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If you’re decorating with kids, it helps to assemble the houses the day before, so they are fully stable and ready to pile on the candy. Here’s my completely homemade gingerbread house recipe including how to bake, construct, and decorate with royal icing and buttercream. Everything can be prepared in advance, see my make ahead tip after the recipe instructions.
More gingerbread house tips that make your project shine
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You can use leftover royal icing to pipe small details or follow this step-by-step guide of basic decorating techniques for extra-festive gingerbread folks. The right tools will make your construction project go much more smoothly. You’ll need a few baking basics like a rolling pin, parchment paper, a thin spatula, a sharp knife, and piping bags.
How to make a gingerbread house — and cute gingerbread people, too
It’s important that the butter and sugar are creamy at this stage, but the mix doesn’t have to be too fluffy. The icing is one of the trickiest parts to get right. This means it will stay sticky for longer, making more of a mess. We love the small star tip for making decorative dots and stars along with the house’s frame. Roll out the dough and use cutters to create the different star shapes.
Cut a sturdy base for your gingerbread house.
If you want to keep your house to decorate with year after year, a homemade gingerbread house could last for several years or more, if packed and stored carefully. Join the four pieces into a box with royal icing and position the notched pieces over the top of the roof and add icing to secure the chimney. Allow these to cool then remove and use some royal icing to attach them inside the window openings or your gingerbread house for a pretty stained glass look. A basic gingerbread kit will give you everything you need to make a house.
Tips
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations. See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
There are endless ways you can decorate your gingerbread houses! If you have decorating skills, you can pipe the royal icing in decorative patterns and swirls on the walls and roof of your house. Roll out the dough on a sheet of lightly floured parchment paper (so you can easily transfer it to a baking sheet later). Keep it at least 1/4" thick for strong walls. Lightly flour the surface of the dough and place your cutters or pattern pieces about 1" apart. Cut out all the shapes, then remove the excess dough between your pieces. By removing the excess rather than moving your cut pieces, you will avoid distorting the shapes, which can affect how well they’ll fit together.
Hold in place 1 to 2 minutes until icing starts to set. Use one to two jars or bottles for support underneath; allow to set 30 minutes. Attach front door, leaving slightly propped open; allow to set 30 minutes. In large bowl, beat royal icing ingredients with electric mixer on low speed until mixed. Change speed to high and beat 7 to 10 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally, until very stiff.
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Try using shredded wheat cereal to create a thatched roof, pretzel rods to form a log cabin or candy pebbles to make a stone facade. Your gingerbread house looks great as is, but if you want to add an extra element, build a chimney, adjoining room or window out of graham crackers. Use the crackers and icing to build a basic frame, and let dry. Then attach the addition to your house with icing.
Here’s how you make gingerbread dough and the pieces for the house:
With cutouts on pan, carefully replace pattern pieces on top of baked dough cutouts, and trim around edges; discard any trimmings, and remove pattern pieces. (Pan and dough will be hot.) Return cutouts to oven 4 to 6 minutes longer or until dry and lightly browned. Transfer parchment with cutouts to rack to cool completely.
The next step is to add the eggs (Image 6). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between. This will ensure that the eggs mix in properly. This is such a key ingredient for a classic gingerbread dough! Make sure to use “fancy molasses”, as it has a sweet flavor with deep molassey and slightly acidic flavors. Next, add icing to the bottom of the back panel and press it against the sides of the house and the bottom of the platter.
We are making it again this year as well. I found it helpful to weigh the dough into 20 oz chunks, pat into squares, and wrap individually before refrigerating. That way, you can take out a square of cold dough and roll it out for each slab. I've had a complicated "situationship" with this classic dish, but finally have a recipe I love.
You’ll need to read the label of each one you buy to make sure it’s edible. However, most gingerbread house kits are intended to be consumed. That means that everything inside the kit, from the gingerbread itself to the candy and icing, is safe to consume. Hold it high over the house and gently shake allowing the sugar to fall onto the roof of the gingerbread house.
Dough will roll out better after a rest of at least 2 hours, so do this step ahead if possible. Though the list is long, ingredients called for are standard. For the few that are not, we’ve included notes to help you find what you need (or hack another solution). As for equipment, you probably have most of what’s needed, particularly if you bake often. Graham crackers are the ultimate shortcut to making a cute house design.
It will stick to your counter no matter how much you flour it. Royal icing is used to attach decorations and hold together walls and roof together. Mix up a batch using the instructions below. Raid the cake decorating aisle of your craft store or the candy aisle of your grocery store to find decorations. We used the items below to decorate our house, but let your creativity guide you. Pantry staples can add a lot of visual impact to your gingerbread house.
I use less cloves because I find ground cloves can easily overpower the gingerbread house flavors. After the gingerbread house is fully decorated, give it a dusting of snow! This makes it look like a snowy cottage and is the final touch in creating a beautiful gingerbread house. The icing makes a huge difference when decorating a house and gives it extra stability. This recipe is the best icing for building and decorating.
You should now have all four walls assembled. Today’s comprehensive post will teach you everything you need to know about how to make a gingerbread house from scratch. First, you’ll get a construction quality gingerbread cookie house recipe that’s high altitude tested, and works at low altitudes, too.
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