Tips for Gingerbread House Decorations
This gingerbread house making project requires a trip to the candy section of your local grocery store. You can decorate your house with whatever types of candy please you. Be careful taking kids along to the store, however, as you will invariably buy more candy than you actually need (though they do have the best ideas of what candies would be good for various decorative effects). Red hots are really practical, as are small gumdrops, and candy canes. Chocolate truffles can be used to create a stone wall around the house, and waffle-patterned cookies can be used for roof tiles. Pipe royal icing to make decorative designs around the walls of the house and roof. Use royal icing to “glue” pieces of candy to the house.
Making a Gingerbread House: It’s All About the Process
These houses took several gatherings, one to make the dough and the pattern pieces, one to roll out the dough and bake the pieces, one to assemble the pieces, one to decorate. The joy is really in the making, of coming together to work on all the steps that are required to build a gingerbread house from scratch. The following are instructions I used with a gingerbread house making endeavor with a young friend. If you plan on making a gingerbread house yourself, I hope you find them useful!
Your Gingerbread House Action Plan
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, break the process down into steps. Here’s a suggested timeline.
4 days before: Do the shopping for all ingredients. Gather all the tools you’ll need to make the house: a base for the house, cookie sheets, parchment paper, rolling pin, sharp knife, electric mixer, and a pastry bag with tips (or plastic freezer bag). Print and cut out the pattern pieces (download the templates HERE). 3 days before: Make the dough. 2 days before: Bake the pieces; let cool. 1 day before: Assemble the house and let the icing mortar set. Day of: Decorate! (Or add an extra day and bake the house pieces one day and decorate the next.)
More Gingerbread Recipes to Make This Holiday
Gingerbread Cookies Gingerbread Cupcakes Triple Gingerbread Cake Vegan Gingerbread People Pumpkin Gingerbread
This recipe is best for making a gingerbread house, not cookies. For cookies, I prefer my gingerbread cookie recipe. If you have pets in your house, keep them away from the gingerbread house during all phases of construction and decorating. Non-gingerbread-house-building-participating adults and children should be informed to keep their hands off the house as well! These instructions were adapted from those found in the 1996 Joy of Cooking.
6 cups (828g) all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling the dough (see recipe note) 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 4 teaspoons ground ginger 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup (170g) butter, softened 1 1/2 cups (284g) packed light brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 cup molasses 1 tablespoon water
For the royal icing
2 large egg whites 2 2/3 cups powdered sugar, divided
Turn the dough out onto a slightly floured work surface and knead by hand 5 or 6 times until the dough is smooth and combined. If dough is too soft, add a little more flour. You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time. Let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling out. You can either use the regular paper template pieces as-is or, if you prefer, you can trace the pieces onto stiffer paper like a manila folder or cardboard. I like cardboard because it’s almost as thick as the gingerbread house pieces will be, and you can create a house model easily using the pieces. Working with one portion of the dough at a time, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to an even thickness of 1/4 inch. Add a little flour to the surface of the dough, and check for sticking as you roll it out. If it sticks to either your rolling pin or the rolling surface, dust with more flour. If the rolled out dough is very soft, you may want to freeze it for an hour before cutting out the patterns. Depending on how soft the dough is, you may need to use scissors to cut the parchment paper. You can cut out the patterns through the dough and parchment paper, placing the dough pieces with the paper directly on the cookie sheets. If you are not using parchment paper, you may need to use a large metal spatula to transfer the dough pieces to a greased cookie sheet. Space the pieces on the cookie sheet an inch apart from each other. If dough pieces stretch during the transfer process, push them back into shape. You can cut out a door and window(s) at this point, or you can wait until after baking, soon after the pieces have come out of the oven while the cookies are still warm. Rotate the cookie sheets halfway through the baking for more even browning. Remove the sheets to racks to cool, about 15 minutes. Remove pieces to cool directly on racks to cool completely. If you are planning to eat your gingerbread house and are concerned about the safety of raw eggs, you can cook the egg white powdered sugar mixture in a double boiler until the mixture reaches a temperature of 160°F, but not higher than 175° (for more information, read How to Pasteurize Eggs at Home). You can also use pasteurized dried or liquid egg whites. Hold in place for a few minutes until the icing is partially set. Repeat with the other side piece. Prop up with cans if necessary. Repeat with the other short edges of the side pieces and the remaining front/back piece. Pipe icing along the seams, inside and outside of the house, to fill in any gaps and to add extra stability. Pipe icing along the edges of the house where it meets the base. Let set for at least an hour before attempting to add the roof pieces. On my house I forgot to cut out the door and window until the front piece had almost completely cooled. When I went to make the cuts, the piece broke. Fortunately, it was easy to mortar back together with royal icing. We even created a “splint” out of cardboard and used royal icing to hold the splint to the piece. Let harden completely before using the piece for the house construction. When it comes time to decorate, you can pipe icing right over the broken seam and no one will be the wiser. The roof pieces are rectangular-shaped. Place the roof pieces so that the long ends of the rectangle are running along the top of the house. It helps if you have two people working together to place the roof pieces on the house at the same time so that they meet easily at the top center, and extend out a little bit, forming an overhang at each end. Gently hold the roof pieces in place for a few minutes until they are set enough so they don’t slide off when you remove your hands. Pipe the top seam of the house with extra icing. Let the house stand for at least an hour, and preferably 8 hours before decorating. It’s easiest to assemble the chimney first upside down, separate from the house. Pipe the pieces together with royal icing and let set until stable. Then, turn the chimney right-side-up and attach it to the roof using piped royal icing. You can do this either right after the house has initially set (1 hour after assembly) or later, during the decorating process.
