How to make a gingerbread house at home (step-by-step recipes, templates, diagrams)

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Hello dear readers. Today we’ll talk about how to make a gingerbread house at home. Who doesn’t know the magical story about the witch’s gingerbread house and the children trapped in it? I think it was Gretel and Hansel. This fairy tale introduced the world to an amazing sweet house. Since then, hundreds of different confectioners have prepared the dessert masterpiece. Sweet structures of varying complexity decorate Christmas markets in Europe and the USA. But not only fairs. Special exhibitions, competitions, and mass master classes on creating and decorating gingerbread houses are organized.

Just think, for more than two hundred years people have been preparing sweet treats at home. Today we will get acquainted with the most successful dough recipes. Let's find out how to decorate a fairy-tale building with your own hands.

In the gingerbread house recipe, it is permissible to use any dough from the gingerbread recipes.

How to Make a Gingerbread House at Home (Complete Guide)

Before you make a gingerbread house at home, use your imagination. There’s no way without her. After all, this is a fabulous magical building. House from a fairy tale. Here's a complete guide to making a gingerbread house. As a decoration you will need classic icing - protein glaze. Take something else if you wish. Focus on what you have at hand.

Ingredients

Dough ingredients:

butter – 113 g;
honey or molasses – 250 ml;
ground cinnamon – 4 tsp;
brown sugar – 250 g;
ground ginger – 1 tsp;
premium wheat flour – 950 g;
milk – 260 ml;
salt - a pinch.

For the white glaze:

egg whites - from two eggs;
powdered sugar – 500 g.

Step-by-step preparation with photos

How to cook a gingerbread house step by step with photos:

Place soft butter in a saucepan.

Add liquid honey. Is your honey crystallized? It's OK. When heated, the crystals will dissolve and the honey will become liquid again.

Add ground spices. Don't skimp on the cinnamon and ginger. Add whole heaped teaspoons.

Add sugar. The recipe recommends using brown sugar. It gives a strong taste of sweetness. Plus, the shade of the ingredients is maintained. The dough will be a nice caramel color.

Heat the ingredients in a saucepan. Stir with a wooden spatula. Gradually the mixture will become homogeneous and liquid. There is no need to boil the mixture under any circumstances. Just bring the food until warm. The main thing is that the oil disperses.

Sift the flour into a cup.

Pour the caramel mixture into the flour.

Add milk.

Mix well with a spatula. Very quickly you will have a thick, homogeneous dough. Cover it with cling film. Place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

Spread baking paper on the table. Place some dough on it.

Cover with a second sheet of paper. Roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 1 cm.

Attach the pattern. If the layer is small, roll it out a little more with a rolling pin.

Remove the top paper. Cut out a pattern from the dough. Do this with a knife. The more carefully you cut out the layers of dough, the prettier the finished sweet house will be. You will need 2 identical pieces for the gables, 2 pieces for the side pieces, 2 pieces for the roof, 1 door, 4 small pieces for the pipe.

Bake the pieces at 180℃ for 15-20 minutes in the oven. It is important to preheat the oven. If this is not done, the baked goods will be mushy. Leave the pieces to cool on a wire rack.

While the gingerbread cookies are cooling, make the glaze. In another way it is called icing. Protein icing made from two ingredients is called royal icing. It is very sweet in taste and snow-white in appearance. It freezes well and holds pieces of the house. Sometimes lemon juice is added to sugar and proteins. It also produces a surprisingly white color. But in our version there are only 2 ingredients. Look at the photo how white and thick the glaze turned out. How to make it? Pour the cold whites of two eggs into a cup. Add powdered sugar (500 g). Beat with a mixer at low speed until the glaze is ready. It will take 5-8 minutes. Immediately place the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Proceed with decorating parts and construction. If you are not going to assemble the house right away, cover the icing tightly with film. This way it won't dry out ahead of time.

Finish the roof with thin arches. It will look like tiles.

Frame the gables with glaze. Make small drops around the windows. Arrange all the details in a similar way. Leave to dry on a wire rack for 6-8 hours. Better for the night.

Assemble the house on a cutting board. Glue the pieces together with icing. To prevent the building from falling, prop it up with a glass.

Place the sides. Before gluing the lid, let the base dry thoroughly (3-4 hours). While the glaze is soft, it is very fragile. Once dry, spread glaze on the bottom sides of the roof. Glue both parts of the roof to the base. There are 4 pieces of pipe to the roof. Glue the door to the bottom gable. Then decorate as you wish. We suggest, as in the photo, sprinkle powdered sugar on top. It looks like it snowed.

Use the remaining royal icing for the base of the house. Oil the board on which the house stands. Use a spatula to spread it as if it were snowdrifts.

What else is used to decorate gingerbread cookies:

marmalade;
chocolate;
fondant;
multi-colored glaze;
marzipan;
confectionery mastic;
candied fruit;
nuts;
dried or candied berries.

Assembly and painting

To fasten the parts securely, you can rub the ends with a grater at 45°. In the same way we get rid of defects in the form of sagging along the edges of the workpieces.

What and how to make icing for a gingerbread house with your own hands

Glaze or icing is a sugar-protein mass, which is obtained by grinding egg whites with powdered sugar. For plasticity, an acidifier is added to the mixture - citric acid or fresh lemon juice.

Ingredients for glaze

Egg white – 1 pc.
Powdered sugar – 180-200 g.
Lemon juice – 1 tsp.

For high-quality flavoring of the product, it is very advisable to add a teaspoon of good rum and cognac to the mixture. There is no point in preparing a large amount of glaze at once, because it will dry out before the next step.

Preparation

If you are wondering how to properly bake a New Year’s gingerbread house, then you will probably also need a method for preparing the glaze:

To destroy the structure of the protein, you need to beat it with a fork until a light foam forms.
Add powder to the protein portion by portion, thoroughly rubbing each portion.
At the end of the process, add lemon juice and stir. The result should be a homogeneous plastic mass.

Painting blanks

To work, place the glaze in a cornet or ziplock bag, slightly cutting off one corner. Who decided to make gingerbread, or any baking for that matter. It makes sense to buy a pastry bag with a set of attachments.

Even before gluing together the parts of the house, we paint the walls and roof. If you decide to make the windows and shutters drawn, as in some photos, we draw them. Even if the palace is simple - made of cookies, it is still worth working on its decor. If desired, you can depict a Christmas tree on one of the walls. Color solutions are realized using food coloring.

We collect

After the painting has dried, we assemble the pieces into one whole. First, we connect the walls, carefully brushing the ends with glaze. For better fixation, it is worth coating the corners of the building from the inside.

When the walls are well set, we glue the roof. It needs to be supported with something like cans or glasses for 10-12 hours so that it does not slip. Shutters and pipes are glued in a similar way. If the base is a flat cake, then the product must be glued to it.

Decor: how to make snow and icicles on a gingerbread house

Allow at least a day for the “cement” to dry, after which the final design touches can begin. The same protein glaze is used for this. If the icing does not apply well to the cake, try lightly moistening the application area with a regular brush.

In order for all the decorations to dry faster, it makes sense to place the structure in a preheated oven for 5-10 minutes, but not hot. At the moment when the cream turns into marshmallows, carefully remove it.

Plus electrician or how to make lighting in a gingerbread house

I once came across advice regarding the implementation of lighting: put an ordinary candle in a jar. However, doubts that arose prevented the implementation of this project. I thought: well, how will it melt or, even better, my whole idea will burst into flames.

A little later, one forum member recommended using an LED flashlight or a regular LED with a battery. The topic continued and many options were offered. I liked the idea with LED strip and regular LED garlands for a small Christmas tree. Both concepts were implemented and had a real sensation with family and guests, so I recommend it.

Making gingerbread dough at home

They say that bun houses were baked back in Ancient Rome. Edible structures were left on the altar for a while. People believed that at this moment the houses became a haven for divine beings. I wonder what recipe was used to prepare butter houses back then? Let's get acquainted with modern recipes for gingerbread dough - with burnt sugar and cognac.

On burnt sugar

Gingerbread dough with burnt sugar is ideal if you don’t have brown sugar on hand. The dough comes out fragrant with spices, crumbly and surprisingly brown.

Ingredients:

sugar – 500 g;
boiling water – 200 ml;
butter – 200 g;
baking soda – 1 tsp;
salt - half a teaspoon;
ground ginger – 1 tsp;
ground cinnamon – 2 tsp;
nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, anise, allspice (ground spices) - a pinch;
egg – 1 pc.;
flour – 850 g;
honey - 2 tbsp. l. (you can do without it).

How to cook correctly:

Pour sugar into the pan. Send to moderate heat. Don't touch it yet. When the bottom layer of sugar melts a little, stir the mixture. The sugar should melt and caramelize, not burn. Therefore, mix the mixture thoroughly with a spatula.
Has the mass become homogeneous and liquid? Remove the pan from the heat. Carefully pour a glass of boiling water, stirring. There should not be a single lump in the caramel. Therefore, stir more thoroughly. You will end up with a dark brown syrup.
Return the pan to moderate heat. Add butter to syrup. Stir. Wait until the butter melts.
Add salt, soda, ground spices. And also honey if desired. Stir. By heating and adding soda, the mass will rise into a foamy cap.
Remove the pan from the stove. Cool while stirring. In this case, the foam cap will settle.
Add the egg to the mixture when it becomes slightly warm. Mix with a hand whisk.
Start adding flour little by little. First, mix the mixture directly in the pan. Then place it on the table. Knead the ball so that all the flour goes into it. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.

Place the lump in a bag and in the refrigerator. The dough must mature in a cool place for at least 8 hours. After ripening, the lump will become dense and elastic. It is convenient to work with such a test. Gingerbread dough made with burnt sugar keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. It is permissible to store gingerbread dough in the freezer for up to 3 months.

With cognac and cocoa

The dough with cognac and cocoa does not lose its aroma and softness for a long time. You will have time to see enough and take a photo with the amazing dessert. The house will remain tasty and beautiful for 1-2 days at room temperature or in the refrigerator. But don’t store dessert for too long. The gingerbreads still become stale and become less tasty.

Ingredients:

flour - 4 cups;
sugar – 300 g;
honey – 250 g;
butter – 200 g;
cognac – 2 tbsp. l.;
cocoa powder – 3 tbsp. l.;
egg – 1 pc. (+2 yolks);
vanillin – 1 g;
baking powder – 1 tsp;
ground ginger – 1 tsp;
ground cinnamon and cardamom - 2 tsp each;
nutmeg – 3-4 pinches.

Preparation:

Combine honey, sugar, butter in a saucepan. Heat until warm. The oil should disperse. Add cognac, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg. Break an egg into this mixture and add 2 yolks. Mix with a hand whisk.
Sift the flour along with baking powder and cocoa.
Combine both preparations - cream and flour. Knead into a homogeneous dough. Place the lump in the bag in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. Then take it out and roll it into a layer 5-7 mm thick. Cut out the blanks. Bake in the oven at 180℃. As with other recipes, assemble the house when the parts have cooled. Use egg white glaze for attachment.

Shortbread with lemon

For lovers of shortbread dough. Christmas gingerbread cookies are also made from lemon shortbread dough. Just add ground spices to the classic recipe to taste.

Ingredients:

premium wheat flour – 1 tbsp.;
butter – 100 g;
sugar – 80 g;
egg – 1 pc.;
lemon – 1 pc.;
ground spices - to taste.

How to cook:

Combine flour with soft butter. Grind until crumbly.
Whisk the egg with sugar, lemon zest, and spices.
Combine the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Knead the dough. Let someone rest for 20-25 minutes. Roll out and cut out shapes for your home.

Ingredients:

Flour - 1 Cup
Sugar - 200 grams
Honey – 250 grams
Butter - 200 grams
Vodka – 50 Milliliters
Egg – 3 pieces
Soda - 0.5 teaspoons
Cinnamon - 0.25 teaspoons
Ground ginger - 0.25 teaspoons
Ground cloves - 0.25 teaspoons
Ground cardamom - 0.25 teaspoons
Ground allspice - 0.25 teaspoons
Powdered sugar - 180 grams
Egg white – 1 piece
Lemon juice - 1 teaspoon
Cognac – 1 teaspoon

Number of servings: 6

Flexible icing for home

To make voluminous decorations for your home, use this recipe. Flexible icing is not the same as regular icing. Butterflies and flowers are made from flexible icing. Together with a gingerbread house, this decor looks amazing.

What you will need:

corn starch – 20 g;
water – 50 g;
white food coloring - on the tip of a knife (or a quarter teaspoon);
fructose – 20 g;
citrus pectin – 1 tsp;
food glycerin – 1 tsp;
invert syrup – 1 tsp;
food additive polysorbate-80 – 3 drops.

Some ingredients can only be purchased in specialized online stores.

How to cook correctly:

Mix starch, pectin, fructose in a bowl. Add food coloring.
Pour in warm water. Stir.
Leave for half an hour. Stir again.
Pour in invert syrup.
Separately, mix glycerin with polysorbate-80. Place in container with other ingredients. Stir.
Use the mixture now. Using a piping bag, pipe a butterfly or flower onto the design. It is also possible to use a special silicone mat. Dry the figures in the oven at 100℃.

How to make a gingerbread house with your own hands - recipes

DIY gingerbread house (mini) without honey

Gingerbread house recipes bring amateurs and professionals together. In the first case, miniature houses are prepared. They are good to make with children, for fun or as a family competition. Professionals make entire streets and mansions from butter dough. A DIY mini gingerbread house without honey is quick and easy to make. See the recipe below.

Ingredients:

butter – 250 g;
brown sugar – 250 g;
flour – 600 g;
baking soda – 1 tsp;
ground ginger – 4 tsp;
egg whites – 3 pcs.;
lemon juice – 30 ml;
powdered sugar – 450 g.

How to cook:

Make a dough using the ingredients provided. Mix butter and sugar in a saucepan. Heat until sugar dissolves. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Separately, mix flour with baking soda and ginger. Sift.

Connect both pieces. Mix thoroughly.

Attach the mold to the layers.

Roll out the dough between two layers of baking paper. The thickness of the layer is 5-10 mm.

Cut out the diagrams of the house. Cut off excess dough with a knife.

Bake the gingerbread cookies in a preheated oven at 180℃ for 10 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Make a glaze using powdered sugar, egg whites and lemon juice. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.

Glue the cooled parts of the house with icing. Decorate with confectionery sprinkles. Leave to harden for an hour.

Chocolate gingerbread house with caramel

A chocolate gingerbread house with caramel is unusual to say the least. The dough is prepared with cocoa powder. Sugar caramel is used to glue the parts together.

Dough ingredients:

butter – 120 g;
honey – 200 g;
ground ginger – 4 tsp;
cocoa – 2 tbsp. l.;
ground cinnamon – 1 tbsp. l.;
sugar – 100 g;
baking soda - half a teaspoon;
flour - about 500 g.

For caramel gluing:

sugar – 100 g;
water – 40 ml.

For the glaze:

lemon juice – 1 tbsp. l.;
egg white – 1 pc.;
powdered sugar – 100-150 g.

For decoration:

lollipops – 2-3 pcs.;
chocolate pillows – 100 g.

How to do:

Cut out patterns from cardboard. Roof, walls, foundation. Don't forget the windows and door.
Beat soft butter with sugar and honey. Add spices and cocoa. Then sifted flour and soda. Knead into a homogeneous dough with your hands. Place in the bag in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough thinly. It is better to do this directly on parchment. The thickness of the layer is 4-5 mm. Cut out patterns using cardboard templates. Transfer on paper to a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let the parts cool on a wire rack.
Caramel. Pour water into sugar. Heat while stirring. Cook until golden brown. Dip the ends of the gingerbread pieces into this glaze. Glue the parts together immediately. Leave to cool for one and a half to two hours at room temperature.
Glaze. Beat the egg white with lemon juice and powdered sugar. You should get a thick snow-white foam. Decorate your home with it. Cover the roof. Make a pattern on the walls and windows.
Decorate your home with candy canes and chocolate pillows.

Note to the owner. For the tiles, use multi-colored chocolate jelly beans. We suggest baking trees, animals, and decorations from the leftover dough. Decorate your home and the area around it with baked parts.

Easy Gingerbread House Made from Cookies (How to Make with Kids)

A gingerbread house made from cookies is much faster to prepare. Akin to a small DIY dough craft. A cookie house is good to hang on a Christmas tree, give to friends for New Year, or bake for tea for children.

Preparation. Take any gingerbread dough recipe. Which one do you like? Follow the recipe steps. Roll out the layers. Cut out simple blanks. According to shapes or cut “by eye” with a knife. Bake in the oven. Once cooled, decorate with colorful frosting.

House made from sweet straws without baking

We suggest using sweet straws as the main building material. It will be like logs in a wooden house. Carefully break off the straws to the required length. Secure with egg white glaze or melted chocolate. When the 4 walls have hardened well, start working on the roof. Lay the straws along the roof, coating them with chocolate. Place the finished house in the refrigerator until it hardens. Then take it out and decorate it to your liking.

We suggest decorating the roof of the gingerbread house in one of the following ways:

cover with colored glaze;
cover with melted chocolate;
make a pattern from the protein glaze, sprinkle with powdered sugar;
brush with a continuous layer of egg white glaze and sprinkle with grated chocolate or cookie crumbs.

Small gingerbread house for a mug

A small gingerbread house for a mug – it takes 30 minutes. A spicy version with cinnamon and ginger is suitable as a base for the dough. Or regular shortbread dough with kefir. In the photo, the houses are made of shortbread dough.

Shortcrust pastry recipe for home:

kefir – 130 ml;
flour – 350 g;
soft butter – 100 g;
sugar - half a glass;
soda - on the tip of a knife.

The process of cooking at home is no different from the previous options:

Knead the dough. Keep in the refrigerator for about an hour. Roll it out.
Cut out the blanks. Bake in the oven.
Cool the semi-finished products.
Assemble the houses with egg white icing. Sprinkle with sugar. Decorate.

How to make blanks?

Prepare the oven: preheat it to 180 degrees and place a rack in the middle. Take large flat baking sheets. This is important because the dough sheets should not become deformed during baking.

Divide the dough into two parts. Place parchment paper on a large flat surface to roll out shapes. Dust the paper with flour.

Working with one portion of dough at a time, use a rolling pin to make a sheet about 1/2 inch thick. If it sticks to the rolling pin or work surface, add a small amount of flour. If the dough you roll out is very soft, you can put it in the freezer for an hour before you start cutting out the dough.

Sprinkle a little flour onto the prepared rolled out sheets. Place the cut out stencils on the dough, pressing them tightly. Use a small, sharp knife to cut out shapes, wiping the blade frequently. Depending on how soft the dough is, you may need to use large scissors.

You can cut out the shapes together with parchment paper, and then transfer the blanks to a baking sheet with it. If you are not using one, you may need a large metal spatula to transfer the dough pieces.

Schemes (patterns) for a gingerbread house

Before creating a gingerbread house, we advise you to decide on patterns. Print templates and diagrams on a printer. Cut it out. Use them as a guide when rolling out the dough.

Want to keep your child busy while you make the dough? Give him this template. Tell them that a drawing is required for a sweet house. Let the young architect cut out a blank according to the template and assemble a three-dimensional drawing.

The option of cutting out diagrams is good, but takes a lot of time. An easier way is to take ready-made molds. Such products last a long time and significantly speed up the baking process. You just need to roll out the dough and squeeze out the necessary parts with a mold. In the case of the red form (third photo), you don’t even need a rolling pin. Using your fingers, fill the openings in the pan with dough. Smooth the top and remove excess. Bake cookies in the oven at 180℃, assemble and decorate.

Photo gallery

Little gingerbread houses

Gingerbread houses don't have to be large. Miniature gingerbread cookies look like toys. They decorate Christmas trees, a festive table or a fireplace area.

Large voluminous gingerbread houses

If you wish and have enough time, you can make a wide variety of delicious gifts. For example, large multi-colored gingerbread houses. Baking the preparations, as you already understood, is not difficult. We encourage children to decorate buildings. But keep in mind that some of the building material may be eaten during construction.