This is a recipe that I dug out of a super old kids activity cookbook from the library a million years ago. The recipe for the gingerbread dough is delicious, and flavorful.

It holds up perfect for cute gingerbread houses great for decorating. I actually used this gingerbread dough recipe a few years ago to make these great gingerbread cookies and it works perfect for that too.

This is a brief overview of how to make this amazing gingerbread house recipe. For the full recipe with all of the measurements, be sure to see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

The key to a successful gingerbread house construction is good gingerbread house icing. My main frustration with store-bought kits is that their icing stinks!

So whether you are making this gingerbread house recipe from scratch or using a store-bought one, I highly recommend this icing recipe. You can see in the photo above that a little icing on the bottom and the side are holding those two pieces up.

That being said, I highly recommend that you go slow when constructing. Add pieces one at a time with some drying time in between. Decorate the roof and sides of your house before you put it all together. This will allow the decorations to dry on nicely without fighting gravity.

There are several things that makes this whole process easier that I have learned over time. If you are a perfectionist like me, these will help a lot. If you are decorating with kids, some of these tips will help with the frustration.

But I spend a lot of time reminding my kids that their creations are perfect no matter what. That being said, we do not usually eat our houses. If you are making this for someone with a gluten allergy, be sure to talk to them before making this for them.

My number one tip for decorating is have fun. Honestly, its so much more important that this is an activity that everyone enjoys than perfect looking houses. But here is a list of supplies I used get you started:.

If you make this gingerbread house with your family come back and let me know how it goes by leaving a comment! I'm Lisa Longley, and I am committed to giving you simple dinner ideas and recipes that are easy to make; recipes that will fill your home with joy.

I am the owner and author of SimpleJoy. com and I'm so glad that you are here. Have a question? Use the form below to submit your question or comment. Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. Love the tip to decorate before raising the walls! How should I double the recipe? This recipe makes one house.

So you would need to multiply everything by 5. I would suggest doubling it twice, and then making a single batch. I know that will be more work, but it will be a lot of dough to work with otherwise.

You likely could get away with just 4x this recipe because of scraps. Thank you for the recipe! Can I stick the dough with chocolate candy? or with just melted chocolate?

Back to top. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar. LATEST POSTS About collaborate. Dinners Appetizers Slow Cooker Casserole 30 Minute Dinners Desserts Breakfast.

Jump to Recipe. Pin Share Tweet. How to Make a Gingerbread House This is a brief overview of how to make this amazing gingerbread house recipe.

Make the gingerbread house dough. Read all my tips and tricks for the dough below. Chill the dough. Let it chill for a half hour in the refrigerator. Get your template ready.

Print out the gingerbread house template and cut it out. Take note that some of the pieces need to be used twice, for example, you need to cut two of the same piece for the front and back of the house.

Cut out the pieces of dough and bake them. Roll out the chilled dough and use the gingerbread house pattern to cut out all of your pieces.

Carefully transfer the cut dough to baking sheets and bake them for 15 minutes. Leave the pieces out overnight. Once the pieces are baked, we want to let them air dry for 8 hours to get a little stale. This will make them easier to work with. Build a platform to construct the house on.

Collapse a cardboard box. Put pieces of duct tape around the box to make it more stable. Cover it in aluminum foil. Decorate the house! Now for the fun part! Make some gingerbread house icing and use it to glue your house together. Then use additional icing and candy to decorate the house.

Gingerbread House Template Printable This Gingerbread House Template Printable is exactly what you need to make a cute gingerbread house recipe. Print it off, and make gingerbread houses year after year. view recipe. Gingerbread House Icing This three ingredient Gingerbread House icing will hold everything together perfectly!

So easy to make! Constructing Gingerbread Houses The key to a successful gingerbread house construction is good gingerbread house icing. Pro Tip. TOP PICK. I use this set all the time! And it is super affordable, especially considering the quality. Get On Amazon. Gingerbread House Recipe Tips There are several things that makes this whole process easier that I have learned over time.

Grab parchment paper and a wet paper towel for dough rolling. When you roll out your pieces of dough, put a wet paper towel on the counter, then a piece of parchment paper, the dough and another piece of parchment paper.

Rolling out the dough between the two pieces of parchment makes for easy rolling. The wet towel beneath keeps it all from sliding around. Beware of your template sticking to the dough.

You can either sprinkle some powdered sugar on the dough to keep that from happening or make the templates out of parchment paper. Use excess dough to make small gingerbread men.

Make sure your cooked gingerbread house recipe dries out in the open at least overnight. Double my gingerbread house icing recipe. This will save HUGE amounts of frustration, I promise! I made this at Christmastime, for houses and cookies. I made the first 2 batches with molasses as stated.

It was PERFECT! It was very easy to work with, as the recipe states. It was perfect. When I went to make batch 3, I didn't have enough molasses and used dark brown corn syrup I found the substitution online THAT batch was horrible, it was sticky and not nearly as tasty.

I threw that stuff out and went back and made 2 more batches exactly as the recipe states, with molasses, and those two batches were perfect like the first two! This has become my favorite recipe.

The smell and taste were wonderful and the dough was soft and fun to work with, that warm dough in your hands is almost therapeutic!

Just don't substitute anything, follow the recipe as written! Great tasting, fairly staight forward in a complicated way, haha.

I like mine a bit softer so I've shortened the bake time to 9 min, they're kinda fragile but deliciously fluffy. I didn't have time to finish baking my other half, so I stuck it in the refrigerator, and warning to future bakers, this is NOT A GOOD IDEA.

I was able to salvage it by crumbling into pieces and adding some water and kneeding it back together, but the refrigerator really made it very dry and hard literally to work with.

Aside from that, this recipe is fabulous. Absolutely wonderful texture. Thank you! Lavender Lynn. easy, quick and tasty - loved the fact that the dough didn't have to chill. karen in tbay.

Was great to work with however I don't think it would have yielded 3 houses. see more reviews. Tweaks MOST POPULAR MOST RECENT. I would use more next time.

But they are delicious! ellen s. This was a great dough and required minimal effort with perfect results. I only use real butter when baking,it's imperative.

I substituted 1c whole wheat flour for the AP flour. Powdered sugar and frosted cookies warm from the oven. Thanks, we're using this one going forward!

Delicious and easy. I used sorghum instead of molasses I honestly don't know the difference. Stacey PS- I did use butter instead of margarine. The directions are easy to follow, and while it took a little time, it was not nearly as bad as I feared it would be. My children were able to help!

Also, I had rolling out dough, but this was easy. It handles well and tastes great!! The whole house smells amazing! I'm using this to make my very first gingerbread house. I'm not sure how well the template I used will work, but I know that if it doesn't stay together it's not because of the dough!!!

see 3 more tweaks. RECIPE SUBMITTED BY. LUv 2 BaKE. The photo below of our two new family additions. Layla the calico came home with us from the Humane Society in September and Saxon black and white came home two months later as a companion for Layla.

Gladly they have become very good pals. Thanks for visiting my page! I just graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutritional Sciences in May after 5 years of hard work. My hard work paid off as I was accepted to a post graduate dietetic internship which I am currently completing and will be done in June.

The internship allows me achieve professional designation as a registered dietitian.

If you don't have a pastry bag, you can make your own with a re-sealable plastic freezer bag, just cut off the tip a small cut of one of the corners of the bag. Plastic or metal piping tips are available in supermarkets which you can also use with a freezer bag, for more controlled piping.

This is where it really helps to have more than two hands working on a house, and why making a gingerbread house is so much more fun with company than alone. If you are working on this alone, it may help to grab some canned goods from the pantry and use the cans to help prop up the pieces while the icing mortar is drying.

Pick a solid base for your gingerbread house - either a flat cookie sheet, or a thick, sturdy piece of cardboard. If you want, line the base with aluminum foil or wax paper. Pipe a thick line of icing along a short end of one of the side pieces.

Press the iced side piece against the edge of either the front or back pieces. 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.

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.

If any of the gingerbread house pattern pieces break, as can happen easily when working with what are essentially cookies, most likely you can repair them.

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.

Once the royal icing has dried enough so that the base structure is solid, you can go to work on the roof. Pipe icing all along the top edges of the structure, front and back and two sides. 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.

The dimensions of the chimney can be a bit tricky because of the angle of the roof. 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.

Decorate your gingerbread house with piped royal icing and candies such as red hots, gum drops, candy canes, chocolate truffles, or whatever you like. Did you love the recipe? Give us some stars and leave a comment below! Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising.

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Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. Christmas Desserts Desserts Christmas Cookies. By Elise Bauer.

Elise Bauer. Elise founded Simply Recipes in and led the site until She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University. Learn about Simply Recipes' Editorial Process. In This Recipe Expand. Decorating Tips. The Process. Can You Eat It? Gingerbread House Timeline. Flex Your Holiday Baking Muscle with These 16 Knockout Recipes FEATURED IN:.

Can You Eat This Gingerbread House? Your Gingerbread House Action Plan If you're feeling overwhelmed, break the process down into steps. 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. 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 From the Editors Of Simply Recipes.

Save It Print. Prep Time 2 hrs. Cook Time 15 mins. Drying time 60 mins. Total Time 3 hrs 15 mins. Servings Yield 1 gingerbread house. These instructions were adapted from those found in the Joy of Cooking.

Stand mixer Piping bag or freezer bag. Make the Gingerbread Dough. Whisk the flour and spices:. Make the butter, sugar, egg, and molasses mixture:.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients, and knead the dough:. Divide the dough, wrap and chill it:. Preparing the Gingerbread House Pieces. Create and cut out the pattern pieces:.

Prepare the oven and cookie sheets:. Roll out the dough:. Cut out shapes in the dough with pattern pieces:. Repeat with remaining dough. Any dough left after the squares have been prepared can be rolled out ¼-inch thick and used for cookies.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until even and firmly set. Place pans on racks to cool. To prevent bending and cracking, carefully transfer to racks by lifting parchment paper.

When completely cool, stack the slabs, still on parchment, and set aside to dry out at room temperature for 3 to 7 days. When ready to assemble, see How to Make a Gingerbread House guide for full instructions. Log in or sign up to rate this recipe. Log in or sign up to mark this recipe as cooked.

Tip for perfectly cut walls - 1. roll the dough 2. score the exact outline of the wall 3. Leave a small 2cm is fine border around the scores edges 4. Bake and when ready, cut through the soft gingerbread along the scored lines with a sharp knife before it hardens. Doing this method is better than cutting the dough to the exact template as you will prevent the edges from spreading.

I am in the process of trying this for the first time. As I bake the sheets of gingerbread they are getting bubbles on the surface can anyone tell me why and how to prevent it? I am baking at degrees C in a convection oven. I found it helpful to weigh the dough into 20 oz chunks, pat into squares, and wrap individually before refrigerating.

That way, you can take out a square of cold dough and roll it out for each slab. We made this last year and it was great!!

I was so nervous that it would crumble or fall apart and it was sturdy and easy to work with. We left it out to dry for a week before proceeding with assembly. The kids and I had a great time. We are making it again this year as well. Just got the first batch out of the oven and the gingerbread itself is delicious.

Not sure how it will stand up house-wise, but warm-cookie-wise, it's fab. I wish that the ingredient list listed the amount of each ingredient used per half-batch. I kept getting confused along the way.

Made half the recipe and used 6. Worked beautifully! Great size, and delicious! Otherwise, really delicious recipe. 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 made this and the dough was great! The problem I encountered had to do with the construction of the piece. The roof was too long and covered up the sides..

at 9 inches.. that is long, so trim them shorter. The royal icing was missing something and it was not the consistency that it needed to be to constuct the house. I would recommend another royal icing recipe than this one. I am a chef and, in my professional view, the template and the royal icing recipe need to be tweaked.

A nice size house. My Canadian Cookbook with same recipe does not call for drying the gingerbread slabs out at all. I found once baked, they were hard enough, that if you wanted to use them once cooled, you probably could.

I have a 6 qt mixer and ended up halving it still. It's a very thick dough so I think doing in two batches also guarantees proper mixing. FYI, if your stand mixer has an 11 lbs or higher dough capacity like the Ankarsrum which is what I used , it will be able to hold the whole recipe in a single batch.

But it was at the limit, so an even slightly smaller mixer probably wouldn't work. I had a hard time portioning and rolling out the dough until it had been at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, at which point it became much easier. Haven't tasted the final product yet but the raw dough tastes amazing with the zest.

That's exactly what you do. Used this recipe to make ginger bread man shaped cookies - turned out great, I love the texture and flavours. For the molasses I use Grandma's brand and dry measure it otherwise it is too strong. Bake minutes. The unbaked cutouts and the baked cookies freeze very very well.

If you, like me, didn't notice the note about letting the gingerbread cure for several days to achieve the requisite architectural stiffness, and you want to build your house sooner, there's an easy solution! After you bake and cool everything, return the gingerbread to a degree oven for 20 minutes.

Once the gingerbread cools the second time, it will be noticeably stiffer and will work great for house construction! I only dried the dough the first time. Since then, I bake it early and freeze the slabs, so that, when we take it out and make our creation, all of the scraps we have are edible, and not stale.

The gingerbread itself is delicious! Icing: I had good luck with 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons meringue powder, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice from half a lemon , and 1 tablespoon water.

If you only get 2 tbsp. juice from your lemon, fill in with water - you want a total of 4 tbsp. liquid to 2 tbsp.

meringue powder. Whisk the sugar and meringue powders together, add liquids, beat on low until just combined, and then beat on high 5 minutes.

If scoring, carefully cut while warm. This gingerbread recipe is amazing. Sturdy for building and so very tasty when snacking on the trimmings! Following others' advice, I made a half batch, and used a 6. It's a bit of a project, but this is quickly becoming my daughter's favorite Christmas tradition!

Pay attn if weighing! Dough was easy to roll and baked up delicately sweet. Made my own house design, cutting template pieces from plain 8. Needed 4 cookie sheets for all pieces. Recipe makes LOTS of dough. Ran out of AP flour so added balance of 4.

Subbed by vol not weight. Great results. Made half recipe, for a 6. Dough seems dry to me but comes together! A few years ago there was also a video on Julia demonstrating decorating technique for the house, piping royal icing. Does anyone know where I can still find it?

It was simple but inspiring.

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. 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. What other name is there for unsulphered molasses? I am guessing treacle is too strong but not sure what else is equivalent. Please advise. They will also be quite soft once thawed as well.

The dough can also be frozen, wrapped well to prevent freezer burn. But both dough and baked cookies need to thawed before working with it. Great recipe. Easy to make worked well and I ground all fresh spices but the flavor is amazing.

I followed the recipe closely g molasses but it was so overpowering! 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.

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!

This looks amazing! My husband and I both want to make our own houses, so I need to make enough dough for two. 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. I hope that helps. 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. Let me know how the gingerbread house comes out! Skip to primary navigation Skip to footer navigation Skip to header navigation Skip to privacy navigation Skip to recipes navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar About My Cookbooks Work With Me Shop Contact.

Start Here Measurement Conversions How-To Posts. Gingerbread house workflow Easy gingerbread house decorations Pro tips for your Christmas gingerbread house recipe Frequently asked questions. How long does this gingerbread house last?

Is it OK to eat gingerbread house? What candies do you put on the gingerbread house? Can you make a gluten free gingerbread house? Can you make a dairy free gingerbread house? Author: Dini K.

Yield: This recipe is enough to make 1 gingerbread house with extra small cookies, with about 18 servings. Cuisine: European, North American. A tried-and-true, easy Gingerbread House Recipe with a well-tested gingerbread house template, and lots of tips on how to construct and decorate it.

Best of all, the gingerbread house cookie is delicious to eat, with all the warming spices, and it's not overly sweet. Prep: 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes. Chilling and drying time minimum : 5 hours hours.

Cook: 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes. Total Time: 10 hours hours 40 minutes minutes. Difficulty: Intermediate recipes. Instructions: Separate g of the flour and set it aside.

In a large bowl, sift the rest of the dry ingredients. Add the salt and whisk to make sure all the ingredients are combined well. Set aside. 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 to make it with a hand mixer or even with the stand mixer. With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed for about 5 — 10 minutes until fluffy and pale in color.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway to ensure even mixing. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl in between the addition of eggs.

Add molasses and vanilla, and mix until well incorporated. On stir speed or low speed , add flour in increments. Pulse the mixer on and off to initially mix in the flour to prevent the flour from flying everywhere. Mix on low speed until the flour is almost incorporated. Add the next increment while you can still see some white streaks in the dough.

This helps to prevent overmixing. Once all the flour is added, mix on low speed until a dough is formed.

If the dough is very wet, add the g of flour that was reserved earlier until the flour is mostly incorporated. You may need to use your hands to knead the dough at the end to make sure it's well-mixed.

Remove the dough from the bowl and gently knead it a few times to form a smooth ball dust the work surface with flour if necessary.

Divide the dough into 4 portions. To make sure the portions are equal, weigh the dough and portion by weight. Lightly dust each portion and form it into a disc. Either wrap each portion with plastic wrap, OR place the dough inside a sandwich-size ziploc bag. Then seal the bag completely.

Chill all the discs of dough for at least 1 hour in the fridge, up to 2 days. 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 needed optional.

Prepare and bake the cookies While the dough is resting, prepare the gingerbread house template. Print the template and stick the print outs onto cardboard. Then, using a craft knife or scissors, carefully cut out the pieces needed 1 x Front, 1 x Back, 2 x Side walls, 1 x Roof, 4 x pieces for chimney.

Remove one dough disc from the fridge, and remove the cover. Place the dough on a lightly floured with dusting flour parchment paper and flour the top of the disc.

Place another parchment paper on top, and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. To ensure that you achieve an even thickness throughout the dough, use two 5 mm dowels on either side of the dough or you can use thickness guides or rolling pin rings. The rolled out dough should be able to fit inside a half sheet pan.

Place the dough while it's between two pieces of parchment paper back in the freezer for 30 minutes to let it harden. This will make it easier to cut the templates. Remove the dough from the freezer. Then place the template pieces on the dough and cut out the shapes. Do not remove these cut out pieces from the dough.

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 slightly as it bakes.

I prefer to cut them out after they are baked. OPTIONAL — You can remove the scraps around the cut pieces of the dough, re-roll the scraps and cut more cookies if you like.

OR you can bake the cookies without removing the scrap dough. The dough scraps — lightly fold over the dough scraps to form a rough disc and wrap it in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and re-use. Place the gingerbread dough on a half sheet baking pan lined with parchment paper. If the cookies are being baked without the scrap dough around it, then leave about 1 ½ inches of space between the cut out cookies.

Transfer to the freezer for another 10 minutes, or the fridge for 30 minutes. Bake in preheated oven, for 15 — 20 minutes for larger cookies, or about 20 — 25 minutes for the entire dough sheet.

Less that 15 minutes for smaller cookies. The time can vary, so bake the cookies in the oven until the edges of the dough JUST start to brown.

Once baked, remove the cookies from the oven. Carefully transfer them onto a cutting board, and using a very sharp knife or craft knife, quickly cut out the cookies from the baked dough while it's still soft.

Also cut out the windows and doors. You can also use a cookie cutter to cut out windows and doors from the baked gingerbread. Then transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely. If the edges of the cookies expand and are not straight — You can either straighten them using a micro planer once the cookies are cooled and hardened, or just cover it up with royal icing when you stick the cookies together to build the house.

Store the gingerbread cookies in an airtight container until you're ready to assemble the gingerbread house. Royal icing Make sure to use the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, or mixer attachment of your hand mixer to mix in the powdered sugar when you make this royal icing.

You do not want to incorporate too much air. Place the meringue powder and water together in a bowl. When I was growing up, we gathered with our cousins every year and each family would decorate a gingerbread house.

It was made from scratch, giving off the most fragrant smell of molasses, cinnamon and ginger — every smell that reminds me of Christmas! We would carefully plan the theme of our house and put together our own custom gingerbread house kit with items to decorate it like candy canes, pretzels, chocolate and shredded coconut.

Of course, everyone always tried to get the biggest piece that had the most candy on it! As our families grew up, we began our own traditions, but my mom has continued the tradition with my own siblings and our children, and we still decorate gingerbread houses every December!

Coming up with a theme, planning the candies and items to decorate it with, and displaying it in our home all throughout the Holiday season has become something we all look forward to each year! If you are looking for a delicious, soft and chewy cookie then be sure to try my Gingerbread Cookies recipe!

Another amazing Holiday cookie recipe is my Eggnog Snickerdoodle Cookie! This blog post gives you lots of pictures and directions to make it successfully! The dough is so easy to make and takes hardly any time at all! It is a more stiff dough, so you will definitely need a stand mixer to get it all mixed up.

If you have a mixer that is at least a 5 quart capacity, you should be able to double this recipe if you like. Before you begin rolling out the dough, preheat your oven.

I always suggest allowing it to preheat for a half hour before baking. All ovens heat differently, but typically a half hour will allow it to fully preheat. Oven thermometers are so useful in helping you to know if your oven is truly preheated. Use a baking sheet with at least a one inch deep rim.

You will be able to perfectly fit the pieces of the entire house using this size of pan. If you have oil settling on top of the surface of the dough, you can leave it there.

It will help the gingerbread to bake with a smooth surface. Bake the gingerbread until the edges are golden brown and the edges are slightly pulling away from the pan. There are lots of different gingerbread house templates that you can use.

You can download and print this template for free! I would suggest printing it on card stock — this helps to provide a more sturdy template.

As soon as you remove your pan from the oven, arrange your template over the top of the baked gingerbread. See the picture below for the best way to fit them all on there.

You need to cut them out while the gingerbread is still warm. Place the templates on top of the gingerbread and use a sharp knife to cut around them. As soon as you have all of the shapes cut out, use a metal spatula to carefully lift them out of the pan and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once your gingerbread pieces have completely cooled, you can start assembling your house. I like to use a round cake board as a base for my house. I use a 12 inch round. This helps to keep the board from getting oily from the gingerbread. As you build your house, you will be piping icing onto the edges of the pieces to adhere them to the cake stand and to each other.

Have your royal icing all ready in a pastry bag and off to the side to access it easily. First, you will assemble the front of the house and one of the side walls. Pipe the frosting on the bottom edge of the front wall and on the bottom edge and interior edge of the side wall.

Stand them upright and joint them together for one minute, allowing the icing to set. Next, you will add the back wall. Pipe frosting on the bottom edge and one side of the piece, so that it will adhere to the standing side wall.

Now you should have 3 of the four base pieces standing. Finally, add the last piece of the base, the second of the two side pieces. Allow the four base pieces to set about minutes before adding the roof pieces. Next, add the roof pieces, one at a time, piping frosting along all of the edges where it will meet with the top edges of the house.

This is a brief overview of how to make this amazing gingerbread house recipe. For the full recipe with all of the measurements, be sure to see the recipe card at the bottom of the post. The key to a successful gingerbread house construction is good gingerbread house icing.

My main frustration with store-bought kits is that their icing stinks! So whether you are making this gingerbread house recipe from scratch or using a store-bought one, I highly recommend this icing recipe. You can see in the photo above that a little icing on the bottom and the side are holding those two pieces up.

That being said, I highly recommend that you go slow when constructing. Add pieces one at a time with some drying time in between. Decorate the roof and sides of your house before you put it all together.

This will allow the decorations to dry on nicely without fighting gravity. There are several things that makes this whole process easier that I have learned over time. If you are a perfectionist like me, these will help a lot.

If you are decorating with kids, some of these tips will help with the frustration. But I spend a lot of time reminding my kids that their creations are perfect no matter what.

That being said, we do not usually eat our houses. If you are making this for someone with a gluten allergy, be sure to talk to them before making this for them. My number one tip for decorating is have fun.

Honestly, its so much more important that this is an activity that everyone enjoys than perfect looking houses. But here is a list of supplies I used get you started:. If you make this gingerbread house with your family come back and let me know how it goes by leaving a comment!

I'm Lisa Longley, and I am committed to giving you simple dinner ideas and recipes that are easy to make; recipes that will fill your home with joy.

I am the owner and author of SimpleJoy. com and I'm so glad that you are here. Have a question? Use the form below to submit your question or comment. Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. Love the tip to decorate before raising the walls! How should I double the recipe?

This recipe makes one house. So you would need to multiply everything by 5. I would suggest doubling it twice, and then making a single batch.

I know that will be more work, but it will be a lot of dough to work with otherwise. You likely could get away with just 4x this recipe because of scraps. Thank you for the recipe! Can I stick the dough with chocolate candy? or with just melted chocolate?

Back to top. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar. LATEST POSTS About collaborate. Dinners Appetizers Slow Cooker Casserole 30 Minute Dinners Desserts Breakfast.

Jump to Recipe. Pin Share Tweet. How to Make a Gingerbread House This is a brief overview of how to make this amazing gingerbread house recipe.

Make the gingerbread house dough. Read all my tips and tricks for the dough below. Chill the dough. Let it chill for a half hour in the refrigerator. Get your template ready. Print out the gingerbread house template and cut it out. Take note that some of the pieces need to be used twice, for example, you need to cut two of the same piece for the front and back of the house.

Cut out the pieces of dough and bake them. Roll out the chilled dough and use the gingerbread house pattern to cut out all of your pieces. Carefully transfer the cut dough to baking sheets and bake them for 15 minutes. Leave the pieces out overnight.

Once the pieces are baked, we want to let them air dry for 8 hours to get a little stale. This will make them easier to work with. Build a platform to construct the house on. Collapse a cardboard box. Put pieces of duct tape around the box to make it more stable.