Lana In Land
food   festive

Gingerbread House

Serves 1 house

Ingredients

Dough

  • 160g butter
  • 60g molasses sugar
  • 70g brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 118mL honey (1/2 cup)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 360g flour
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Royal Icing

  • 130g icing sugar
  • 1/2 egg white
  • 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

The final dimensions of the house are roughly 15 x 22 x 22 cm. You can download the template here.

Dough

  1. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
  2. Add egg, molasses and vanilla.
  3. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
  4. Add these to the wet mixture gradually and mix to a slightly stiff but sticky consistency.
  5. Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least an hour.
  6. Preheat a fan assisted oven to 180 °C.
  7. Roll the dough to 5mm thickness in between baking sheets, to stop it from sticking.
  8. If the dough starts getting soft and sticky, place it in the freezer for a few minutes.
  9. Cut out the pieces using the gingerbread house template.
  10. Place the cutout pieces in the fridge while finishing to roll out and cut out the remaining pieces. This will firm up the dough and result in a better bake.
  11. If there is some remaining dough, use cookie cutters to cut out gingerbread men or any other shapes.
  12. Bake the pieces for 8-10 minutes or until golden and the edges just start to brown. This might require multiple bakes as not all of the pieces will fit in the oven at the same time.
  13. Leave to cool.

Icing

The icing will be used for decoration and for structural purposes to stick the house together.

  1. In a bowl, add the icing sugar, the egg white and the lemon juice.
  2. Mix on medium for 3-5 minutes until peaks start to form.

Decorating

  1. Fill a piping bag with a narrow nozzle and start decorating the pieces while flat before putting the house together.
  2. Leave to harden for an hour before assembling the house.

Assembly

  1. Pipe a line of icing at the bottom of the front of the house to stick it to the base plate.
  2. Place a glass to support it for now.
  3. Pipe the side and bottom edges of a wall and connect it to the front. Press to make sure they are stuck together.
  4. Repeat for the other wall.
  5. Pipe the bottom edge of the back of the house and connect it to the side walls by pressing firmly.
  6. Leave to harden for an hour.
  7. Remove the glass and place some led candles before attaching the roof.
  8. Pipe icing on exposed edges of the house and attach the roof. Use glasses or something of similar height to support the roof underneath while it dries.
  9. Dust with sifted icing sugar.