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Foodie Events / Restaurants

The Food Network’s Gingerbread Queen Is From The Woodlands Area — Local Baker Keeps a Six Month, $10,000 Secret

Heather Brookshire Impresses the Christmas Cookie Judges and Brings Home The Golden Ornament

BY // 12.03.24

Cottage baker Heather Brookshire of The Woodlands area won the Golden Christmas Ornament and a $10,000 prize on The Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge show for her gingerbread French market and cookies. The show taped back in April, but Brookshire kept the secret until the episode aired in late November.

“This was definitely the earliest I’ve ever filmed for a Christmas show, and the longest I’ve had to keep a secret,” Brookshire tells PaperCity The Woodlands “And this was the hardest one to keep, because I finally won.”

This victory comes after Brookshire made three previous appearances on The Food Network (and one other stint as an alternate). Brookshire didn’t think gingerbread was the direction she’d go this year, but it turned out to be her winning move.

“I kind of said to myself this year I kind of want to go and do Christmas video challenge,” Brookshire says. “It’ll be fun. Something a little bit different because I’ve done gingerbread shows before. And then the producers caught wind that I was Gingerbread, and they said ‘We want you for this show.’ ”

Brookshire beat out three other gingerbread experts in Season 8’s third episode with her French-themed Marketplace. Bakers were tasked with creating North Pole Christmas market displays out of gingerbread, that measured 18″ x 36,” with three booths or carts, in six hours.

Heather Brookshire, Joseph Daigle, Katlin Pfropper and Sean Henry were the contestants on Food Network's gingerbread showdown. (Photo courtesy of The Food Network)
Heather Brookshire, Joseph Daigle, Katlin Pfropper and Sean Henry were the contestants on Food Network’s gingerbread showdown. (Photo courtesy of The Food Network)

A Baking Natural

Baking has always been Brookshire’s passion, starting with a Wilton decorating class at age 12.

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“I’ve known for a long time what I wanted to be, and so I went to culinary school straight out of high school,” she says. “The program that I took was only about six months long. So I had my first in a bakery job at 18.

Brookshire went to Houston’s Le Nôtre Culinary Institute. She completed a fast-track pastry program and in 20 weeks was off to her first bakery. Her second stop in Houston was in Bellaire.

“I was at Le Duc Gourmet Bakery,” Brookshire says. “That was really interesting experience. We were a true United Nations, because there were like 11 of us, and between us there were six different languages spoken. It was a Vietnamese couple whose parents were raised in Canada, and then they came here and started their bakery.

“And because Vietnam was part of France for a little while, that’s where they got their influence for French desserts.”

Houston’s Three Brothers Bakery was next.

“I was there for five and a half years and eventually became the managing decorator there,” Brookshire says.  “And then I met my husband and moved up to this side of town and started my own cottage bakery.”

Gingerbread has always been Brookshire’s favorite.

“That’s my first love,” she notes. “When I was a freshman in high school, I decorated my first gingerbread house. I got one of those Wilton kits from Michael’s, and put it together. They were running  an online contest. So I put together their kit and I made a little fruit stand out of it. So it was never a traditional house.

“And then I started baking them, probably my junior year,  and doing them a little bit more extravagant.”

The inspiration for her winning design of a Merry Mistletoe Market came from a French bakery’s gift boxes, with United States locations in the New York metro area, Miami and Beverly Hills.

Heather Brookshire’s Christmas Market on Christmas Cookie Challenge
Contestant Heather Brookshire’s Winning creation of a French Christmas Market “Merry Mistletoe Market, as seen on Christmas Cookie Challenge, Season 8, episode 3. (Photo courtesy of Food Network)

“There’s a particular bakery in France called Ladurée, and they’re really well known for their macarons, and for their branding,” Brookshire says.”And the way that they have very ornate pastel boxes with gold embellishments are on it. So that was really where I took a lot of my inspiration from because I love it so much.”

For The Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge show, Brookshire baked the gingerbread at home, and brought two 75 pound suitcases with her to the show in California. Once the taping started, bakers worked to decorate and assemble their structures.

“I really want to show the judges my piping skill, so I’m going to decorate my toy booth, ornament booth and cart with vintage-style piping to really make it look elegant and to evoke the French aesthetic that I’m going for,” Brookshire explains during the episode. “Next, I’m going to work on the wares that will be displayed in my booth.”

The show didn’t unfold without hiccups. At the three hour mark, the judges asked for a dozen gingerbread cookies to be presented with the market as well. Brookshire had some mishaps with her gingerbread, but she easily recovered from some ill-timed gingerbread breaks.

The episode will repeat several times on The Food Network, and is available to stream on MAX.

Want to learn cookie making and decorating from a winning TV baker?  You’re in luck. Brookshire offers classes at Beans and Brews on 2920 in Spring throughout the year, along with fellow baker and friend Kim Sims.

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