How to make a Gingerbread House

As we are speeding into the Christmas season we wanted to share one of our favourite family traditions with you, how to make a Gingerbread house.

Of course, you can pop to most shops and buy a kit, but where is the festive fun in that? Making one from scratch is guaranteed to get you into the seasonal spirit and is something the whole family can get involved, decorating it and tailoring it to your own personal tastes.

What you’ll need

 For the gingerbread

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 7 tbsp golden syrup
• 600g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger – clearly you can add as much or as little ginger as you like

To decorate

• 200g flaked almonds – these will form the roof tiles which is a fantastic effect
• 2 egg whites
• 500g icing sugar, plus extra to dust or use pre-made icing sugar
• 125g mini chocolate fingers
• generous selection of sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
• 1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake for the chimney
• few edible silver balls

You’ll also need a piping bag and a template for the walls and roof panels, here is one from BBC Good Food.

Method

The first thing to do is download the BBC Good food template and cut out 2 side walls, a front and back wall and 2 roof panels ready to shape your dough.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C for a fan assisted oven, gas mark 6 or 200°C for a non-fan assisted oven. Put the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and mix them thoroughly together.  Now put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan and melt them all together. Once these are all melted and well mixed, pour the liquid into the flour mixture in the mixing bowl and blend it all together to form a really stiff dough. You might find that this becomes hard to mix simply because of the consistency. If that is the case, then mix in a little water and we mean a little! If you put too much in the dough will be too watery to shape. Don’t be afraid to get your hands in there!

Once you have your dough ready pop it between 2x large sheets of baking paper and roll it out until is it about 4-5mm thick. Place each shape on top of the rolled-out dough and cut around it to get the walls and the roof shapes for your house. Once the shapes have been cut out, pop them, still on the baking paper, onto a baking tray. Before you pop the shapes into the oven to bake, you’ll want to put the roof tiles on. Pick out the intact almond flakes and gently push them into the roof panels, pointed end first so that they form roof tiles. They don’t need to overlap like they would on a proper roof so don’t get too carried away. If you don’t want this effect then just leave the roof blank.

Pop the shapes into the oven and bake for around 12 minutes or until firm. Once baked let the shapes cool for a few minutes but, before they are totally cool, pop the templates back on top and re-shape the various walls and panels as they will have changed shape while cooking. For the best effect you really want super straight, super sharp edges.

Assemble the gingerbread house

If you have pre-made icing then you are good to go and start assembly. If not, then you need to make up your icing. This is very easy. Separate two eggs so you only have the egg whites and then put these into a mixing bowl. Slowly sift in the icing sugar and mix in thoroughly until you have a thick but smooth mixture. You don’t want lumps so slowly add the icing sugar. Once you have your icing ready, spoon it into an icing bag with a medium sized nozzle. You’re now ready to build your house. Start by putting the walls together. Simply pipe some icing along the edges of the walls and stick them together using the icing as glue. You might need to support the walls to stop them separating as the icing dries. Leave the icing to dry before adding the roof panels as this will give the structure some sturdiness. Pipe icing sugar along the end wall panels along the diagonal section and pipe some onto the roof panels themselves on the side with no almonds. Working one roof panel at a time, place the panel onto the walls and hold in place as the icing dries. If you stop supporting it too soon the roof panel might start slipping. Do the same for the other roof panel. Once all assembled, allow everything to dry out overnight.

Decorating your gingerbread house

Once everything has set and you have a nice sturdy house, it is time to decorate. Let your imagination run wild for our house we are going to make it look like a log cabin. Taking the chocolate fingers, apply some icing on the back and stick them horizontally one above the other down the side of the house to create a log cabin look. You can also make the door from the chocolate fingers. Simply stick them vertically on the front of the house. Using more icing sugar stick the sweets and the edible balls onto your house in any way you want. You can use your favourite sweets to decorate your house in any way you want. Use a light dusting of icing sugar to simulate snow!

The final touch is the chimney. Cut the chocolate mini roll to at least a 45° angle (ideally the exact angle of your roof) and using a good dollop of icing sugar stick it to the roof. Make sure to support it while the icing is drying. One it is firmly stuck in place, drizzle some icing onto the top to create a snowy covering.

You now have a delicious, homemade gingerbread house. Whatever pattern you use and however you decorate your house, the most important thing is to enjoy the special family time you will have making it and then, more importantly, eating it!