Today we will learn how to bake a gingerbread house at home. Our recipe with photos will reveal the secrets of how to properly prepare gingerbread dough and create fabulous Christmas decor.
Making your own gingerbread house - little tricksThese little tricks will help you properly prepare real choux gingerbread dough:
- it is prepared with honey and without adding sugar or molasses;
- Do not use artificial raising agents. Vodka/cognac/rum should be added to the dough (4 tablespoons per 1 kilogram of flour);
- You cannot use margarine or vegetable oil instead of butter;
- to achieve better results in preparing gingerbread dough, use low-grade flour;
- be sure to use gingerbread spices (dry perfumes), which are easy to prepare at home. In a blender, grind coriander seeds (1 tsp) + cinnamon (1 tsp) + cardamom seeds (0.5 tsp) + nutmeg (1/3 tsp) + cloves (2-3 pcs.) + star anise seeds (1/3 tsp) + allspice (4-5 pcs.) + dry ginger (1/3 tsp). For 1 kilogram of dough use 1-2 tsp. dry perfume;
- Do not bake the gingerbread dough for too long;
- It is recommended to place a few pieces of fresh apple next to the gingerbread cookies. This way they will retain their aroma longer and will not become stale;
- if you use light honey, the dough can be tinted with cocoa powder to achieve a dark gingerbread shade;
- the resulting dough is quite plastic; it should not stick to the table, but only slightly to your hands; do not knead the dough too hard, as it will not rise during baking and the gingerbread cookies will turn out hard; very thin dough will spread and the gingerbread cookies will lose their shape;
- Gingerbreads based on raw dough become hard and dry out faster than gingerbreads made from choux pastry.
Using a measuring cup = 250 milliliters
Dough:- Wheat flour (premium grade) – 3 cups,
- Natural honey – ¾ cup,
- Butter 72%-82% - 100 grams,
- Sour cream 26% - 100 grams,
- Vodka/cognac/rum – 3 tbsp. spoons,
- Spices for gingerbread (dry perfume) – ¾ teaspoon,
- Chicken egg (D-1) – 1 piece,
- Drinking water – ¼ cup
- Chicken egg white (D-0) – 1 piece,
- Powdered sugar – 150 – 200 grams.
The wonderful tradition of making a gingerbread house with your own hands before the New Year and Christmas holidays came to our country not so long ago from Europe. The art of creating these edible architectural masterpieces originated in Germany in the 19th century and quickly gained popularity, spreading to neighboring European countries. Gingerbread houses not only became an obligatory holiday decoration for people's homes, but also became a fixture at Christmas fairs and special exhibitions, where you could even get some nice prize for them. So, for more than 20 years, in the charming Norwegian town of Bergen, shortly before Christmas, a real gingerbread town has been opening, for which local residents create edible exhibits of amazing beauty and originality.
An important prerequisite for the emergence of the gingerbread house culture was the creation in the Middle Ages of a special type of dough, the products from which did not go stale for a long time and remained edible even a couple of weeks after baking. Gingerbread dough and making houses from it allowed people not only to decorate their homes for the holidays, but also later to feast on these delicious decorations to the delight of all family members, young and old. In addition, this is a very aromatic, plastic and very easy-to-prepare dough, working with which is a real pleasure for both beginners and advanced cooks.
Today I want to tell you in detail how to make a gingerbread house with your own hands, making sure to involve your friends, children and other family members in this exciting activity. There is nothing particularly difficult in making a house, and I will try to reveal all the secrets and possible pitfalls of this process so that you can easily create your own unique and inimitable culinary and architectural masterpiece. A home-made gingerbread house can serve as a wonderful element of New Year's decor in your apartment, as well as go to a school exhibition or a charity Christmas fair. At the end of the holidays, you can even arrange a ritual eating of the house, although personally I would not risk encroaching on my own work of art. But just in case, I advise you not to store it for more than two weeks before eating it.
Be sure to try making a gingerbread house at home with your family and friends. This is a great holiday activity that will help you and your children develop their imagination and unleash their creative abilities, and in addition, it may well become your new family New Year's tradition!
How to make a gingerbread house with your own hands:, and,INGREDIENTS:
- 420 g flour
- 150 g honey
- 80 g sugar
- 1 pack vanilla sugar
- 90 g butter
- 2 small eggs
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ground spices: 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/2 tsp. cardamom, pinch of cloves, pinch of nutmeg
Glaze No. 1:
- 1 egg white
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
Glaze No. 2:
- 1 egg white
- 200 g powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
Decorations:
- colored sprinkles
- multi-colored jelly beans
- coconut flakes
COOKING METHOD:
1. In order to make a gingerbread house with your own hands for the New Year, first knead delicious and aromatic gingerbread dough for it. To do this, put sugar, honey, vanilla sugar and diced butter in a small saucepan.
2. Heat the honey mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, until all components are combined into a thick, homogeneous mass. Do not bring the mixture to a boil, as this will cause the honey to lose its beneficial properties. 
3. Cool the mixture for 10 - 15 minutes until slightly warm, then add eggs and ground spices to it and mix thoroughly. 
4. Pour the honey mixture into a deep bowl for kneading the dough and gradually, in 2 to 3 additions, add flour sifted with baking powder into it. 
5. Knead the dough thoroughly until smooth with your hands or in a food processor using the dough hook attachment. The gingerbread dough should be tight, not sticky at all, and easy to form into a ball. 
6. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or even overnight.
For ease of rolling, I divided the gingerbread dough into 2 parts and shaped them into flat rectangles. But you can store the dough in the form of one large ball. If the dough has been in the refrigerator for several hours, it is better to take it out 20 - 30 minutes before working with it to simplify the rolling procedure.
7. Meanwhile, you need to cut out templates for the gingerbread house from thick cardboard. You can cut windows and a door into them in advance, but I did this on already rolled out dough “by eye”. In addition, you can even not cut out the windows at all, but paint them on the walls of the house with protein glaze.
8. Roll out half of the gingerbread dough on a floured surface into a layer approximately 5 mm thick.
Important! When rolling, keep in mind that the dough will slightly increase in size during baking. It should not be too thin, otherwise the structure of the house will be fragile, but walls that are too thick will be difficult to fix together.
9. Attach cardboard templates to the dough and cut out the details of the house. Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment and lightly sprinkle flour on top. 
10. Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C on the lower level for 10 - 12 minutes. The dough for the gingerbread house should not brown; as soon as it starts to turn golden around the edges, it should be removed from the oven. 
11. Also roll out the remaining dough, cut it out and bake a base for a house of any shape and other details to decorate the entire installation that your imagination suggests - a chimney, a bench, Christmas trees, etc. You can make gingerbread cookies from the leftover dough and bake and eat them without leaving the cash register :) 
12. While the house parts are cooling, you should prepare protein glaze No. 1 to decorate the house. To do this, beat the chilled egg white at high mixer speed until foamy, gradually adding powdered sugar. 
13. Beat the mixture intensively for 2 - 3 minutes and add lemon juice at the very end. You should get a thick but flowing protein glaze. 
14. Pour the glaze into a pastry bag with a thin tip and decorate the house with it at your discretion. You can outline the windows, door, draw tiles on the roof, etc. 
15. While the icing is not dry, you can stick various decorations on it - colored confectionery sprinkles, multi-colored dragees like “M&M’s”, and also sprinkle the details with coconut shavings to imitate snow. After this, you need to let the glaze dry completely for several hours, otherwise it may smear or leak when installing the house parts. 
16. To fasten the parts and install the house, you should prepare protein glaze No. 2 with an increased amount of powdered sugar. It turns out thicker and stickier and dries faster, allowing you to better fix all the connections.
The first step is to install two adjacent walls of the house on a base baked from dough or some other surface (plate, tray). Protein glaze should be applied using a pastry bag to those surfaces that are fastened to each other, as well as to the base for the house. Having installed the walls, you can hold them for a while with your hands until the glaze hardens, or support them on all sides with objects of suitable size. In addition, to make the walls stand straighter and perpendicular to each other, you can insert a rectangular object inside the house.
Advice! If you see that the joints of the house parts do not fit together very well, for example, due to their deformation during the baking process, then you can lightly file them with a knife for a more accurate and convenient fit to each other.
17. Next, you need to immediately install the other two walls of the house and wait for them to be firmly fixed for about an hour. To prevent the protein glaze left for the roof from drying out during this time, cover the bowl with it with a damp towel. 
18. At the last stage of assembling the house, you need to attach two parts of the roof in turn, generously coating the joints with protein glaze.
Advice! During the process of assembling a gingerbread house, some problems may arise, for example, glaze leaking where it shouldn't, or, conversely, lack of glaze in some places. Spreaded glaze can be easily corrected or removed using a cotton swab, or applied to crevices or other necessary places with a brush.
After the house is completely assembled, you can further decorate it or correct any imperfections with the remaining protein glaze. In addition, you can decorate the base of the house with glaze and sprinkles, as well as glue and attach the remaining parts - a chimney, an entrance door, a bench, etc. Here the scope for your imagination is practically unlimited.
A cozy and elegant gingerbread house, made by yourself with the help of loved ones and relatives, will create a New Year's mood and will be the best home decoration for the upcoming holidays! 
This recipe is amazing, the aroma of this house is so crazy and attractive that you want to eat everything at once! But you shouldn't do this! The best thing is that the brightest taste and aroma opens in 2-3 weeks! Then your house will begin to emit such an aroma that you will immediately understand - it’s time! If you prepare this house for Christmas, it will delight you with both taste and aroma until the end of January! Immediately after baking, as soon as the dough cools, it becomes hard, but by the time it ripens, it becomes soft, sometimes even the roof falls in - it will be so soft and melting in the mouth. This gingerbread house recipe is also suitable for novice housewives!
How to make the dough for a gingerbread house:
(The honey dough recipe was published in the CAKE DECO magazine, author Svetlana, personally tested, written down from my own experience)
To prepare this test you will need:
500 gr. honey,
2 eggs,
500 gr. Sahara,
300 gr. oils,
50 gr. cocoa,
2 tsp baking powder,
3 tbsp. l. rum or cognac or 3 drops of flavoring,
Spices - 1 tsp. cinnamon, a pinch each - cardamom, cloves, ginger, anise,
Zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon,
Vanilla,
1250 gr. flour.
Step-by-step preparation of dough for a house for Christmas:
1. Place honey, sugar and butter in a large (heat-resistant) container. Place on low heat and heat, stirring. Make sure it doesn't boil!! We wait until the sugar is completely dissolved - take the mixture into a spoon and pour it back, making sure that there are no sugar crystals in the mixture! Remove from heat and leave to cool until warm.
2. Mix half the flour with spices, baking powder, zest and cocoa.
3. Add eggs into the warm honey mixture, not beaten, but simply mixed until smooth, in 2 additions. Add rum/cognac.
4. Gradually stir the spiced flour into the honey mixture with a spoon. Next, we begin to add the rest of the flour little by little, but not all of it. Bring the dough to a state of dense and elastic. And put the dough in a bag in the refrigerator to rest. This will reveal the properties of the dough. Usually the dough rests overnight, the next day you can start adding the rest of the flour. Flour is mixed into the dough until it is elastic, but not hard.
It is not recommended to mix in all the flour specified in the recipe. I have had occasions where much less flour was needed, and also on one occasion where more flour was used than in the base recipe. This happens because of other components - for example, because of the quality of honey.
In order to understand whether there is enough flour, you need to roll out the dough (no thinner than 5 mm) and cut out something not large. I usually try it on a Christmas tree (Photo 2). If the Christmas tree has lost its shape (photo 3) - add more flour boldly! (Photo 4)
Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4
BAKE at 180 degrees. The original recipe said 20 minutes, according to experience - no more than 10 minutes. And then, after 8, you should already be careful that it doesn’t burn!
Well, we have the dough ready, we can start building the house! We take absolutely any house template! I made very small ones and made the template myself. If it is difficult for you to draw a template for a gingerbread house, you can take a ready-made one in the previous article How to make a gingerbread house, recipe for goats and gingerbread, master class. or count by cells and draw the same on a notebook sheet.
Roll out the dough, and remember that it must be at least 5 mm. Otherwise, the wallpaper will then be very hard and will never become soft. Lay out the template and cut out the parts. We lay them out on parchment.
And we bake.
If it's burnt...
If you happen to get a little burnt while baking, don’t be upset.
We take a knife and scrape it, only carefully so as not to break the workpiece. If the edges are not straight, then the house may “move” during assembly. To avoid this, you can also trim the edges with a knife or grate them. Then your blanks will become even and the house will be easier to assemble!
That's it, the preparations are ready! The dough is enough to make 4 small gingerbread houses or 1 large one with various decorations such as Christmas trees, fences, etc. It depends on your template! You can either leave the remaining dough in the refrigerator or freeze it! It keeps great!
How to assemble a gingerbread house:
We will combine and decorate the blanks with icing sugar.
How to make sugar icing for a gingerbread house:
I take the following ratio: for 1 protein, approximately 200-250 grams of powdered sugar. Why approximately, because proteins are also different, you need to look at the mass. But you shouldn’t decide whether it’s enough or not right away, when you start beating with a mixer, but after 3 minutes, when the mass turns white, and if it’s liquid, then add more powder! You only need to use purchased powder! Otherwise, you will get large particles and the color will not be white. In the industrial production of powder, additional cleaning units and special equipment are used to make the grind very fine. By the way, it is best to additionally sift purchased powder through organza, then the glaze will be perfect.
You need to beat until soft peaks form; if it turns out too liquid, everything will flow; if it’s too thick, it will be difficult to apply and will not stick to the workpiece.
You can apply glaze to the workpieces in several ways: using store-bought pastry bags, using regular bags with a sharp edge, using a syringe, or cream nozzles.
I have different attachments - however, for those who are keen, I recommend buying them! Great potential for creativity opens up! Therefore, I will tell you how I decorate using these attachments.
You can also put the tips in a piping bag, but I think that's a waste of money. Because these bags are disposable, you just throw them away later))) I suggest making cornets from parchment (you have it, since you baked on it!)
How to make a cornet - a bag for glaze with your own hands:
Cut a triangular piece from your roll of paper,
and cut into triangles. It turns out 4 triangles. We cut it carefully; the quality of the cornet made depends on this.
and connect to the corner.
We do the same with the other edge, bringing it to the same corner.
We wrap the resulting edge inward,
carefully cut in two places and wrap the piece on the outside to secure it.
So, we are ready to assemble the gingerbread house, we have the blanks, icing, and cornets.
How to assemble a gingerbread house!
Cut off a corner of the cornet, insert the nozzle into it and apply the glaze with a spoon. We wrap the edge and secure it.
We begin to paint the details, this time I first drew up the blanks and only then assembled them, but you can paint an already assembled house.
When painting, it all depends on your imagination; you can make a complex drawing depicting flowers or brickwork, I had a simple drawing that was accessible to everyone! I made an imitation of tiles on the roof, and decorated the sides with simple curlicues. It looks beautiful if you cover the entire side with glaze, let it dry and paint on top, but it turns out to be a lot of glaze, and I had a house for children!
When the preparation of the blanks is completed, you need to give it time to dry, you can drink tea))))
Then you can start assembling the house! You can assemble the house either on a gingerbread base or, like me, on any other stand - I have disposable plates. Assembling begins with one of the end parts and sides - glaze is applied and, as it were, glued to each other. If the glaze is liquid, it will be difficult to glue, because... It won’t stick; if it’s thick, it simply won’t apply.
Glue all 4 sides and let them dry - I did it for about 20 minutes!
We hold both sides of the roof for a while to prevent them from rolling off, and leave them to dry a little. After that, you can start making snow decorations from the remaining glaze! Don't forget to make like icicles from the roof!
This time my windows are empty, due to lack of opportunity to buy marmalade in Egypt. But if there is such an opportunity, we buy either single-color large pieces or straight pieces (sold in large supermarkets, as briquettes). Cut it off, or take a ready-made marmalade, and glue it onto the icing in place of the window! After drying, you can decorate the window with snow decor. You can also make shutters for windows from the cut out part and glue them to the glaze as well.
Sincerely,
Antonina Bodyagina
[email protected]
Many step-by-step master classes with photos on baking and sweets, dozens of recipes for delicious cupcakes can be found in the ABOUT TASTY section! Bon appetit and inspiration!
Despite all the apparent complexity, preparing such a house is quite simple. In addition, to save time when preparing the holiday, it can and even should be prepared in advance. It stores very well and only becomes tastier over time.
And also, a gingerbread house is not only a decoration for the New Year's table, but also an excellent sweet gift.
Place butter, honey, sugar and spices for gingerbread in a separate pan with a thick bottom. Place over low heat to heat, stirring the contents from time to time - the mass should become homogeneous. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved, but under no circumstances let the mixture boil!
Note: You can prepare a mixture of seasonings for gingerbread (if you can’t buy ready-made ones) yourself - just mix 1 teaspoon each of ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom... Use the specified amount in the recipe, use the rest in other recipes .
Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the grated lemon zest and fresh ginger.
Now you can measure the required amount of flour and mix it with baking powder and cocoa powder.
During this time, the mass will cool down a little and you can first stir in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth. And then add the sifted flour mixture with cocoa.
Knead the dough, adding additional flour to the work surface if necessary. The dough turns out to be very plastic, practically not sticking to your hands. And even if it seems to you that it is still sticky, I would not recommend “weighting” this dough with a large amount of flour - just knead it until smooth.
Then put it in some kind of sealable, airtight container (a bowl with a lid or just a food bag) and put it in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours (very convenient for the night).
Before you start working with the dough, take it out half an hour beforehand - let it warm up and soften a little, it will be easier to roll it out.
During this time, you need to decide on the size and type of house. You will have to draw and cut out patterns of parts from paper - the roof, front and sides.
After rolling out the dough, attach paper templates and cut out the required number of pieces from the dough.
2 pieces from each template.
From the remaining dough you can cut out decorative details at your discretion - a pipe, a fence, a Christmas tree... Whatever your imagination is enough for.
After all the decor, I still had dough left and from it I simply baked the base for the house.
Bake the house parts for about 10-12 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, until a beautiful golden color. We must remember that for smaller parts the time may be shorter, otherwise they may burn.
Allow all baked parts to cool completely on a flat surface to avoid deformation.
And now it’s time to prepare the sugar-lemon glaze - this is both a decoration and a means of “gluing” the parts of the house together.
You need to squeeze out the lemon juice, strain it through a strainer to remove the seeds and any pulp.
One of the fun and interesting activities during the New Year holidays is baking a gingerbread house. No winter holiday is complete without this traditional dessert. Almost every family has its own proven recipe, which is passed down through generations. What remains the same is the process of assembling and decorating the sweet decorations.
Baking a gingerbread house at home is very easy. How to do it? Find all the answers in this article.
- Prepare the dough you often use to bake gingerbread. Place it in a bag and leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
- While the dough is resting, make templates for the house. First, decide on the size of the sweet decor. Then cut out a rectangle and a square with a pointed top from cardboard. Take out the dough and roll it out to a thickness of 1 centimeter.
- Transfer the templates to the layer. In total you will need 4 rectangles and 2 shapes for the front (back) part of the house.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Bake the ginger dough pans for 15 minutes. Determine the degree of readiness by piercing a toothpick. If it comes out dry, then the dough is ready.
- While the cakes are still warm, trim the edges according to the template. Do this with a sharp knife so that the cut line has smooth edges. Such actions will ensure a tight connection of all parts of the house when assembled.
- The icing will help to connect the dough patterns together. Beat the whites with powdered sugar until peaks form.
- The cakes must cool completely before assembling. Brush the side of each base with the egg white mixture. Lift the pieces of decor one by one and apply them to each other.
- To ensure the stability of the structure, place a glass in the center of the house. Move it from one corner to another while connecting the shapes. Let the glaze harden a little.
- Once the walls are assembled, proceed to install the roof. Brush the edges of the cake with glaze. Place this side against the frame of the house. Keep the mold in this position for 5-10 minutes until it is firmly attached to the rest of the cakes.
- Install the second roof layer in the same way. Use your free hand to hold the two cakes together.
How to make a gingerbread house - decorating with sweet decor - Prepare or buy ready-made brown mastic. Instead of fondant, use a melted mixture of chocolate, butter, powdered sugar and caramel. Roll it out and cut into small rectangles.
- Push strips on one side of the mastic using a toothpick. This will give you a tile-shaped pattern.
- Decorate the roof with these blanks. Start gluing the fondant onto the cakes from the bottom row. Place each next tile segment above the previous one. Or in a checkerboard pattern.
- Make an imitation of logs near the house from sweet straws. Cut it into pieces of the required size.
- You can secure the sweet sticks with glaze. First apply it to the entire surface of the walls of the house, then install the tubes.
- Decorate the end of the roof with individual straw sticks and strips of mastic. Attach all parts to the icing.
- Cut out the door and window from brown mastic. Also make stripes on them or carved edges. The handle for the door will be a sugar bead.
- Place the figures on the house before the mastic hardens. Or brush the back of them with glaze.
- Place the attic window between the doors and the roof. Using a knife, apply a design on it in the form of two wings.
- Cut out the Christmas wreath from mastic using shapes of different diameters. Brush the surface with syrup and sprinkle with green sugar.
- Attach the decor above the doors. Decorate the wreath with red edible beads.
- Sprinkle the top of the dessert with powdered sugar. So the house will be covered in snow. Leave it to harden overnight, then transfer to a platter and serve.
Gingerbread house options Above was just one way to decorate New Year's decor. Show your imagination and make a gingerbread house an original decoration for your holiday table.
Now you know all the secrets of preparing a traditional Christmas treat. The process of creating a gingerbread house will seem like a game if you stick to such a simple master class. Therefore, you can bake it with your children. Bon appetit!
For a more detailed recipe for baking a gingerbread house at home, watch the video:
