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 make fabulous Christmas decor.

Making your own gingerbread house - little tricks

These little tricks will help you properly prepare real gingerbread custard dough:

  • it is cooked on honey and without the addition of sugar, molasses;
  • do not use artificial baking powder. Vodka / cognac / rum should be added to the dough (4 tablespoons per 1 kilogram of flour);
  • you can not use margarine or vegetable oil instead of butter;
  • to achieve the best result in the preparation of gingerbread dough, use low-grade flour;
  • be sure to use spices for gingerbread (dry perfume), 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, 1-2 tsp are used. dry perfume;
  • do not bake gingerbread dough for too long;
  • next to the gingerbread, it is recommended to put a few pieces of fresh apple. So they retain their aroma longer and do not become stale;
  • if you use light honey, the dough can be tinted with cocoa powder to achieve a dark gingerbread shade;
  • at the exit, the dough turns out to be quite plastic; it should not stick to the table, but only a little to the hands; do not knead too steep dough, as it will not rise during baking, and the gingerbread cookies will turn out hard; very thin dough will spread and the gingerbread will lose its shape;
  • gingerbread based on raw dough becomes hard and dries out faster than gingerbread made from choux pastry.

DIY gingerbread house, recipe with step by step photos

Required Ingredients

Using a measuring cup = 250 milliliters

Dough:

  • Wheat flour (w / s) - 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

Glaze (icing):

  • Chicken egg protein (D-0) - 1 piece,
  • Powdered sugar - 150 - 200 grams.

A 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. Not only did gingerbread houses become a must-have holiday decoration for people's homes, but they also made their home at Christmas markets 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 city has been opened, for which local residents create edible exhibits of amazing beauty and originality.

An important prerequisite for the emergence of a culture of gingerbread houses was the creation back in the Middle Ages of a special type of dough, products from which did not get 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 enjoy these delicious decorations to the delight of all family members, young and old. In addition, this is a very fragrant, plastic and very easy-to-prepare dough, which is a real pleasure to work with for both beginners and advanced cooks.

Today I want to tell you in detail how to make a gingerbread house with my own hands, be sure to connect my friends, children and other family members to this exciting business. 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 homemade gingerbread house can serve as a wonderful element of the New Year's decor of your apartment, as well as go to a school exhibition or a charity Christmas market. 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.

Be sure to try making a gingerbread house at home with family and friends. This is a great holiday pastime that will help you and your children develop your imagination and creativity, and besides, 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, a pinch of cloves, a pinch of nutmeg

Glaze #1:

  • 1 egg white
  • 100 g powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp lemon juice

Glaze #2:

  • 1 egg white
  • 200 g powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp lemon juice

Decorations:

  • colored sprinkles
  • colorful dragees
  • coconut flakes

COOKING METHOD:

1. In order to make a do-it-yourself gingerbread house for the New Year, first knead tasty and fragrant 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 the ingredients are combined into a thick homogeneous mass. Do not bring the mixture to a boil, as honey will 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 2-3 doses, pour the flour sifted with baking powder into it.

5. Thoroughly knead the dough until smooth with your hands or in a food processor using the “hook” attachment. The gingerbread dough should be tight, not sticky at all, and easily come together in a ball.

6. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap 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 gave them the shape of flat rectangles. But you can store the dough in the form of one large ball. If the dough has lain in the refrigerator for several hours, it is better to take it out 20 to 30 minutes before working with it in order to simplify the rolling procedure.

Gingerbread house template

7. In the meantime, 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 it on an already rolled out dough “by eye”. In addition, windows can not even be cut out at all, but painted on the walls of the house with protein glaze.


8. Roll out half of the gingerbread dough on a floured surface into a layer about 5 mm thick.

Important! When rolling out, keep in mind that the dough will expand slightly during baking. It should not be too thin, otherwise the structure of the house will be fragile, but too thick walls 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 paper and dust lightly with flour.

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 be browned, as soon as it begins to golden around the edges, it must be removed from the oven.

11. Also roll out the remaining dough, cut it out and bake the base for a free-form house and other details to decorate the entire installation that your imagination tells you - a chimney, a bench, Christmas trees, etc. You can make gingerbread cookies from the rest of the dough, bake and eat them without leaving the cash register 🙂

12. While the details of the house are cooling, you should prepare protein glaze No. 1 to decorate the house. To do this, beat the chilled egg white at high speeds of the mixer into foam, gradually adding powdered sugar.

13. Beat the mixture vigorously for 2-3 minutes and add lemon juice at the very end. You should get a thick, but fluid protein glaze.

Decorating and assembling a gingerbread house

14. Pour the icing into a pastry bag with a thin nozzle and decorate the house with it at your discretion. You can circle the windows, the door, draw the tiles on the roof, etc.

15. Until the icing is dry, you can stick various decorations on it - colored confectionery sprinkles, multi-colored M&M's dragees, and also sprinkle parts with coconut flakes that imitate snow. After that, it is necessary to allow the glaze to dry completely for several hours, otherwise it may smear or leak when installing the parts of the house.

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 joints.

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 with 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 with your hands for some time until the glaze hardens, or support them on all sides with objects that are suitable in size. In addition, to make the walls stand more even and perpendicular to each other, you can insert a rectangular object inside the house.

Advice! If you see that the joints of the parts of the house do not fit together very well, for example, due to their deformation during the baking process, then you can slightly file them with a knife for a more precise and comfortable fit to each other.


17. Next, you must immediately install the other two walls of the house and wait for them to be firmly fixed for about an hour. So that the protein glaze left for the roof does not dry 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 smearing the joints with protein glaze.

Advice! In the process of assembling a gingerbread house, some problems may arise, for example, glaze flowing where it should not, or, conversely, a lack of glaze in some places. Spilled glaze can be easily corrected or removed with a cotton swab, and also applied with a brush to cracks or other necessary places.


After the house is fully assembled, you can additionally decorate it or correct the imperfections with the remaining protein glaze. In addition, you can decorate the base for the house with icing 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 with the help of relatives and friends, will create a New Year's mood and become the best home decoration for the upcoming holidays!


This recipe is amazing, the aroma of this house is so maddening, attractive that you want to eat everything at once! But don't do it! The beauty 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 cook this house for Christmas, then until the end of January it will delight you with both taste and aroma! 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 collapses - it will be so soft and melt in your mouth. This recipe for a gingerbread house is also suitable for beginner housewives!


How to make dough for a gingerbread house:
(The honey dough recipe was published in the TORT-DECO magazine, author Svetlana, personally tested, recorded from her 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 art. l. rum or cognac or 3 drops of flavoring,
Spices - 1 tsp cinnamon, a pinch - 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. Put honey, sugar and butter into a large container (heat-resistant). We put on a slow fire and heat, stirring. Make sure it doesn't boil!! We are waiting for the complete dissolution of sugar - we 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 of the flour with spices, baking powder, zest and cocoa.

3. We introduce eggs into the warm honey mixture, not beaten, but simply mixed until smooth, in 2 doses. Add rum/cognac.

4. Gradually stir the spicy flour into the honey mixture with a spoon. Next, we begin to add a little the rest of the flour, but not all. We bring the dough to a state of dense and elastic. And put the dough in a bag in the refrigerator, lie down. So the properties of the test will be revealed. 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 all the flour indicated in the recipe. I have had cases where much less flour was needed, and also once more flour was included than in the basic recipe. This happens because of other components - for example, because of the quality of honey.


In order to understand whether there is enough flour, it is necessary to roll out the dough (not thinner than 5 mm) and cut something not large. I usually try on the Christmas tree (Photo 2). If the Christmas tree has lost its shape (photo 3) - stir in the flour more boldly! (Photo 4)

Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4

BAKE at 180 degrees. The original recipe was written 20 minutes, according to experience - no more than 10 minutes. And then, after 8 it would be necessary to make sure that it does not burn!

Well, we have the dough ready, you can take on the house! We take absolutely any house template! I made very small ones and made the template myself. If it’s difficult for you to draw a template for a gingerbread house, you can take it ready in the previous article How to make a gingerbread house, a recipe for roe and gingerbread, a master class. or count by cells and draw the same on a notebook sheet.

We roll out the dough, and remember that it should be at least 5 mm. Otherwise, the obo will then become very hard and never become soft. We lay out the template and cut out the details. Lay them out on parchment.


And we bake.

If it's on fire...


If during baking it just so happened that it got a little burnt, do not be discouraged.


We take a knife and scrape, only carefully so as not to break the workpiece. If uneven edges are obtained, then during assembly the house can “go”. To avoid this, you can also cut the edges with a knife, or rub on a grater. Then your blanks will become even and the house will be easier to assemble!

Everything, the blanks 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! Leftover dough can either be left in the fridge or frozen! It is well kept!


How to build a gingerbread house:

We will connect and decorate the blanks with icing sugar.

How to make icing sugar for a gingerbread house:
I take the following ratio: for 1 protein, about 200-250 grams of powdered sugar. Why approximately, because proteins are also different, you need to look at the mass. But it is not necessary to draw a conclusion whether it is enough or not immediately, as they began to beat with a mixer, but after 3 minutes, when the mass turns white, and if it is liquid, then add more powder! Powder must be used only purchased! Otherwise, you will come across large particles and the color will not be white. In the industrial production of powder, additional cleaning units and special equipment are used that make grinding very fine. By the way, it is best to additionally sift the purchased powder through organza, then the glaze will be perfect.

It is necessary to beat until soft peaks, if it turns out too liquid, then everything will flow, if it is too thick, then it is difficult to apply and will not stick to the workpieces.

There are several ways to apply icing on blanks: using purchased confectionery bags, using regular sharp-edged bags, using a syringe, or cream nozzles.

I have different attachments - however, for those who are passionate, I recommend buying them! There is great potential for creativity! Therefore, I will tell you how I decorate with these nozzles.

Nozzles can also be placed in a pastry bag, but I find this a waste of money. Because these bags are disposable, then just throw them away))) I suggest making parchment cornets (you have it, since you baked on it!)

How to make a cornet - a bag for icing with your own hands:

Cut off a triangular piece from your roll of paper,

and cut into triangles. It turns out 4 triangles. We cut carefully, then the quality of the made cornetik depends on this.

and connect with the corner.

We do the same with the other edge, bringing it to the same corner.

The resulting edge is wrapped inward,

carefully cut in two places and wrap a piece on the outside to fix it.

So, we are ready to assemble the gingerbread house, we have blanks, icing, and cornets.

How to build a gingerbread house!
We cut off a corner from the cornet, insert the nozzle into it and apply glaze with a spoon. We wrap the edge and fasten.

We begin to paint the details, this time I first made out the blanks and only after I assembled it, but you can also paint the 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 available to everyone! She made an imitation of tiles on the roof, and decorated the sides with simple curls. It looks beautiful if you cover the entire sidewall with glaze, let it dry and paint on top, but it turns out a lot of glaze, and I had a house for children!

When the design of the blanks is completed, it is necessary to give time to dry, you can drink tea))))

Then you can start building your house! You can assemble the house both on a gingerbread base, and like me, on any other stand - I have disposable plates. They begin to collect from one of the end parts and sidewalls - glaze is applied and, as it were, glued to each other. If the glaze is liquid, then it will be difficult to stick, because. will not hold, if it is thick, then it simply will not apply.

We glue all 4 sides, and let them dry - I gave them 20 minutes!

We hold both sides of the roof for some time so that they do not roll down, and leave to dry a little. After that, you can start making snow decor from the remaining glaze! Don't forget to make icicles from the roof!

This time my windows are empty, for lack of opportunity to buy marmalade in Egypt. But if there is such an opportunity, we buy either solid large pieces, or a straight piece (sold in large supermarkets, in briquettes). Cut off, or take a ready-made marmalade, and glue it on 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 on 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 DELICIOUS section! Bon appetit and inspiration!

For all the apparent complexity, preparing such a house is quite simple. In addition, to save time when preparing a holiday, it can and even needs to be prepared in advance. It keeps very well and only gets better with time.

And yet, the gingerbread house is not only a decoration for the New Year's table, but also a great sweet gift.

Put butter, honey, sugar and spices for gingerbread into a separate pan with a thick bottom. Put on a small fire to heat up, stirring the contents from time to time - the mass should become homogeneous. It should be heated until the sugar is completely dissolved, but in no case let the mass boil!

Note: a mixture of spices for gingerbread (if it is not possible to buy ready-made) you can prepare yourself - just mix 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom ... Use the indicated amount in the recipe, use the remaining amount 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 right amount of flour and mix it with baking powder and cocoa powder.

During this time, the mass will cool down a bit and you can first stir in one egg at a time until smooth. And then add the sifted flour mixture with cocoa.


Knead the dough, adding more flour to the work surface if necessary. The dough is very plastic, practically not sticky to hands. And even if it seems to you that it is still sticky, I would not advise you to "weight" this dough with a lot of flour - just knead it until smooth.

Then put it in some sealed sealed container (a bowl with a lid or just a food bag) and put it in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours (very convenient at night).

Before you start working with the dough, take it out half an hour beforehand - let it warm up a little and soften, 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 details from paper - the roof, front and side.



After rolling out the dough, attach paper templates and cut out the desired number of pieces from the dough.


2 pieces from each template.


From the remaining dough, you can cut out the details of the decor at your discretion - a pipe, a fence, a Christmas tree ... What is enough for your imagination.



After all the decor, I still had dough left and from it I just baked the base for the house.


Bake the details of the house for about 10-12 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, until a beautiful golden color. At the same time, it must be remembered 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 details of the house.


It is necessary to squeeze the juice of a lemon, strain it through a strainer from the seeds and possible pulp.

One of the fun and interesting activities during the New Year holidays is baking a gingerbread house. A winter holiday is not complete without this traditional dessert. Almost every family has its own proven recipe, which has been passed down for generations. What remains unchanged is the process of assembling and decorating the sweet decor.
It is very easy to bake a gingerbread house at home. How to do it? Look for all the answers in this article.

How to make a gingerbread house - preparation and baking blanks

  • Prepare the dough you often use for baking gingerbread. Put 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 blanks. 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, roll out a layer 1 centimeter thick.


  • Transfer the templates to the layer. In total, you will need 4 rectangles and 2 shapes for the front (back) of the house.


  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Let the gingerbread dough bake 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 warm, cut the edges according to the pattern. 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.


How to make a gingerbread house - assembling the parts of the house

  • The icing will help connect the patterns from the dough. Beat egg whites with powdered sugar until peaks form.


  • Cakes must be completely cool before assembly. Brush the side of each base with the egg white mixture. Alternately lift the parts of the decor and apply 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 dry slightly.


  • When the walls are assembled, proceed to the installation of the roof. Grease the cake with icing around the edges. With this side, attach it to the frame of the house. Hold the form in this position for 5-10 minutes until it is firmly fixed on the rest of the cakes.


  • In the same way, install the second roof cake. Hold the two cakes together with your free hand.



How to make a gingerbread house - decoration with sweet decor

  • Make or buy ready-made brown mastic. Instead of mastic, use a melted mixture of chocolate, butter, powdered sugar and caramel. Roll it out and cut into small rectangles.


  • Press the strips on one side of the mastic with a toothpick. So you get a pattern in the form of tiles.


  • Decorate the roof with such blanks. Start gluing the mastic on the cakes from the bottom row. Place each next segment of the tile over the previous one. Or checkerboard.


  • Make an imitation of logs at the house from sweet straw. Cut it into pieces of the required size.


  • You can fix sweet sticks with icing. 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 sticks of straw 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.


  • Install the figures on the house until the mastic is frozen. Or smear the back of them with icing.


  • Place an attic window between the doors and the roof. With a knife, draw a pattern on it in the form of two flaps.


  • Cut out a Christmas wreath from mastic with shapes with different diameters. Brush the surface with syrup and sprinkle with green sugar.


  • Fix 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 in the snow. Leave it to set overnight, then transfer to a platter and serve.



Gingerbread house options

Above was presented just one way to decorate the New Year's decor. Show your imagination and make the gingerbread house an original decoration for the festive 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. Enjoy your meal!

For more details on the recipe for baking a gingerbread house at home, see the video: