Gingerbread House
Ever wanted to make your very own Gingerbread House at home. but haven’t been sure where to start? This recipe for a homemade Gingerbread House has all you will need, including a FREE printable cut-out template.
I don’t know what it is, but whenever I see a Gingerbread House, the child in me comes alive! I’ve always loved homemade biscuits, whether it’s a proper Gingerbread House or the ornamental kind you find in garden centres at this time of year, like Stained Glass Christmas Biscuits. There’s just something about them that fills me with so much joy.
These days, you can easily pick up a gingerbread house kit in most supermarkets. But when I was a kid, those simply didn’t exist. If you wanted to make a Gingerbread House, you had to make it from scratch.
Because of that, most homemade gingerbread houses were fairly modest in design – usually a simple triangular shape (a “triangular prism”, if we want to be technical!). That’s actually how I first planned this recipe, too.
But then my imagination ran away with me. I figured if I was going to share a Gingerbread House recipe with you, it should be a proper house shape. Of course, that meant I needed to include measurements and a template to make it easier to build.
So, along with the recipe, you’ll also find my FREE Gingerbread House Template, which you can download, print, and cut out to use as a guide.
I’ve also included plenty of tips and tricks to help you build your gingerbread house successfully. That said, the building stage can still be a little fiddly – there’s really no way around that! But that’s all part of the fun. And if things don’t go quite to plan, you can always hide any mishaps with a bit of strategically placed icing snow.
How do you make a homemade Gingerbread House?
To make a homemade Gingerbread House, you start by preparing your dough. Like my Gingerbread Men recipe, this is a crunchy gingerbread biscuit made with flour, sugar, butter, golden syrup, bicarb, cinnamon, and (of course) ginger.
Once you have your dough, use your FREE Gingerbread House Template to cut your walls and roof. After baking, you want to let the biscuits cool completely before you start constructing your gingerbread house. You’ll use a slightly thicker icing to stick your walls and roof together, and a slightly thinner icing to decorate – plus any extras you’d like to include too, such as jelly tots, snowflake sprinkles, candy canes…
It can be fiddly but lots of fun! Get the kids involved and make some core childhood memories. Or let your own imagination go wild and create the gingerbread house of your dreams.
Free Gingerbread House Template
Grab my FREE Gingerbread House template to get the sizes spot-on for your own homemade Gingerbread House.
Simply print-at-home, cut out the template, and use it for your gingerbread house pieces.
Free Gingerbread House Template
Grab my FREE Gingerbread House template to get the sizes spot-on for your own homemade Gingerbread House.
Simply print-at-home, cut out the template, and use it for your gingerbread house pieces.
Tips for homemade Gingerbread House:
• Use Your Hands: When mixing your dough, it may seem like it is going to be a bit dry once you’ve added the flour. Don’t worry! Once you get your hands in to help mix, the warmth from your hands will help the butter/margarine soften more and help bring everything together.
• No Need to Chill: This gingerbread house recipe is a no-chill dough. As soon as you’ve rolled and cut your dough, you can go ahead and bake it. If, however, you are working in a warm kitchen or making them in the heat of summer, you can chill your dough before baking if you feel it needs it.
• Keep on Rolling: I like to split my dough into two when it comes to rolling and cutting, purely because I don’t have enough space in my kitchen to roll out the entire amount at once.
• Invest in a Palette Knife: I find a large palette knife to be invaluable when it comes to making a Gingerbread House. As the biscuits are quite large, they can be quite delicate when moving onto the baking trays; a palette knife makes this a bit easier. And the biscuits can sometimes curve and spread a little whilst baking – the palette knife can be used to push the edges & straighten them out, when you remove them from the oven.
• Use the Excess: After you’ve cut all your walls and roof, use any excess dough and cut some different shapes (stars, trees, people…) to use in decorating your gingerbread house.
• Gently Move it: For ease in moving your gingerbread house, construct it onto something you can make part of the overall look. A chopping board or cake board are perfect.
• Icing Glue, or Cement: When it comes to constructing your Gingerbread House, you want a slightly thicker consistency icing than you will use for decorating. There’s no “easy” way to get your Gingerbread House walls together, but if you have a spare pair of hands, they can help hold things upright while you attach and “glue” it all together with the icing. Alternatively, keep a few mugs or glasses close by to help prop up the walls as you go.
• Turn Around: It’s not an essential, but when it comes to decorating, and you have a cake turntable – use it, it will make life much easier!
• Ready-made is Fine: There’s no shame in opting to use Writing Icing Tubes when it comes to decorating. And in fact, they are great for when you’re baking with kids.
• Don’t Forget to Have Fun: Gingerbread House can be fiddly, there’s no two ways about it. You are constructing a building out of biscuits after all! But don’t let the aim of perfection overtake the fun you can have making a house that is uniquely yours.
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Gingerbread House
INGREDIENTS
- 200 g Butter or Block Margarine (at room temperature)
- 200 g Soft Light Brown Sugar (Light Brown Sugar)
- 80 g
Golden Syrup (Substitutions) - 400 g Plain Flour (All-purpose Flour)
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
- 3-4 tsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
To Decorate:
- 400 g Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar)
- 3-4 tbsp Boiling Water
- Sweeties (Candies) (for decorating)
EQUIPMENT
- Sharp Knife
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat your oven to 170°c (150°c for fan assisted oven, Gas Mark 3-4 or 325°F) and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together your butter/margarine and sugar, until light (in texture – the colour will remain darker due to the brown sugar) and fluffy. Add your golden syrup and stir through to combine.
- Sift in your flour, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), ginger and cinnamon. Mix your dry and wet ingredients together to make a stiff dough – you will probably need to use your hands!
- Gently knead the dough together, before rolling with a rolling pin on a well floured surface, to around 0.5-1cm thick. Using the gingerbread house template, cut out the walls and roof shapes (6 pieces in total) and transfer to your pre-lined baking sheets, leaving a little space between them. Using a large palette knife to support the pieces as you move them will prevent them from breaking.Knead together any off-cut before re-rolling the dough, and use any excess to cut out small biscuit shapes to decorate your house.
- Bake your gingerbread biscuits in your pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes. When they are golden and dry looking, remove from the oven to cool. Be careful not to overbake your biscuits – this can happen quickly due to the presence of golden syrup in the dough.
- Once baked, remove from the oven and gently push – not cut! – the edges of the biscuits with a large palette knife (or just a normal knife) to help straighten them out a little – they may have spread and curved a little whilst baking, this helps correct this. Allow the biscuits to cool completely on the trays – they will continue to harden as they cool, so don't be tempted to try and lift them before they are completely cool.
- When cold, you can start to construct your gingerbread house. Mix 200g [half] of the icing sugar (powdered sugar) with 1-2 tbsp of boiling water, so you have a thick sticky icing, which is still spreadable but not runny. Start by attaching your walls together – if you can have someone help you hold the walls upright, this will help; alternatively you can prop them up with some mugs or drinking glasses. Be generous with the amount of icing you use, and don't worry about being overly neat – you can easily cover it with some decor. Once you have your walls upright, stick on the roof pieces with plenty icing too. Allow your gingerbread house to dry before decorating.
- Once the icing has dried, you can start decorating your gingerbread house. Mix the remaining 200g of icing sugar (powdered sugar) with 1-2 tbsp of water until it is a piping consistency. You can use a piping bag, or simply drizzle/spoon onto your house. Be creative and have some fun!
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion but these, unfortunately, won’t always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
NOTES:
Storage:
If you plan to eat your Gingerbread House, it will keep to be edible for about 1 week if stored somewhere cool and dry. You can, however, keep it for longer if you only plan to use it as decoration, but I wouldn’t recommend eating it beyond a week.Template:
Don’t forget to download your FREE Gingerbread House template, which you can print and cut up, to use at home.Free-from & Vegan:
Gluten-free: In theory, a straight swap to gluten-free flour should work with this recipe to make it a gluten-free gingerbread house. I haven’t tried and tested this though, so can’t say for sure, but if you do try, let me know how you get on.
Nut-free: There’s no nuts used in this gingerbread biscuit recipe. Just be sure to double-check your ingredients individually for any hidden allergens.
Egg-free: No eggs are used in this recipe, making it an eggless gingerbread house. Just be sure to check your ingredients individually if serving to someone with an egg allergy.
Dairy-free: Simply use a dairy-free margarine to make this dairy-free gingerbread house recipe.
Vegan: You can easily make these Vegan Gingerbread House. Simply use a dairy-free margarine, and opt for gelatine-free and dairy-free sweeties to decorate.
N.B. Any advice or suggestions to make recipes “free-from” or vegan are purely that – suggestions. Please be careful to double-check all ingredients individually, taking extra caution when serving to those with allergies & intolerances.
For more info on common food allergies, please see food.gov.uk | For more info on coeliac disease, please see coeliac.org.uk | For more info on a vegan diet, please see vegansociety.com
What is Golden Syrup?
Golden Syrup is a popular baking ingredient in the UK… But what is it? Where can you get it? And what can you use as a substitute?
My in-depth Golden Syrup Guide has all the answers to your questions!
Hi I am unable to download the gingerbread house template, Is there another way I can receive it?
Golden syrup on bread and butter yum. Used to be able to get a malty bread, think it , was Hovis One of our lovely neighbours up the stairs gave me a slice of yummy buttered malt bread. Delicious. thank you Amy for the clootie dumpling, tablet and memories of golden syrup. It is also available here in Melbourne in the “imported section” along with other UK specialities. Have a lovely Christmas, lets our temperatures don’t ruin it all.