Sunday, April 28, 2024

How to make a gingerbread house and cute gingerbread people, too

ginger bread house

It’s also the glue adhering any candies to the walls and roof. As you can see in these photos, I covered the roof with royal icing before piping the buttercream on. As the royal icing dried, it gently dripped off the sides and looked like snow. This template will give you a small-medium house that’s totally approachable. I find large houses difficult to construct and decorate.

How to make a gingerbread house — and cute gingerbread people, too

Use your cookie cutters to make different shapes that you can also stick on or in front of your gingerbread house. Here, I used royal icing that was piped on top of each other to create 3D structures like these 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?). My advice is to find a cooler part of your home and allow the icing to harden there. To speed things up, use a hair dryer on its cool setting and on high speed and use the cool air to dry out the royal icing.

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You can even do this the day before, to save time. But if you do love a sweet gingerbread cookie, then decorating the cookie with royal icing will add that extra layer of sweetness to it. A tried-and-true Easy Gingerbread House recipe with a gingerbread house template and tips on how to construct and decorate it. Leave a small (2cm is fine) border around the scores edges 4. Doing this method is better than cutting the dough to the exact template as you will prevent the edges from spreading.

Gingerbread House

Alyssa Rivers is the author of 'The Tried and True Cookbook', a professional food photographer and experienced recipe-developer. Having a passion for cooking, her tried and true recipes have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Food, Buzzfeed and more. All the house and chimney templates will fit on one 20” x 15” sheet pan. You can use 2 smaller 13” x 9” pans if you do not have a large sheet pan.

Due to the strong flavors in gingerbread dough, vanilla isn’t necessary. You can use white sugar instead of brown sugar, but I love the additional molassey flavor and dark brown color it lends to the dough. I use less cloves because I find ground cloves can easily overpower the gingerbread house flavors. The whole scene glistens with a fresh dusting of Sparkling Sugar. To the modern cook, making a gingerbread house may seem nearly as daunting as building a real house. But, like dyeing Easter eggs, it’s a rewarding, hands-on way to connect to holiday traditions of the past.

Bake

The best part is that it brings the whole household together for a fun and festive project. Sign up for my free recipe newsletter to get new recipes in your inbox each week! Find me sharing more inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram. If needed, place an item to prop up the overhang while the icing hardens and the roof sticks securely. Repeat with the other side of the roof and provide support as it dries as well. Place the roof pieces, making sure one edge is lined up with the top of the roof.

ginger bread house

You can find exact measurements below in the recipe card. Some of my favorite memories around Christmastime are making homemade gingerbread houses with my Mom. We loved shopping for all of the fun candy we wanted to decorate with and we’d usually pick a friend, neighbor or special teacher to make one for. 😊 Just make sure the gingerbread, frosting, and candy are properly handled with clean hands, and the house was covered while being completed. It’s also crucial to use meringue powder to make royal icing.

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I’ve had success with decorating mine right away, but do what works best for you. To add the roof panels, pipe icing along the top of the walls. Place the roof panels and support them while the icing sets (again, only a few minutes if you’re using royal icing). Finish with a thick line of icing along the top where the roof panels meet. Allow the icing to fully set in a dry place before adding decorations. This could take a few hours, or overnight.

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Before you begin, find a base to put the house on. Your gingerbread house will be 5-1/2 inches wide and 6-1/2 inches long. You can use a cardboard cake board, a serving tray, or just cut a foam board from the dollar store.

There will be an overhang off the side of the wall. The gingerbread should just start to darken at the edges, and then you know it’s done. OR, you have the option of removing the scrap dough, and baking just the shapes you need (Image 27).

However, you will need to make half a batch at a time and be gentle with incorporating the flour to make the dough. You can either use a thick royal icing or melted chocolate for this. I use meringue powder so this makes it safer for anyone to eat. However, you can also use egg whites instead of meringue powder and water.

Step 17 – Assembling the side walls of the gingerbread house. Choose the base on which you will build the gingerbread house. A cake board works well, but you can also use anything else that is food-safe and flat for a flat surface.

I found once baked, they were hard enough, that if you wanted to use them once cooled, you probably could. Agree with others - cut the gingerbread after it comes out of the oven, while it is still soft. I waited the 5 days the instructions suggest and my cuts were not clean, plus I had a corner crumble because the gingerbread was too hard by that point. It helps to use a small paring knife to trace out the template on the gingerbread after it's baked, then make clean cuts with a larger knife. I am in the process of trying this for the first time.

Add the sugar a little at a time, on the lowest speed, to prevent the sugar from flying off while mixing. The first step is to whisk the meringue powder and water together until there are no lumps, and it’s frothy. Add the cream of tartar as well and whisk until you have a foamy mixture. If there are any edges that are not straight, don’t worry! You can use royal icing to fill and straighten the edges, or you can use a micro planer to carefully shave off excess cookie on the sides (Image 28).

I don’t like licorice, so I don’t use it, but it can be used to decorate the house. Larger candy bars might be harder to incorporate, but you can use fun size candy bars for your house too. Finish off your house design with some landscaping. Decorate happy little gingerbread people to complete the scene. 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. In a moment of wine-fuelled festivity, I offered to host a gingerbread house decorating party for friends.

Being show-off, competitive types, most of them insisted on decorating their own house. Keeping the recipe, I scaled the dimensions; it made enough for one 6x6 house and four 4x4 houses (w/a wee bit left over for snacking & spare parts). The dough and gingerbread is very forgiving!

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