So as promised, today’s post is about our first Gingerbread House in the The Flavor Bender household, and how we decorated it, along with the gingerbread house recipe and template! We have already decided that this is going to be a holiday tradition for us that we can build some fun memories around in the years to come! 🙂
Updated: December 2017
I first made this gingerbread house in 2014. We wanted to make one every year, but honestly we didn’t have the patience between making gingerbread cookies and waiting for the house to be decorated. It was easier to bake the gingerbread cookies, ice them and then just stuff our faces with ’em! Still, there’s something exciting and quintessentially Christmassy about decorating gingerbread houses with kids and all the people you love! 🙂
I’ve also realized that if I were to make a gingerbread house for a crowd, I may have to make TWO. One for the others to decorate, and the second just for me. My inner control freak will not let me rest otherwise. 🙂
The recipe I first made for gingerbread was from Sweetapolita, but since then I have changed my recipe considerably to suit my own tastes. This took lots of recipe testing but it was worth it because it’s perfect for me now! Plus I also to make sure that I have enough to make the entire house PLUS extra dough to make small cut out cookies too. Plus the scraps you end up with can also be baked and turned into these delicious gingerbread bourbon cookie truffles too!
So here goes. This is my workflow for making gingerbread houses.
Day one – Make the gingerbread dough in the morning. Roll and bake the gingerbread in the evening. (You can split this into two days too).
Day two – Make the royal icing “cement”. Stick the gingerbread walls and roof together. You will have to stick just two walls together first, and follow that with each section every hour or so. I used drinking glasses and boxes to keep the walls straight, until the “cement” dries up.
I colored a portion of the royal icing in different colors and frosted the cookie cut outs as well. This includes any Christmas trees, gingerbread men/women, gingerbread snowmen etc. These were left to dry up overnight as well.
Day three – This is the fun part! You get to decorate the gingerbread house however you like! If you placed the gingerbread house on a tray, you can decorate the whole landscape, or you can just decorate the house. Get more royal icing, candy and chocolate ready to decorate the house.
You can still check out how I decorated the gingerbread house I made in 2014, at the bottom of this post (after the recipe).
For the new gingerbread house that I made this time, I opted to go with minimal colors. You can definitely have multiple colors of royal icing, but I kept it mostly white (and I left out the chimney from the 2014 version of my gingerbread house too).
I used 3D royal icing to pipe windowsill “baskets” and filled them with sprinkles. I piped 3D flower beds for the front of the house, and filled them with sprinkles too (can you tell that I love sprinkles?).
For the roof, I created scalloped royal icing patterns that I brushed (like for royal icing brush embroidery). The icing sugar that was brushed on top creates the look of light snow fall too, which I think is a beautiful touch.
I decorated the outside of the house with white royal icing, and made these adorable 3D gingerbread cookies using the set here.
And of course our house wouldn’t be complete without the gingerbread versions of K and I right? 🙂
THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE TEMPLATE
Here’s the template that I used for the gingerbread house from pickyourownchristmastree.org.
The templates were printed on A4 sheets. The A4 sheets were glued onto cardboard and then cut out using a craft knife (or a pair of scissors).
You can change the shape and positions of the windows and doors however you like!
ROYAL ICING RECIPE
The royal icing recipe I used is included in this gingerbread house recipe below. I used TWO batches of the royal icing for this entire gingerbread house. I used the recipe just as is for the “cement”. But I mixed in a little water to thin it out as needed for decorating the cookie cut outs. Make sure to add only a little water at a time when you do this.
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Gingerbread Dough and Gingerbread House Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1.1 kg / 39 oz all purpose flour approximately 8.75 cups (spoon and leveled)
- 5 teaspoons cinnamon
- 6 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1.5 teaspoons allspice
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 285 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature 2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups butter or 10 oz)
- 255 g dark brown sugar light brown can be used too. (about 1 ¼ cup + 1 tbsp)
- 3 large eggs
- 1.5 cups unsulphered molasses 360 g
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 10 mL
Dusting Flour
- 1/2 cup flour 63 g
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Royal Icing
- 1/4 cup meringue powder
- 100 mL water
- 1 lb confectioner's sugar (icing sugar) sifted (it's important that it be sifted) about 4 cups
- A few drops of colorless flavoring (vanilla or lemon)
Instructions:
- In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients - 1 kg flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, salt, baking soda, cloves and nutmeg. Set aside the 100g of flour.
- You will need a stand mixer for this as there is a large amount of dough to handle. You can easily halve the recipe if you wish.
- With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes until fluffy and pale in color.
- Reduce the speed to medium and add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions.
- Add molasses and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.
- On stir speed (or low speed), add flour and mix until a dough is formed. You may need to use your hands to knead the dough at the end to make sure it's mixed well. Remove the dough from the bowl, and knead it gently a few times to form a smooth ball (dust the work surface with flour if necessary). Add the extra 100g flour only if the dough is too wet, and you require more.
- Divide the dough into 4 portions, and flatten each into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap (see photo in post).
- Chill all the discs of dough for at least 2 hours in the fridge (I keep it overnight).
- For the dusting flour - mix the flour and spices together and use this to dust the surface you will be rolling the cookies on. You can make more of the dusting flour (you will need more) as you need it (optional).
- Preheat oven to 325 F/170 C.
- Remove one dough disc and then remove the plastic wrap. Place this on a floured (with dusting flour) parchment paper and flour the top of the disc and roll out the dough with a rolling pin (use another parchment paper if the flour is sticking to the rolling pin). Make sure to flip the dough over half way through to smoothly and evenly roll it out. Keep it lightly dusted so that it doesn't stick to the surface.
- To ensure that you get an even thickness throughout the dough, use two 5 mm dowels on either side of the dough (or you can use rolling pin rings).
- Cut out the shapes of the gingerbread house. 1st portion - walls. 2nd portion - front and back. 3rd and 4th - roof. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the leftover scraps of dough. Cut the windows and doors from the gingerbread house pieces, but do not remove them - this is because the dough expands as it bakes. I prefer to cut them out after they have been baked.
- Knead the scraps to form a rough disc and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and reuse.
- Place the cookies on a cookie tray (lined with parchment paper) with 1 1/2 inches of space between them. Transfer to the freezer for another 10 -15 minutes, or the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake in the oven.
7 minutes for smaller cookies.
10 - 12 minutes for the walls and front and back.
15 - 18 minutes for the roof. (Longer for larger pieces like the roof or walls). Bake in the oven until the edges JUST start to brown. - Cool the cookies on the tray for about 20 minutes and transfer them to the cooling tray to finish cooling.
- Using a sharp knife or craft cutter, cut out the doors and windows of the gingerbread house, while it's still fairly warm on the tray.
- I left the larger cookies on the cookie tray to cool down completely.
- Use royal icing or melted chocolate to stick the pieces of the house together. If you use royal icing, you will need to leave it to dry for at least 8 hours at room temperature, until it completely hardens up. I keep it for 24 hours.
Royal Icing
- Make sure you use the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, or mixer attachment of your hand mixer to make this royal icing. You do not want to incorporate too much air.
- Place the meringue powder and water together in a bowl. Whisk together until foamy.
- Add the sifted confectioner's sugar (1/3 at a time to prevent a sugar storm!), and mix on low until all of it is incorporated. Mix on medium-high until the royal icing becomes thick and glossy.
- Keep mixing until the royal icing forms stiff peaks. Add the flavoring and mix to combine. Stop immediately after you mix in the flavoring. Place the royal icing in a bowl or in a pastry bag. If you place the royal icing in a bowl, cover the surface completely with plastic wrap to avoid crusting.
- To color royal icing - portion the royal icing and mix in a few drops of the color(s) you prefer. To thin out the royal icing - portion the royal icing that you need. Mix in a small spoonful of water a time, until you get the desired consistency. If it get's too thin, you can fix this by adding a little sifted confectioner's sugar.
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
These are the details of the gingerbread house that I decorated the first time around in 2014 –
My husband suggested Christmas lights, so we piped colorful lights all along the edges of the roof.
I even piped a Christmas wreath on the front door of our gingerbread house.
So what lessons did I learn from my first gingerbread house?
- Patience young grasshopper, patience! Especially when it comes to decorating the cookies with royal icing. I also need more practice in terms of flooding the cookies with icing and spreading it out to make it look neater.
- You need quite a bit of confectioner’s sugar on hand and a few mixing bowls (I used my coffee mugs) to mix in colours.
- Buy extra candies, but stay away from anything cherry flavoured. I had forgotten how much I hate artificial cherry flavoured life savers. They taste too much like cough syrup. More gummy snakes and MnMs please!
- I might use a thicker base board next time. Mostly because it was harder to move the gingerbread house around for pictures later on.
british guy taylor says
the flour is cool! I love the dusting flower!!! xoxo from the british
Annie says
I loved your design. Looks fantastic.
I live in Australia and use Golden Syrup in my gingerbread. We can buy molasses here but syrup is not as strong in flavour. This may be worth a try for those who don’t like the molasses flavour.
Merry Christmas to you all!
Joelle says
Making gingerbread houses is a tradition in my home since we have kids, so 5 years in a row now. It might be a lot of work, but it is one of our favorite holiday traditions. The pre-made kits just don’t cut it and you can get so creative when you make it from scratch. It’s the one day a year that I get to see my husband’s creative side. I use your recipe every year and it doesn’t disappoint. This year I plan to make a lighthouse! My 5 year old asks me everyday if today is the day we get to make gingerbread houses! I like the 3 day method of baking, architecture, and decorating!
Grandma non chef says
I had no idea it was so involved.
Brought the kit a few yrs ago, may just put in inheritance box. You got starsvfor such a good blog
Linda Havens says
Very detailed instruction so I think they will be easy to follow.
I made one many years ago for my daughter when she was 5 so now it is time to make one for her son who is 4.
He want to decorate the roof with Mashmellows
will leave another review once house is completed
Crissy says
We’re in the UK. What other name is there for unsulphered molasses? I am guessing treacle is too strong but not sure what else is equivalent. Please advise. Thanks!
Madalene says
Can you freeze this recipe and for how long will it last
Dini says
Hi Madalene
Baked gingerbread can be frozen, but will need to wrapped well and frozen on a sheet pan / air tight container to prevent them from breaking in the freezer. They will also be quite soft once thawed as well. I haven’t personally frozen them for too long, but they should be ok for about 1 month.
The dough can also be frozen, wrapped well to prevent freezer burn. This can be frozen for about 2 months (maybe more, but I haven’t tried it). But both (dough and baked cookies) need to thawed before working with it.
SpliffanysKitchen says
Great recipe . Easy to make worked well and I ground all fresh spices but the flavor is amazing .
Naomi says
Unfortunately the molasses flavour was so strong my kids wouldn’t eat this gingerbread and even my husband and I didn’t really want to, so we ended up throwing it all out. I followed the recipe closely (360g molasses) but it was so overpowering! Love the house you designed and your decorations – its just the gingerbread itself that we didn’t like.
Dini says
Hi Naomi,
I’m sorry the molasses flavor was overwhelming, but this is due to the type of molasses you used. It sounds like you used blackstrap molasses? I used unsulphured molasses here (called Fancy molasses in Canada), and in the US and Canada, this type of unsulphered molasses is used specifically for baking, and it works perfectly for this gingerbread recipe.
But I know in NZ and Australia, it’s blackstrap molasses that is widely available and this can be strong and overwhelming for some. You may have to look for a type of molasses that’s recommended for baking. Here’s an article that shows how different the taste and texture of a dough is when using blackstrap molasses.
I hope that helps!
Kristy Stanley says
I’m in Australia and replaced the molasses for golden syrup
Asail says
This recipe worked out perfectly for us. I was doing this with 3 kids, and with 1 batch of the recipe we were able to make a house with the template provided, plus 3 smaller houses, plus a bunch of cookies! It tastes great, and holds up really well for the structure. I did not want to use meringue powder, so i used a different royal icing recipe though. Fyi, for those of you with legos lying around the house, the flat pieces measure exactly 5mm thick. So i used those as my guides for rolling instead of dowels and it worked great!
Afton says
This looks amazing! I’m wondering how many houses one could make out of this recipe? My husband and I both want to make our own houses, so I need to make enough dough for two.
Dini says
Hi Afton
This makes enough for 1 house, with leftover to make gingerbread people and trees to decorate the house.
I would personally make double this amount to make two houses, with plenty leftover to make other shapes (or to have extra to fix anything I might mess up!). Or at least 1.5 , to have maybe just enough for 2 houses.
I hope that helps
Shauna Morris says
Hi, I have decided to try to make a gingerbread house for the first time this year. I really like your recipe and am excited to try it. What I was wondering was how thick should I roll out the dough as I don’t have dowels or things for my rolling pin.
Dini says
Hi Shauna
The dowels that I used were about 5mm, so that’s how thick the dough should be rolled out 🙂
I hope that helps! Let me know how the gingerbread house comes out!
Candice says
Super recipe!
No says
What are the dimensions???
Dini says
Hi,
The link to the template is already provided in the post which includes the dimensions. I hope that helps!
gina says
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I just made this and it was fantastic. Very good directions, time consuming but very easy to make. And it tasted delicious. Very sturdy product. The outside was strong and slightly hard while the inside was soft. This will now be my go-to gingerbread house recipe!!
Tati says
My sister did it for our family during our vacation in Brazil. We took photos and videos of it for 30 min and then we could not stop eating the ginger bread. So delicious and incredibly strong cement!!
Dini says
Thank you so much for letting me know Tati! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed the gingerbread house! 🙂
Steph says
Fantastic recipe, thank you. Was a great success with the family over Christmas
Samantha says
The gingerbread house recipe is great perfect blend of soft and crunchy. I adjusted it for what I had but you forgot to mention the chill time. I planning to use this recipe next year.
Dini says
Hi Samantha, I’m so glad you liked the recipe! 🙂 The chill times are already mentioned in multiple steps in the recipe, however.
Ana says
I made my first gingerbread house ever with this recipe. I was great. Thank you so much!
Dini says
Yay, I’m so glad your first gingerbread house came out well Ana! 🙂 Thank you for letting me know.
June Simpson says
Hi Dini, I have used your wonderful recipe for the first time today. I made gingerbread men etc. Beautifully crisp once they’re cooled. Nice and spicy though I added a tsp of cardamon just as a personal preference on the spice blend. This is now my gingerbread go to recipe.
Dini says
Thank you so much for letting me know June! So glad you liked the recipe! 🙂
Teresa King says
Hello, I am in the process of making your ginger bread house. Gould you please tell me what i do with the 4 small cut outs as i cant see what you have done with them??
Dini says
Hi Teresa!
The 4 cut outs are for the chimney. It sticks to the side of the roof. There’s another gingerbread house image at the bottom of the post (below the recipe) where I did add the chimney. So you can see how it sticks to the roof. I hope that helps 🙂
Haylie Stoddard says
My dough won’t coagulate no matter how much flour I put in! What am I doing wrong?!
Dini says
Hi Haylie!
How much flour have you added so far? Are you using a kitchen scale to weigh the flour?
Alma Westlake village says
This entry is great fun — my granddaughters and I made our gingerbread house last weekend . After several years of abstinance. It was more fun to renew the custom.
Lisa says
Trying this for the first time. My dough turned out great! Just wondering how long it is edible in house form? Would like my kids to have a demolition party after Christmas with their friends to eat some if it’s still edible.
Dini says
Hi Lisa!
Ours lasted for a few days, and it could potentially last up to 1 week. However, because it’s exposed, it does become stale rather quickly. If you want to keep it for longer, then I highly recommend spreading some melted chocolate on top of all the cookies (before making the house and decorating), so that the chocolate will keep it fresher.
I hope that helps!
Lisa says
Quick confusion about sugar! your instructions say to cream the butter and sugarS (like there should be more than one) but I only see brown sugar in the ingredients list. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Dini says
Hi Lisa!
It’s just brown sugar 🙂 The extra s is a typo. Thank you for pointing that out too!
Cheers,
Dini
Sarah says
This was such a wonderful recipe! My first ever homemade ginger bread house, and will always make this my go to recipe! Thank you so much! Plus the formatting of this website and recipe was so easy an aesthetic to use. However maybe I would add the work day flow into your recipe if it fits!
Dini says
Hi Sarah!
I’m so glad that the gingerbread house came out well 🙂
Adding the work flow is a fantastic idea, and I will definitely incorporate that to the post too! Thank you for that great tip.
Cheers,
Dini
Julie says
So I’m giving gingerbrwad a try for the forst time and didn’t realize the significant difference between molasses and unsulphered molasses. My gingerbread is almost black, hoping the flavour is okay.
Jeanette says
I am pretty confused about the flour here. 1.1 kg is about 7 cups of flour and that seems astronomical, is this correct?
Dini says
Hi Jeanette!
This is for the entire house + extra cut out cookies that you can use to decorate the outside of the house. I portion the dough into 4, so it is easier to cut each of the sections needed for the house, and the scraps were used for smaller cookies.
You can reduce the recipe by 1/4th (only make 75% of the recipe) and make just the house, but I always use this amount because we like having the extra cookies.
Also, 1 cup is usually 125g, so by my calculations you will need at least 8 cups. But I don’t recommend going by cups as the weight of flour can vary too much. Hope that helps.
Tiffany Bendayan says
This Gingerbread House looks lovely! It was chosen as our favorite in our Sunday Recipe Wrap Up Linky! Thanks for participating!
Dini says
Thank you Tiffany! 🙂 Cant wait to check out the recipe link ups this week!
Lou Lou Girls says
I totally love this! Pinned and tweeted. We appreciate you taking the time to stop by our party. We love partying with you! I hope to see you on Monday at 7 pm. Happy Saturday! Lou Lou Girls
Sarah @ Sarah's Kitchen says
This really is the most beautiful Gingerbread House I’ve ever seen!
WOW!
Petra says
What a beautiful gingerbread house you have made! I can’t believe the amount of work and attention to details, stunning 🙂
chitrajagdish says
Wow that ginger bread house looks mind blowing….. you are an artist Dini. .. fabulous
Judi Graber says
Giramuk – your first gingerbread house is so pretty and I am happy to hear you will make this an annual tradition. Such a fun thing to share with family and as you know was a big part of my life for a long time! I will look forward to your future creations 🙂
Dini says
Thank you Judi! I did publish it in the end! Your post inspired me to keep to my word and I hope one day I will have a collection of gingerbread houses just like yours!! (Although I admit maybe when there are kids around, I might make an extra gingerbread house just for me to decorate!)
sue obryan says
Wow is that ever one perfect looking house!
Dini says
Thank you Sue! The Royal icing does help to cover up some of the flaws!! 😀 hahaha!!!
Hilda says
You have some lovely details in this house, which really make it stand out.
Dini says
Thank you Hilda! 🙂 I do like decorating and love using any chance to practice!
Sadia says
Woow! You are an artist. How did you get this house soo perfect. Love it.
Dini says
Thank you so much Sadia! 😀 Honestly this was my first time so I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would turn out ok! :)I even forgot to take pictures of me “constructing” the house!
Julie @ HostessAtHeart says
Wow! I’ve made several gingerbread houses in my day, but they were a bit more rustic. Your house looks professional! Just beautiful!
Dini says
Aw Thank you Julie!! I don’t know about professional! I did get a little possessive about the decorating though! 🙂
Angie says
So adorable!!
Dini says
Thank you Angie 🙂
Loretta says
How absolutely beautiful! Love to see the array of gingerbread houses around the holidays, and yours is stunning!
Dini says
Thank you Loretta! I was inspired by all the gingerbread houses I did see! I knew I just had to make one too! 🙂
Sandhya says
Wow! Gorgeous House!
Dini says
Thank you Sandhya! 🙂
Ganu says
I love the gingerbread house!!!! So much detail and its gorgeous! 🙂 Wish i was there to help you eat it all but I feel like its too pretty to eat 😛
Dini says
Thank you! 🙂 We could’ve used some help finishing it! Next time we’re in the same country we can do it together :p