House for Gingerbread People

I love making gingerbread house for Christmas. Last year I made a huge house but that took a lot of space and time. This year I made it a lot smaller and it was fast and easy. You will have a lot of gingerbread dough left over so you can make a village or cut out some ginger people.

House for Gingerbread People

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
130 grams honey
40 grams black strap molasses
2 eggs

In a bowl, cream butter, sugar, honey and molasses until light. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. The batter will look curdled. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Form the dough into a disk and refrigerate until firm enough to roll out.

For the house, you will need two of each (measured in inches). Make templates out of cardboard that you can use to cut the raw dough out with.

                       Side walls: 3 x 2 3/4 rectangle
                       Roof:  3 1/2 x 2 1/4 rectangle
                       Front and back of house:  2 x 1 3/4 rectangle on top of 1 3/4 high triangle with 2 inch wide base.

To bake the house pieces, roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness and cut out the shapes. Bake at 375 F until firm.

To make glass windows, cut out widows out of the shape and bake it. During the last minutes of baking, place crushed pieces of hard candy into the holes and bake until the candy melts. Remove and let the cookies cool completely before moving them.

To assemble the house, dip the edges of cookies into icing and assemble it on the desired surface. Let the sides dry first before adding the roof. It is easier to decorate the roof before sticking it on the house. Spread the icing around the house and use candy and your imagination to decorate it.

Dust the house with confectioner sugar to make it look like fresh fallen snow.

Royal Icing
8 ounces powdered sugar
2 tablespoons powdered egg whites
3 tablespoons water

Beat all ingredients until smooth and thick.