You can find gingerbread house cookie cutter sets in thrift stores, like this one above I found for $1, and also in major kitchen stores like Sur La Table...
Making Gingerbread Houses and People is a fun activity that the young and old can do together during the Christmas/winter holidays. It is especially fun to make these with kids in the family
on a rainy day, while sipping hot chocolate. Make your gingerbread houses on cardboard so they can be easily moved...
Gingerbread House Icing (aka glue to hold the walls and house together) (Make as many batches as you need for your products...on the average you will need about 4 batches of this altogether for one house, but you can make the batches at
different times and work on different parts of the house at staggered times.)
This icing gets very hard. This recipe makes about 1/2 cup.
1 large egg white * 1 2/3 c sifted powdered (confectioner's) sugar * 1/2 t cream of tarter
Beat the egg white in a bowl with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually add sugar and cram of tarter. Beat until smooth and stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted.
Keep tightly covered with a damp cloth or plastic wrap when not using it, as it will dry and get hard fast. You can divide this into portions and add food coloring to make
different colored frostings.
Gingerbread House Recipe (for walls, roof, etc.) 5 c flour * 1 c sugar * 3 t powdered ginger * 1 t baking soda * 1 t nutmeg * 1 t salt * 1 c solid white vegetable shortening, like Crisco (I have used butter instead and it was okay) * 1 c unsulphured molasses
Melt shortening in pan. Add sugar and molasses and mix well. Make sure the sugar is fully dissolved. Sift all the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and ginger together in a bowl. Gradually stir 4 c of dry ingredients into melted shortening. Mix thoroughly. Then put this dough on a pastry board, and mix in the rest of the dry ingredients by hand. After it is thoroughly mixed, divide the dough into 3 parts and shape each one into a ball. Roll each dough into a rectangle ¼ inch thick. After cutting the various parts, remove excess dough then bake on ungreased cookie sheets.
Cut two rectangles for front and back walls of the house, and cut windows and doors in them. Cut 2 ends of the house, and don't start the slant inward for the triangle part of the ends until past the top of the front and back wall height. Cut two roof rectangles. Cut 4 small rectangles with a triangle out of the top for the chimney. Use any extra dough to make gingerbread people, trees, stepping stones, etc.
Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes until lightly brown. As soon as you take them out of the oven, recut the doors and windows and then after the dough is cooled, cut them out. Let cool completely before frosting.
Make MINIGINGERBREAD HOUSES These are the gingerbread measurements you need to make these houses: ROOF (two rectangles 5 7/16" by 4 1/4") * FRONT AND BACK (two pieces 5" x 5 13/16", cut into a shape that looks like
a square with a triangle on top of it, and cut a door out of one of them) * SIDES (two rectangles 4 1/4" x 3 1/4")
THE GINGERBREAD WALLS, SIDES, ROOF for the minihouses 1 c light corn syrup * 1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar * 1/2 c vegetable shortening * 4 c flour * 1 T ground ginger * 1 T ground cinnamon
In a pan, heat corn syrup, sugar and shortening over medium heat, stirring until mixed. In a bowl, mix the flour, ginger and cinnamon. Add the heated mixture stirring until
it is a smooth dough but do not overmix as it will be tough from that.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the shapes above out of the dough. Place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets and back the pieces from 10-15 minutes at
350 degrees. Cool on racks.
THE ICING GLUE for the minihouses 1 c powdered (confectioner's) sugar * 1/4 t cream of tartar * 1 egg white * 1/3 c boiling water
Mix the sugar, cream of tartar and egg white together in a bowl, then add the water. Beat until the icing holds stiff peaks.
PUTTING THE MINIHOUSES TOGETHER Put icing on the sides of the side pieces, then put them together with the front and back. Hold them in place until hard.
Next put icing on the base (cardboard) and on the bottoms of the sides and front and backs you just glued together and glue it onto the base with icing.
Let the sides dry onto each other and the base, then attach the roof by putting the glue on the top of the sides and front and back and them putting the roof on it. Then apply icing
to the peak of the roof, between the pieces. Allow to harden before you begin to decorate.
Here are some fun gingerbread house decorating tips: When decorating the house, put little dots of icing onto the place you are going to attach the decorations, just like glue.
A log cabin effect can be had by putting pretzels lengthwise, like logs, on top of icing used like mortar on the outside walls.
Vanilla wafers, or wafer cookies, or any light cookie, can be used as shingles on the roof.
You can melt life savers hard candies on cookie sheets to make really cool stained glass windows!
For healthy decorations, use raisins, dried berries, dried fruits and nuts, Panda licorice...
You can also decorate with candy canes, gun drops, licorice, jelly beans...
An ice cream cone turned upside down and frosted and decorated looks like a tree outside your house
You can also make little "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers!
Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.
Kirsten Anderberg. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint/publish, please contact Kirsten at kirstena@resist.ca.