Christmas Gingerbread House Recipe
Christmas is coming, how exciting! I love the carols, trees, twinkling lights, advent calendars and of course the kids’ delighted faces on Christmas morning.
Giveaway is now closed.
Congratulations to the winners – Australia: Amy Watson, USA: karatinajr, Canada: Cassandra Taylor and in New Zealand Phoenix Down.
Christmas Gingerbread House Recipe
Makes enough dough to make one house using this silicone mould.
125g (4.41 ounces) or 1/2 cup plus 2 tsp brown sugar
180g (6.35 ounces) or 3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
300g (10.58 ounces) or 3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp golden syrup or you can use treacle
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1 ½ Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
500g (17.64 ounces) or 3 cups and 3 Tbsp plain (or all purpose) flour
Preheat your oven to 170°C (338 degrees Fahrenheit).
Beat the butter, sugar, golden syrup and spices on low speed for a couple of minutes
Add the flour and mix until it forms a nice dough.
Split the dough between the sections of the house as shown in the video and push down into the mould.
Place the moulds onto baking trays and bake for 20 minutes, swapping the trays after 10 minutes.
Gingerbread House Icing Recipe
1kg (2.2 pounds) or 7 and 3/4 cups plus 3 Tbsp icing sugar
50g (1.76 ounces) powdered egg white or 114g (4.02 ounces) pavlova magic mix (one packet)
100millilitres (3.38 fluid ounces) water
plus an additional 2 – 5 Tbsp of water to get the correct consistency
To decorate the gingerbread house as shown in the video you will need:
1 packet of mint leaves
white fondant
green gel food colour
red fondant
10 red and 10 green Smarties
soft sugar pearls to decorate the tree
375g (13.23 ounces) or 2 1/2 cup white chocolate melts
50g (1.76 ounces) or 1/3 cup milk chocolate melts
1 packet hundreds and thousands
1 tube mini M&M’s
icing sugar for dusting the snow
2014
by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
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All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.
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Is this the same recipe for reardon bros hobbit gingerbread dessert
Is there a recipe for royal icing using real egg whites?
Hi Star Jackson, This recipe ( https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/disney-frozen-snowflakes/ ) uses pasteurized egg whites or powdered egg. Recipes with uncooked egg whites form a health risk in some areas.
Thank you for the idea and delicious recipe! Merry Christmas ??
Photo
Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year!
Hi Ann! How are you? Im planning to do a christmas gingerbread house. Here in Argentina is summer and we have too hot days and christmas is on saturday so… When i should do it? And if i do it tomorrow, where can i leave it so as not to melt? Sorry for my bad english. Thank you!!! (I WANT TO DO THE WHOLE HOUSE OF CHOCOLATE)…!!!
Hi Marti,
It is Summer time in Australia too and can get very hot and humid. Why don’t you just do the house of gingerbread and decorate in chocolate. It will cope much better. If you are doing the whole thing in chocolate, you will need to find a way to keep it cool and the temperature stable. The fridge is probably the best way to go.
Sorry!!! Please!!! Which icing are u using? I want to make it on my own way. I have to do: Royal Icing, confectioners icing, etc?? Which? Thank you!
And i want to do it with the common egg whites, not with powdered egg whites.
Marti you have to use Royal Icing
Hi Marti,
Ann provides the recipe for the type of icing she prefers in the blog above.
Hi Ann, I just wanted to share my first ever gingerbread house, I have used your video as an inspiration. I have attached the picture of it. I love all your creations!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
Great work Monika! We love your snowy roof and the tree.
Hi Ann, if I were to make the dough and roll it out to cut out parts from a template, would I need to put the dough in the fridge for an hour so it is good enough to work with?
Thank you!
Hi Sebastian, Yes that would usually be the case. Check out this page for an updated recipe: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/gingerbread-house-christmas-2016/
Hi is it possible to put cake inside the house?
Hi Fab, yes you can. You will need to pop it in before the roof goes on. The cake will need to be eaten within a day or two, but gingerbread house willl last longer.
Hi is it possible to put cake inside the house instead of candies?
I was unable to post a pic on the two storey page. Here was our best try. We had so much fun!
Hi Elizabeth, We can’t see your pic but I am sure you did a great job. Try loading a smaller image.
Hi, we can’t tell from the recipe or video if the brown sugar you use is packed down or not. (“1/2 cup plus 2 tsp” unpacked is a lot less than the same packed.)
Thanks! We LOVE watching your videos on YouTube!
Jane & George (USA)
hi Jane loosely packed
Hi Ann, i am at china and i cant find the pavlova magic mix. What else could i use?
Hi Mary, You could use a royal icing instead of the icing mix suggested on this page. Check out this page for that alternative: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/gingerbread-houses/
Hi Ann,i love all your recipes, your the best. I want to ask you if this Gingerbread recipe, can be stored in fridge for lets say 24 hours before bake it.
Hi Alis, Yes you can.
Mission complete, Gingerbread house decorated by Alana, thanks for all your detailed help Ann, you make it easy for us first timers!!
Hi Tamalisa, Great work Tamalisa and Alana. Well done!
Hi Ann,
I would love to try this recipe this Christmas, thank you for sharing your recipe!
How much golden syrup should we use?
Hi Young, the recipe asks for 300g (10.58 ounces) or 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons golden syrup (or you can use treacle).
i loved this recipe! very simple but yummy! i am from india. and the reason i would love to have this equipment would be because it undoubtedly saves time so indeed ill be able to experiment with more and more recipes. i have often been facing a problem with getting recipes perfectly done because i use a hand beater so if i get this equipment it will really help me decipher the art of desserts which is my love and passion.
Hi Anne,
I wonder whether you would consider testing some egg free royal icing recipes to hold together gingerbread houses. I have searched google and there seem to be some that contain glucose syrup as an alternative and also gelatin. Do you think they would work? I live in Newcastle Australia and I love your creative genius.
Thanks a lot
Pili
Hi Pili, If you need a quick egg free alternative you could use chocolate for decorating and gluing the pieces together. Some people like it better.
I used your recipe to make spooky haunted houses this week for a play date. It was a great success! Thanks for the video, the recipe and the tips. I added black food coloring to the dough to make the houses more spooky. 🙂 I think we might make houses for all the big holidays now. The kids and adults loved it.
I’m from the US and I’m a new mom so I would love a new mixer to at first bake for my daughter and then later to teach her how to cook and bake!! I waited for 13 years to have a baby (I had her at 38) and I LOVE being a mom!
Thanks for the great video! We just ordered these molds and we are going to make a haunted house for Halloween and then we will do this beautiful house for the holidays!
opps…I just noticed this contest was for 2014. Sorry!
Hi Ann, Great work! I love the gingerbread house video,planning to do it this Christmas.
Will the mould work on cake base recipe instead of cookie?
Thank you .
Hi Spidamonki, If using a standar cake mix, this mold would not work.. Cake can’t hold its own weight and stand up. If this you will need to use something similar to the recipe that is provided to ensure it has the density to be stable and hold it’s own weight.