Gingerbread House Recipe - Harry & Lexy's Workshop

This was our first attempt at making a Gingerbread House! We made this a couple of years ago but finally decided to share the recipe. It looks kind of cute (even if I say so myself!), and although preparing such a different dessert feels weird and new (it’s like a building construction!), it’s definitely worth the effort. The recipe is divided into two parts – making the gingerbread house dough and assembling the house.

We used cookie cutters for the house parts but if you don’t have any, you can cut them out yourself using a knife. It is not difficult, you need mostly rectangular shapes and you can use a ruler.

You need the following:

For the roof panels: 2 rectangles 18 х 14 cm

For the side walls: 2 rectangles 15 х 8 cm

For the gables: Please note that these walls are similar to regular pentagons. The final version looks like a triangle placed next to the long side of a rectangle. Start with the base of the rectangle – draw a 13 cm-long line. Then draw the two broad sides of the rectangle, each 8 cm in length. Check where is the middle of the base you drew first – it falls at 7.5 cm. Now just measure (without cutting the dough) a straight line with a length of 17 cm and note where it ends. From this end point, draw two straight lines that connect the short sides of the rectangle. This creates an almost regular pentagon. You need two such figures – for the gables.

For the door: Cut a 6 x 3 cm rectangle from the front wall of the gingerbread house. Give freedom to your imagination – you can cut one, two or even three doors if you want, and you can place them wherever you want. You can cut small square or circular windows. We decided to keep the cut-out doors and windows and bake all parts together. Then we added them to the walls at an angle so they look like an open door or open windows. If you are not feeling confident about cutting them out, you don’t have to do it. You can just draw windows and doors with royal icing.

For the chimney: You need a rectangle measuring 10 x 2.5 cm + another smaller rectangle measuring 6 x 2.5 cm

For the side walls of the chimney you need 2 trapezoids with the following dimensions: base 10 cm. On the right side of the base, draw a 2.5 cm long straight line at 90°. From the end of the short side, draw another straight line (parallel to the base) with a length of 6 cm. Connect the two longer sides with a straight line.

If you like, you can cut out a couple of figures to place around the house – gingerbread man, Christmas tree cookies, snowman or reindeer cookies – depending on the cookie cutters you have.

Gingerbread House Ingredients:

500 g flour + some more for dusting the work surface
200 g honey
180 g butter
125 g caster sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tbsp baking soda
¼ tbsp salt

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 170° C fan.
Melt the butter in a large pan over a low heat then add the sugar and honey. Remove from the heat and stir.
Add all remaining ingredients and mix until blended into a thick dough.
Put a sheet of baking paper on your work surface and roll the dough to approx. 5mm thick. Flour the cutters (if you have ready gingerbread house cutters) or alternatively, cut the shapes as described above: 2 side walls, 2 gable ends, 2 roof panels, chimney parts (2 sloped pieces, one of which needs to be flipped before baking) and a few windows and doors. The larger pieces can be cut out on baking paper separately. Cut out a few additional gingerbread cookies – snowman, reindeer, Christmas trees, whatever you want.
Transfer the baking paper with the shapes onto baking trays making sure there is enough space between them and bake for 10-15 minutes or until firm to touch (the dough will crisp as it cools). Carefully lift onto cooling racks and leave to cool.

While you’re waiting for the Gingerbread house to cool, make the royal icing. We decorated our house only with white royal icing but if you feel like experimenting and want something more colourful, you can use food colours.

Assembling the Gingerbread House:

Place a 30cm (12″) or larger, round cake board onto your work surface. If you don’t have any, you can wrap a round chopping board in foil.
Transfer the royal icing into a piping bag and pipe the icing along the base of one side panel and position on the board. Prop up temporarily with a tea cup or small glass. Pipe the icing along the base and one side of the front panel. Position against side panel. Prop up with the same or another tea cup.
Pipe the icing along one side and the base of the other side panel. Position against the front and prop up with another tea cup. Pipe the icing along the base and both sides of the back panels. Position against side panels and leave to dry for 20 minutes.
Remove the tea cups. Pipe icing along the top edges of the walls and panels and place one part of the roof in position. Repeat for the other side.
You may need to hold these on firmly for a few minutes until the icing starts to dry. Allow to dry for further 30 minutes or until dry completely.
Ice the doors and windows and attach to the walls as desired.
Pipe icing along the chimney parts and allow to dry. Place on the roof and fix with icing. Decorate the gingerbread characters, snowman and trees and fix to the board with icing. Allow to dry completely.
Decorate the walls and the roof of the house, paint tiles or any other doodles on the walls of the house to make it look more christmassy and festive.
Decorate the gingerbread man, snowman and reindeer cookies and prop them up on the board. You can pipe the remaining royal icing onto the board to make it look like fallen snow. Another idea is to make a little path leading to the Gingerbread house. Set aside again and allow it to dry completely and enjoy your masterpiece!