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Make a Gingerbread House from Scratch!

Tips for making a gingerbread house from scratch! While it’s a time consuming process, this isn’t super hard. I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. I’ve also since created a gluten free gingerbread house recipe.

I made some gingerbread using this recipe, and then found a great pattern for a gingerbread house over at Chocolate on My Cranium. I like this pattern because you can cut the entire house out of a single sheet of gingerbread.

How to Make a Gingerbread House from Scratch

I spread the dough out on top of some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, baked, cut the pieces out (in the pan), then put the pan back in the oven (with the oven off) to let the pieces harden up a little more. The picture is of the raw dough.

After 10 more minutes in the turned-off oven, I took the parchment sheet (with the pieces) off the cookie sheet and laid it out on a rack to finish cooling. You can cut pieces out to look nicer than this, but I was making a house with a two-year-old and I wasn’t being detail-oriented. My pieces are rather thick; next time I would probably spread the gingerbread more thinly (although the thickness did make it so the walls stood up very nicely).

We made some Royal Icing (1 Tablespoon meringue powder, 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon warm water, and 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar made enough for this house) and decorated. I put on the frosting and Emma stuck on M&Ms and mini marshmallows. Johnny sat on my lap and grabbed any M&Ms he could and stuffed them in his mouth as quickly as possible.

Emma taking a picture of her masterpiece.

 

Have you ever made a gingerbread house from scratch? What are your top tips?

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

6 thoughts on “Make a Gingerbread House from Scratch!”

  1. Varya @ littleartists

    What a lovely house! I am sure your kids are thoroughly enjoying it!
    I don’t think I would want to make it myself at home – twice we bought a really good one from Holiday Inn Hotel and I ended up eating it mostly by myself (not something I need right now ha ha).

  2. We made gingerbread houses every year growing up, but my sister always baked them. I tried once in high school and they didn’t turn out – so I was really relieved that everything worked this time, and it wasn’t even very hard in the end.

  3. Your gingerbread house is beautiful! One of these years I’d like to make a real one like this. For this year, I did the Christmas trees using an ice cream cone that was on the No time for flashcards site.

  4. Chocolate on my Cranium

    Looks great! The kids, especially the littler ones are always proud of their creations no matter how it turns out.

  5. LOVE it! :-) What a great way to get into the holiday spirit, and gingerbread always makes the house smell sooooooo good!Valerie< HREF="http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com" REL="nofollow">Frugal Family Fun Blog<>Good times on a budget!

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