Simple, Easy Gingerbread Recipe for a Perfect, Beautiful Gingerbread House
Making gingerbread houses can be a little intimidating if you've never made one before. Or perhaps you've baked one before, but are looking for a simpler way to make a gingerbread house. That's sort of our area of expertise.
We've created this super simple, easy gingerbread recipe, using our Gingerbread House Kit, so you can have a perfect, beautiful gingerbread house with everything you need to let your creativity flow this holiday season. Today, we'll walk you through our easy gingerbread recipe, and walk you through assembling the base of the house.
About our kit:
Our gingerbread house kit includes everything you'll need to get a delicious and beautiful gingerbread house, that you can also customize following our gingerbread house ideas. It includes a gingerbread mix that we have perfected throughout our years of testing gingerbread recipes until we found the perfect gingerbread house recipe.
Our kit also includes ingredients to make royal icing, and different cookie cutters so that you can cut and decorate the house easily, as well as different candies for decoration. The only things you will need are some common kitchenware items and pantry items.
Kitchenware:
- Wax paper or parchment paper
- Mixer with the paddle attachment, and hook attachment (if you have one)
- 18-Inch baking sheet
- 1-gallon plastic food storage bag
Ingredients:
- 1 cup shortening (room temperature)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup unsulphured molasses (it's important to use unsulphured molasses for color and taste)
- 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 pack of Ginger's Breadboys gingerbread mix
- 1/4 cup of water
- Flour for dusting
Instructions:
1) Use a mixer with the paddle attachment to cream the shortening. Add sugar and mix.
2) Add the egg and mix well. Then add molasses, and apple cider vinegar, and mix.
3) Switch the mixer speed to slow and add gingerbread mix and water. Blend just until flour is incorporated into the mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, and mix.
4) Empty dough into the wax paper baking sheet.
5) Using the wax paper knead the dough to form a block. Wrap the block of dough in the same wax paper to form and place it inside the food storage bag.
6) Chill for three hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
7) Preheat the oven to 375 F
8) Remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap and cut the dough into 12 equal parts.
9) Place dough on a flat rolling surface, on top of pre-cut parchment paper. Cover with a sheet of wax paper.
10) Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a flat surface. Try to keep the square shape similar to that of the piece of parchment paper.
11) Using the cookie cutters, cut out the gingerbread dough into roof pieces, and sides.
12) Remove extra dough around the sides and set it aside. Save it for later! Don't toss it out. Repeat steps until you have 4 roof pieces and 4 wall panels.
13) Transfer the gingerbread house pieces with the parchment paper to a baking sheet. Before baking, you can use the included cutters to create doors, window panes, roof shingles, or disc pavers. The gingerbread house kit also includes embossers so you can create impression on the roof, or walls to create patterns. This will help give the house walls textures if you like, and guide you when you pipe the roof with icing.
14) Bake each piece for approximately 9 ~ 10 minutes. Baking time varies from oven to oven. The gingerbread should be firm but not crisp. Repeat the baking process with the smaller pieces (door, windows, etc.). Bake the smaller pieces for 8 minutes.
15) Let the pieces cool off completely before you assemble and decorate the house. This will prevent the icing from being runny and secure the pieces together. It's important for the icing to be hard when it dries, otherwise, the house won't stand the test of time, and may topple over and break.
Assembling the House:
Use our royal icing recipe to assemble the pieces securely in place. Pipe icing onto the house sides using tube #7. Assemble the sides first. These will be the base structure. You can use soup cans to hold the base structure in place while the icing dries. It will take a couple of minutes (roughly 8-10 minutes) for the icing to dry completely.
Piping extra icing on the inside edges of the panels can give the house even more stability.
Once the base panels are set, pipe icing to the sides of the roof pieces. A major mistake is attaching both roof pieces at the same time. Attach each roof piece at a time to the base structure. Let the icing dry out completely before decorating.
Decorating the House:
Time to decorate the house! Get creative! Use your favorite assorted candies. You can also add food coloring to the icing to add details to the house. You can follow our gingerbread house template for a traditional gingerbread house, or think outside of the box and get creative with some of our other design ideas.
Helpful Tips:
- All ingredients should be a room temperature before you start! Especially the shortening, so that it can be creamed properly.
- If the gingerbread mix becomes lumpy while sitting inside the tin, sift before using.
- Switch mixer's attachment to a hook attachment- if you have one- while incorporating gingerbread mix.
- Add flour or powdered sugar to the impression stamps to prevent them from sticking to the dough.
- If you won't be assembling the house after they cool off, you can refrigerate the pieces. Stack the house panels, separated with parchment or wax paper, and refrigerate.
Baking a gingerbread house can feel a little intimidating or complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. With this easy gingerbread house recipe and a little help from our gingerbread house kit, you can create a beautiful gingerbread house without being a seasoned baker. Don’t forget to tag us in your gingerbread creations!