How to make a gingerbread house with kids
Prep: 120 min · Cook: 30 min · Makes: 1 house (base about 15 x 11 cm) · For:
Building a gingerbread house is one of the best Christmas projects to do together. It takes an afternoon, it is a bit messy and very rewarding, and the finished house becomes the star of your Christmas table or windowsill.
Spread it over two days to keep it relaxed: bake the panels on day one, build and decorate on day two when everything is hard and dry.
Tips for a house that stands
- Hard panels, thick icing. That is the whole secret.
- Build on the board you will display it on, so you never have to move it.
- Decorate the walls before the roof goes on, while you can still reach easily.
Decorating ideas
- Icicles piped along the edge of the roof.
- A path of chocolate buttons and a fence of pretzel sticks.
- Trees made from ice cream cones covered in green icing.
Little helpers
Children are in charge of decorating. A grown-up cuts the panels with a sharp knife and holds the walls while the icing sets. Remember small sweets can be a choking risk for toddlers.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- a pinch of salt
- 125 g butter
- 150 g soft dark or light brown sugar
- 150 g runny honey
- 1 egg
- 1 pasteurised egg white (about 30 g), 250-300 g icing sugar and ½ tsp lemon juice, for the icing glue
- sweets, sugar pearls and small biscuits, to decorate
- a board or sturdy piece of cardboard covered in foil
- stiff paper or thin card for the templates
Method
- Make the templates from stiff paper: two side walls of 15 x 8 cm; two end walls 10 cm wide, 8 cm high at the sides and 14 cm high at the point in the middle; and two roof panels of 17 x 10 cm.
- Melt the butter, sugar and honey together in a pan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Let it cool for 10 minutes.
- Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm butter mixture and the egg and knead into a smooth dough. Wrap and leave to rest for 30 minutes (not in the fridge, or it gets too hard).
- Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas mark 4). Roll the dough directly onto baking paper to about 5 mm thick. Lay the templates on top and cut around them with a sharp knife. Remove the scraps (bake them as biscuits or trees).
- Slide the paper onto baking trays and bake for 12-15 minutes until firm and slightly darker at the edges.
- As soon as they come out of the oven, lay the templates on the warm panels again and trim the edges straight. Let the panels cool and harden completely on the tray, preferably overnight.
- Icing glue: whisk the egg white with the lemon juice, then gradually whisk in the icing sugar until the icing is very thick, smooth and stands in stiff peaks. Keep it covered with a damp cloth.
- Pipe a thick line of icing on the board and along the edges of the panels. Stand one side wall and one end wall together at a right angle, propped with jars, then add the other two walls. Let it dry for at least 1 hour.
- Pipe icing along the top edges and press on the roof panels, holding them for a few minutes. Let the house dry for another hour or two before decorating it with sweets, icing icicles and icing sugar snow.
Questions
Can I eat the gingerbread house?
Yes, if it has not stood out for too long. After about a week on display it gets dusty and stale, so it is best enjoyed as decoration and the scraps as snacks.
My walls keep falling over. Help!
The icing must be very thick, and the panels completely cool and hard. Prop the walls with jars or tins while the icing sets and be patient before adding the roof.
Is raw egg white safe?
Use pasteurised egg white (sold in cartons) or meringue powder, so the icing is safe for children and pregnant guests.
You might also like
