A gingerbread house is something very special for children. Baking it, assembling it yourself, and of course eating the tasty details brings children great joy. Making a gingerbread house is not actually that hard. Here I have some great instructions for it:
Making a gingerbread house yourself
The ingredients for a gingerbread house:
- 600 g rye flour
- 320 g powdered sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 4 eggs
- 2 packets gingerbread spice
- 160 g honey
Ingredients for the icing:
- 3 egg whites
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 500 g powdered sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- optional food coloring
Ingredients for the decorations:
- Smarties
- Candy canes
- chocolate lentils
- Gummy bears or various gummy candies
- Coconut flakes
Accessories for the gingerbread house
- sturdy cardboard
- pen
- Scissors
- Knife
- parchment paper
- Rolling pin
- possibly cookie cutters
-
Piping bag
or freezer bags
Preparation:
Mix all dry ingredients well in a bowl. Add the liquid honey – liquefy in a water bath if necessary – and the eggs, and knead well into a smooth dough. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. Now comes the fun part: building the house.
It is best to cut out the individual parts for the house from sturdy cardboard as templates. There are no limits to creativity here: should it be a classic house with 4 walls? Or would you prefer a fantasy castle? Plan the house construction step by step together with your child.
For a simple house, these dimensions can be used:
- Base plate: 25 x 25 cm
- 2 side walls: 15 x 7 cm
- Roof panels: 13 x 18 cm
- Front and back 2 panels: 15 x 14 cm (mark the middle (gable) on one 15 cm side and mark the halfway point on both 14 cm sides, connect the 3 points)
- cut out a chimney of any size
Preheat the oven to 200°C (392°F) convection. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 5 mm thick – the rule here is: the thinner it is, the harder it will be after baking! Always roll from the center outwards and keep turning it, otherwise it will stick. Place the finished templates on the dough and cut them out with a sharp knife. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven at 200°C (392°F) convection for about 12 to 15 minutes. Then let it cool down well. If there is any dough left over, you can create beautiful decorations. Roll out the dough again and use nice cookie cutters to cut out stars, hearts, fir trees, or figures, for example.
Extra tip: It is best to bake the gingerbread components one day before assembling, as this makes the house more stable.
Now the gingerbread house is assembled. To do this, mix a sweet 'mortar': For the icing, beat the 3 egg whites until stiff and mix with all the other ingredients. Fill the whole thing into a Piping bag
Now first place the base plate in front of you and take a front and side wall. Coat the sides of the 2 walls (where they are to be glued together) with icing and press them together for at least 1 minute. Filled glass bottles can help as supports to hold the walls up initially. Now repeat the same for the other 2 walls and then connect all 2 glued-together walls with each other. Let it dry well again.
Then coat the undersides of the walls with icing and press them firmly onto the base plate again for at least 1 minute.
Now comes the roof: To do this, coat the edges of the walls with plenty of icing and place a roof panel on top. Also pipe icing onto the gable edge, place it on the walls, and press down firmly. Now hold everything until the icing is set. Let the house rest for at least 1 hour.
And now for the best part: the decoration. The finished gingerbread house can be decorated as you wish. With the remaining icing, the chimney, cookies, or sweets such as Smarties, gummy bears, or similar gummy candies or candy canes can be attached to the house. Coconut flakes can be sprinkled over it as snow. If you like, you can also color the icing – to do this, mix the icing with a few drops of food coloring and pipe it onto the house.
Also read: Marzipan figures as decoration for muffins or cakes
Photo by Sabine, meinhaushalt.at
