This gingerbread house recipe includes the recipes for gingerbread cookie dough and the royal icing along with the measurements for the house template that you’ll need to make this house a success. A gingerbread house can look very intimidating at first, especially if you’re a beginner or have had failed attempts in the past. I’ve got this very detailed guide with all troubleshooting tips to help you make this a success. This model is a labor of love but is definitely doable with some patience and planning. You can either eat this house or use it for your Christmas decorations from November end through mid January or until winter lasts!
Ingredients you’ll need:
- All purpose flour: I highly recommend weighing all your ingredients using a kitchen scale for accurate recipe results. If you’re using cups, don’t scoop your cup into the flour. Spoon the flour into your cup and level it off with the back of a knife. You can also use whole wheat flour instead, but the cookies will be more dense.
- Leaveners: To ensure that these cookies get puffed up and get those crinkly tops, you will need to add baking soda to them.
- Ground ginger: You will need ground ginger to add to these cookies. Spices help to add a warm flavour to baked goods making them perfect for the cozy weather.
- Ground cinnamon: You will need ground cinnamon to add to these cookies. Spices help to add a warm flavour to baked goods making them perfect for the cozy weather.
- Ground nutmeg: A small amount of nutmeg along with cinnamon helps to bring out its flavours even more and add depth to them. I don’t recommend leaving this out.
- Ground cloves or cardamom: A pinch of ground cloves or ground cardamom helps to enhance the flavour of all these spices and goes very well with these cookies.
- All spice powder: You will need all-spice powder to add to these cookies. Spices help to add a warm flavour to baked goods making them perfect for the cozy weather.
- Kosher salt: Adding a pinch of salt helps to balance out the flavours in the cookies. I have added sea salt for a little extra flavour however you can use normal iodised salt too.
- Unsalted Butter: It is very important to have your butter at room temperature. You can ensure this by lightly pressing your finger on the block of butter. It should slightly leave an imprint. I also prefer to use unsalted butter because salted butters have varying amounts of salt content in them and it is always a good idea to add it on your own and avoid your bakes from being too salty.
- Dark Brown Sugar: Adding a higher amount of brown sugar as compared to granulated sugar adds a richer texture, chewiness and moistness to your cookies. I highly recommend using dark brown sugar as it has a higher content of molasses and thus give a more well rounded flavour to these cookies when combined with homemade molasses.
- Granulated Sugar: This will help to add sweetness and also give structure to your cookies.
- Eggs: Use large eggs and bring it to room temperature before mixing in. Eggs strengthen the binding of your muffins and also add moisture. Having your eggs at room temperature makes it easier to incorporate them and allow them to mix thoroughly in your cookie dough. A good way of doing this is by letting them sit in a bowl filled with room temperature water for around 10 minutes or until they come down to room temperature.
- Vanilla: You must use a high quality pure vanilla extract in your recipes. This helps to add a rich flavor to your baked goods. Pure vanilla extracts are typically dark brown in color. This enhances the flavor of all ingredients and you should never leave this out.
- Molasses: You can make homemade molasses to make this recipe. If using molasses, be sure to use unsulphured molasses and not blackstrap molasses.
- Powdered Sugar: You will need powdered of confectioners’ sugar to add to your royal icing. It mixes in like a breeze and leaves no grainy lumps at all!
FAQ
1. Start with making the templates.
2. Prepare and chill the dough on the first day.
3. Roll out the dough and cut out pieces using the templates on day two.
4. Bake these pieces and allow to cool completely.
5. Prepare the royal icing as they cool.
6. Once cooled, decorate them as desired and allow to sit until the the icing hardens.
7. On day 3, start assembling the house and support each edge with mugs, cups, glasses etc. on each side to prevent the house from falling off.
8. Allow the icing to set and harden before attaching another edge.
9. Dust the house with powdered sugar for a snowy effect. Enjoy!
All the measurements mentioned here are in the format width x height. You can use either a piece of cardboard or parchment paper to make these templates. The front and back of the house are 2 large rectangles of 22cm x 12cm each. All windows are of the size 5cm x 6cm and start by leaving 3 cm at the bottom. The front rectangle has a door of 4cm x 9cm. The sides of the house contain two parts: the triangle on top and the bottom. The bottom part if of size 12cm x 12cm. The triangle on top has a base of 12 cm and the other two edges of 13.5 cm. The roof is made of two rectangle of size 22cm x 13.5cm each. The chimney is made of size 3cm x 4cm.
If you plan to eat the gingerbread house, I recommend storing it in an airtight container or somewhere covered/indoors to prevent it from sitting and collecting dust throughout the day. Otherwise, gingerbread houses are very sturdy and have very long shelf lives and can even last for years.
You can preserve a gingerbread house to last many years. If you would like to do this get some craft varnish or polyurethane. Let the Gingerbread House fully dry out for a number of days before spraying the inside and outside with multiple coats.
Tips to make the best gingerbread house:
- Measure the flour carefully. Too much flour in the mix is the number one reason why cookie recipes fail. Excess flour makes cookies {and most other baked goods} dry and prevents them from spreading in the oven. Carefully spoon your flour into the measuring cup and then level it off with the flat edge of a knife. Whatever you do, don’t scoop the flour directly from the bag or container with the measuring cup as it causes the flour to be packed in too tightly.
- Do not hold back on the spices. I know, a teaspoon ground ginger and adding along some cinnamon, nutmeg and all-spice might sound a lot at first and leave you holding back from adding them. I get it that you’re sceptical. Trust me friends, they blend in so well in these cookies and give them the perfectly cozy winter flavours you’re looking for!
- Do not over bake. For those soft, gooey centers be sure to pull the cookies from the oven when the edges are set and golden brown and the center of the cookie is puffed and pale. The middle of the cookies might seem slightly under baked but the residual heat from the pan will continue to bake the cookies once they are removed from the oven. Once the cookies cool they will have perfectly soft and chewy centers.
- Decorate first. Decorate the gingerbread house panels before you put the house together. This makes it much easier to decorate as the panels are flat as well as stops any accidents happening by applying pressure to the house.
- Use royal icing. Gingerbread houses need royal icing to glue them together as it will set like concrete. One your icing has dried there is no chance your house will fall apart.
- Assemble in stages. Start with the four walls and let them completely dry before trying to add the weight of the roof.
- Support the house. Use supports as much ass possible. Anything works here – glasses, mugs or tins of food. Support the house completely until the royal icing dries.
How to get the best results from this recipe?
All of the recipes on the blog are thoroughly tested multiple times and carefully designed so that anyone can reproduce these delicious baked good in their own kitchen and enjoy them to the fullest. The only way to make this possible is when anyone can exactly replicate the measurements and temperatures.
- In order to standardise the way ingredients are measured, I highly recommend that you weigh them in grams. Volume measurements are nearly not as accurate and have a lot of scope for errors. To precisely be able to replicate the recipes, all you will need is a kitchen scale!
- Every oven heats up differently. Your oven might be over heating or under heating by around 50 degrees or more and you might not even know. In order to ensure that you are baking at the right temperatures, I highly recommend investing in an oven thermometer!
If you would still like to bake using volume measurements, I mentioned those below. However, I primarily test my recipes in grams and cannot promise the best results if you do so. Trust me, once you’ll start using these tools you’d never want to go back!
I hope you’ll enjoy this Gingerbread House Recipe this Christmas and don’t forget to bookmark it for the holidays.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
PrintGingerbread House Recipe
- Total Time: 15 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 1 gingerbread house 1x
Description
This gingerbread house recipe includes the recipes for gingerbread cookie dough and the royal icing along with the measurements for the house template that you’ll need to make this house a success.
Ingredients
GINGERBREAD COOKIES
- 438g (3½ cups) all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 145g (⅔ cup) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 150g (¾ cup) packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 160ml (⅔ cup) homemade or unsulphured molasses
- 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
ROYAL ICING
- 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 480g (4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar, optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, beat on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add in the egg, molasses and vanilla extract. Beat again until combined. The mixture will now be light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, all spice powder, ground cloves, baking soda and kosher salt.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients about 4-5 tablespoons at a time and beat on low speed until combined. Repeat until all dry ingredients are added. The cookie dough will be slightly thick. Don’t over mix the dough.
- Wrap the cookie dough in a plastic wrap and place in an airtight container. Chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for atleast 3 hours and upto 2 days.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Meanwhile, line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll each disc of dough until it’s 1/4” thick. Cut out cookies using the templates for your gingerbread house. For dimensions to make your own template, see FAQs above.
- Place the cookies 1” apart on the prepared sheets and chill in the freezer for 15 minutes so that they hold their shape while baking. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms and edges are lightly browned. Let cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, and then move the cookies to a wire rack to completely cool.
- While the gingerbread bakes in the oven and cools make the royal icing which will be used to decorate the gingerbread house and stick it together.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a medium sized bowl if you are using a hand mixer add the egg whites, cream of tartar and powdered sugar.
- Beat on medium speed for about 5-8 minutes until it is thick and bright white. Transfer it to a piping bag immediately to stop it from drying out.
- Decorate all the gingerbread house pieces. This is much easier to do now while the pieces are flat instead of building the gingerbread house first. There are many different decorating designs for gingerbread houses so you can copy what I’ve done or have a quick search on google for some ideas.
- Leave the decorated gingerbread pieces for about 6 hours to completely harden before building the house. This allows the icing to harden completely so it wont get smudged.
- To build you gingerbread house start with the four walls. Pipe lines of royal icing down each side and stick the pieces together using cups / mugs / tins or whatever you can find to support the house until the icing dries.
- Leave for about four hours for the icing to harden and dry before attaching the roof.
- Finish off with the chimney, piping each of the sides with royal icing and sticking them together on the roof. Be as careful as you can assembling the house as there is nothing more devastating than it falling apart. This is why it’s so important to let the walls dry before adding the weight of the roof.
- Finish the gingerbread house off with adding the remaining royal icing as snow to the base of the house and adding a few more decorations like cinnamon sticks as logs of wood or gingerbread men in the snow.
- This is where you can get super creative and put your own spin on it. I always finish off with a dusting of powdered sugar to give the look of fresh snow.
- Prep Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Gingerbread, Christmas
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: gingerbread house recipe
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