Gingerbread house dough is a molasses and ginger cookie rolled a quarter inch thick, cut from seven paper templates and glued with royal icing. That makes it the Christmas project for a snowy afternoon with kids, a holiday party centerpiece or a gift, since one batch builds one house.
Check the roof templates against the walls before you bake anything. The gable is 7 inches tall on a 6 inch wall, so each slope measures about 7 5/8 inches. The roof pieces are cut 4 1/2 inches wide, which cannot reach.
This version also gives the walls a real night to harden instead of 30 minutes. It swaps the raw egg whites in the icing for meringue powder too, which the source warns about but never solves.
Gingerbread House
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Hard4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalA stiff molasses gingerbread rolled thin, cut to seven template shapes and baked flat, then assembled with piped royal icing and covered in candy. Makes one house on a cardboard base.
Ingredients
- For the Gingerbread:
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 1/4 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
- For the Royal Icing:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more as needed
2 egg whites, or 3 tablespoons meringue powder with 6 tablespoons water
- For Decorating:
Frosted shredded mini-wheats, for the roof
Mini Tootsie Rolls, for a fence
White Hershey Kisses, for roof spikes
Small candy canes, for a lamp post
Granulated sugar, for snow drifts
Necco Wafers, for a cobblestone path
3 large marshmallows, pretzel sticks and 2 whole cloves, for a snowman
Graham crackers, for a shed
Assorted candy such as gum drops, peppermint drops and M&M's
Directions
- Make the dough: Cream the butter smooth with the paddle, beat in the brown sugar until light, then add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the molasses and vanilla. Sift the cake flour with the ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves and salt, add it in batches on low, and stop as soon as it comes together. Shape into a thick disk, wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours.
- Cut the pieces: Draw and cut seven paper templates first. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease two cookie sheets. Halve the dough, roll each piece into a large sheet 1/4 inch thick, lift the sheets onto the pans, then cut the shapes in place and peel away the scraps.
- Bake and cool: Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until the pieces are stiff and toasty. Leave them on the pans to firm up for a few minutes, then cool completely flat. Warm gingerbread bends, so do not try to build with it.
- Make the royal icing: Whip the confectioners sugar with the egg whites, or with meringue powder and water, until it is thick and spreadable. Add more sugar if it slumps. Keep the bowl covered with a damp cloth, since it crusts over within minutes.
- Build and decorate: Pipe icing along the wall joints from the inside on a cardboard base, prop the walls with bottles and leave them overnight. Add the roof the next day, glue on the mini-wheats as thatching, then fix the door with icing hinges and decorate with the candy.
Notes
- Measure your templates before baking. A 7 inch gable on a 6 inch wall needs roof pieces about 7 5/8 inches wide, not 4 1/2. Calories are calculated from the dough and icing only, not the candy, and cover the whole house.
FAQs
Can I use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour?
Cake flour is low in protein, so it bakes tender and snaps easily under a roof. All-purpose builds a sturdier wall, and the swap works by weight rather than by cup. The 6 1/4 cups here is about 712 grams, which is roughly 5 3/4 cups of all-purpose.
Is the royal icing safe with raw egg whites?
The source flags the risk but leaves you to solve it, and the icing sits out for days while people pick at it. Meringue powder is the standard fix, using 3 tablespoons plus 6 tablespoons of water in place of the 2 whites. Pasteurized whites in a carton also work.
Why cut the shapes on the sheet pan?
Rolled gingerbread stretches badly when you lift it, so a wall cut on the counter arrives at the oven out of square. Transferring the sheet first and cutting in place keeps every edge true. Peel the scraps away rather than lifting the pieces out.
Can I build it with young children?
Baking and assembly are an adult job, because hot pans and wobbly walls do not mix with small hands. Hand over the house once the icing has set hard and let them do the candy. For something they can build start to finish, there is this snowman cheese ball.
Can you actually eat a gingerbread house?
You can, though after a week on display it is dry and dusty and nobody really wants to. Treat it as a decoration and bake the scraps as cookies the same day. If you want gingerbread you will finish, these gingerbread waffles are the better route.
