Gingerbread House
Gingerbread is a staple when it comes to the holidays. Enjoy this versatile gingerbread cookie recipe that can make not only your gingerbread house, but also cookies and gingerbread people.
| Category: | Sweets |
Ingredients
Dough
| 1/2 cup vegetable shortening or unsalted butter (softened) |
| 1/2 cup white granulated sugar |
| 1/2 cup dark molasses |
| 1/4 cup water |
| 2 1/2 cups Frankie's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour blend |
| 1 pinch Kosher salt |
| 1/2 tsp baking soda |
| 2 tsp ground cinnamon |
Royal Icing
| 3 cup powdered icing/confectioners sugar |
| 2 tsp lemon juice |
| 2 LG egg whites |
Gingerbread House Directions
Cream shortening and sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt baking soda and cinnamon.
Roll out onto parchment paper to between 1/8 and 1/4inch (3-6mm) thickness and cut out shapes of the house. You'll need two gable ends, two walls and two roofs (or more pieces, depending on what you're building).
You can download instructions that I've used for my own gingerbread house here: Download
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375°F or 190°C for 15-20 minutes or until fully baked and starting to dry out. You don't want these pieces to be soft at all once they cool.
Allow pieces to cool, and dry out further, before assembly.
Royal Icing:
Combine ingredients and blend with a hand or stand mixer until fully combined. You may need to add water, but the 1/2 or full teaspoon full until you reach your desired consistency. The consistency you're looking for should be very thick glue.
Putting it all together:
Cover a piece of cardboard or plywood with foil, taping the bottom on the underside.
You'll want o put icing on the bottom and side edges of either your gable end or your walls. Then add icing to just the bottom of the connecting wall piece. Place first piece onto foil wrapped base and then add the connecting wall/gable piece. You may need to temporarily pin the walls to hold them together while the icing dries. Pipe the inside of the seams to ensure a solid hold. Connect the other two walls using the same method but adding to what you've already placed onto the foil base. Add icing where needed to ensure a good strong hold.
*NOTE: Make sure you count the number of pins you used so that you remove the same number that you put into the cookie. You don't want to bite down on a pin.
Add icing to the tops of the walls and set the roof pieces onto the house. Again using additional icing/pins to hold everything in place while the icing dries and sets up.
Decorate with candy by piping small amounts of icing either onto the house/foil base or directly onto the candy and then placing onto the location that you want.
Finish by dusting with icing sugar to give everything a finished snowy look.
**NOTE: Remove the pins after the icing has set for at least an hour ensuring that you've removed all of them.
I used Frankie's gluten-free All-Purpose Flour blend which is available at: www.glutenfreefrankies.com and through Amazon, just search for "Frankie's Flour".