spices and flour, racks of cooling gingerbread panels, and bowls of frosting white as fresh snow.
For 43 years, the now-retired surgeon has built grand gingerbread houses for all of Acton to enjoy. For the past 32, her creations have been on display in the Acton Free Public Library.
These days, the more than 30 batches of gingerbread and over $500 in supplies spill far beyond the modest kitchen. The project takes over her home.
“I usually have the candy boxes all lined up in the living room for me to sift through,” Resciniti said.
And each year her hard work pays off.
“Everyone loves them,” said Barbara Gugluizza, head of reference at the library. The gingerbread house sits right beside the front desk, greeting visitors before they browse the books or head to an event.
“We always get people asking so many questions about it,” Gugluizza said. “‘How long does it take? How much does it weigh?’ It definitely gets a lot of attention.”
Resciniti traces her fascination with gingerbread houses back to childhood, when her family lived in New Jersey. Each year, her father would go to Germantown, New York, with a friend and return with a gingerbread house for Christmas.
But she only started making them herself after she became a doctor.
“When I started in medicine, you couldn’t be home [for] all your holidays; it just didn’t work. So instead I would bring in a gingerbread house,” she said. That tradition continued when she moved to Acton and began working at Emerson Hospital.
It was there that she would display her architectural pastry prowess until 1993.
“They were worried that a kid would grab a piece, so they always had it sectioned off, out of the way,” Resciniti said. “Someone I knew worked at the library suggested I put it there, and that has been perfect.”
Pastry planning
In Resciniti’s basement, there are stored totes bursting with lollipops, gumdrops, and other colorful candies she’s collected over the years. She also has jugs of molasses she bought in bulk to save money.
“See this? It’s getting more pricey every year. I bought this a while ago and look at the price: $7.99,” she said, picking up a small box of the candy figures she regularly uses to decorate her gingerbread houses. “If I were to buy this online today, it would cost me $35.”
Her planning spans the entire year, but the real process begins in early November when Resciniti starts measuring out her dry ingredients. Flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, and baking soda are parceled into 30 servings to ensure she has enough.
Then, after Thanksgiving, she gets out her other ingredients, including all the stored candy and molasses.
Resciniti said that every year, it gets “harder and harder” to create something unique. She usually doesn’t have a concrete plan when she begins. Instead, she has one idea that she wants to implement and builds the rest around that.
This year, “I really wanted to have a front part with a raised section for the reindeer,” she said. “Then I start to fill out the rest until I’ve covered the whole base.”
At the end, she is left with a large, delectable confection — one she’s more than ready to see find a new home at the library.
“By the end of it, I want to get it out of there and get my kitchen back,” she said.
The price of delight
Resciniti does worry that if prices keep rising, she may have to give up on the tradition.
“It’s gotten very expensive to make the darn thing,” she said, “and you can’t find any of the good candy anymore. The marzipan figures are expensive.”
Resciniti said it’s the people who love what she builds that keep drawing her back. She knows it’s something people look forward to, and she likes creating that joy. She even gives the library a little repair kit with extra candy pieces and frosting to make sure the gingerbread house stays looking its very best for visitors.
And while it would be easy to retire from edible architecture and save money, she’s already planning next season’s design, buying an extra set of reindeer this year for a future house.
“It’s hard to tell people no,” she said, “especially during the holidays.”
A gingerbread house for DIYers
Andrea Resciniti says this recipe, intended for larger gingerbread houses, can be halved for smaller bakes.
Ingredients:
1½ cups dark molasses
1⅓ cups shortening
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cloves
6 cups sifted flour
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together until incorporated, and then, on a non-stick 11½ inch by 17 inch baking sheet coated with cooking spray, roll the dough out flat.
Bake the sheet at 350 degrees until it is dry to the touch and cooked through.
Cut your needed pieces out as soon as it comes out of the oven, then let them cool. Once cooled, you can remove your cut-out pieces by flipping the baking sheet.
To make the frosting:
This small-batch recipe can be multiplied.
Ingredients:
1 egg white
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1¾ cups confectioners’ sugar.
Milk or water
Directions:
Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl until foamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, continuing to whisk. Finally, add milk or water to achieve your desired consistency.
