Ann Reardon

Gingerbread House Recipe

Gingerbread House Recipe

Summary: To make your very own ginger bread house firstly you need to design a house out of paper, stick it together and check it works. Then make your ginger bread dough. To make a house the size of the one pictured above, you need to double these quantities. If you don’t have a stand mixer then use this gingerbread house recipe instead.

Preparation time: 45 minute(s) Cooking time: 30 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 1 house

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups or 760g (26.81 ounces) flour
  • 1 3/4 cups or 382g (13.47 ounces) sugar
  • 1/3 cup or 73g (2.57 ounces) butter
  • 1/3 cup copha
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon ginger
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 225ml or 1 cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs

 

Instructions

1. Put all the gingerbread ingredients in a bowl (minus the extra flour)

gingerbread house ingredients

2.Beat with a dough hook until well combined

ginger bread house mix with dough hook

3. Then tip out onto the bench and knead in another 2 1/2 cups of flour to make a soft dough.

4. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Then knead until smooth and divide into portions so you have enough for each side of the house and the roof.

refrigerate gingerbread dough

Roll out the dough on glad bake well paper – this makes it easy to transfer to baking trays without going out of shape.

Place the house pattern you have made onto the dough and using a pizza cutter cut around the edges.
You can use a knife but as you cut it tends to drag the dough out of shape.

put gingerbread house pattern onto dough

Make cuts for the windows and doors, but leave them in place. Also leave approx a 1 cm (0.39 inches) border of dough the whole way around the edge. This helps the pieces stay in shape and also prevents the edges of the house overcooking.

ginger bread house pieces

With left over dough you can cut out ginger bread men, or cookies.

gingerbread men

Bake until golden brown and very firm.

Once the gingerbread comes out of the oven, use your pizza cutter to recut your pieces,
then remove windows and doors and put it back in the oven for another five minutes.

ginger bread house

Remove from oven and leave to cool completely.

 

Recipe: Royal Icing

Summary: This icing is the ‘glue’ of gingerbread houses.

Ingredients

3 egg whites
450g (15.87 ounces) or 3 1/2 cup plus 1Tbsp icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or mint flavouring if you prefer)

 

Instructions

1. Using electric beaters combine all ingredients and beat on high speed for about 7 minutes or until stiff.
2. Place in piping bag (or ziplock bag with a hole in one corner).

 
Assembly

Cover a board with alfoil, and put royal icing along the base and then up the sides of the house.  If needed use cans of food to hold it in place.  Lastly ‘glue’ the roof in place.  Gently wrap in plastic wrap and leave overnight before decorating.

Decorating

If you have kids decorating then give them a side each, a bowl of lollies and a ziplock bag full of royal icing and let them go for it.  (you might also want a disposable plastic table cloth on the table before they start).  I like to give them a bowl of decorating lollies and a bowl of eating lollies each – all the decorating lollies have to go on the house.

You can also fill the inside with wrapped lollies or christmas lights.

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

15 Comments View Comments

  1. 3quietest

  2. Rating: 4.5

    Can i use butter instead of copha because i cant get copha

  3. Can I use normal butter instead of copha? if no, why not?

  4. If I am not able to get my hands on Copha, as it is not easily available in America to a kid who can’t drive, what can I use as a substitute? I have both Crisco, which is vegetable shortening, and solid coconut oil.

    • Hi Eudora, Copha is vegetable shortening so Crisco should work fine.

  5. how do I print this?

  6. Hi, Ann mentioned here that if we dont have a stand mixer, should use another recipe. Will an electric beater do the job?

    • Yes Nimra,It should.

  7. What temperature should this bake? (in F)

    • Hi Turner, bake in a moderate oven around 180C or 365F.

  8. What can I use instead of the cream of cream of tartar? Maybe baking powder will do the trick? Thanks

    • I have heard that the cream of tartar makes it hold its shape better and that you can lemon juice instead. I’m not sure that it would give it the exact same effect though.

  9. Hi Jason, I’m sorry but we don’t actually sell gingerbread mould kits on this website. Perhaps you purchased through Amazon?

  10. can you post the template? or where did you get the pattern from?

    • Hi Gwen, Ann doesn’t have a template for this gingerbread house but she does for her others. Here is a link to those recipes and you should find a template link on these pages: https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/?s=house

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