I suggest you good recipe DIY gingerbread house, which is not so difficult to make if you have the desire. This process itself is not very complicated, but quite long, so you should have enough free time, or a great desire. If you have children, you can bake the blanks and let them paint, and then help them glue the dried parts together. , I already gave it earlier, so watch it if you don’t know what to make blanks for it from.
If you are still wondering how to make a gingerbread house with your own hands on New Year or Christmas, or maybe for a child’s birthday, just check out my recipe. The gingerbread house pattern is simple; you can easily draw it yourself according to the given dimensions and can cut it out.
Below I described in detail how to make icing for a gingerbread house so that it would be suitable for painting it. I was recently asked how to hold a gingerbread house together, that is, its parts, and they told me the option of caramel, so I’ll say right away that I’m not considering this option, because the same glaze that will remain after painting is also suitable for this.
I hope my gingerbread house tutorial will help you with this and answer many of your questions. And also look at how you can make very small and simple ones that fit on a cup.
Necessary:
- Ginger dough – 400 g
- Colored candies - for decoration
- Confectionery sprinkles stars or snowflakes
- Transparent caramels – 2 pcs.
- Egg white – 1 pc.
- Powdered sugar – 160 g
- Lemon juice – 5 drops
How to make a gingerbread house at home
So, first I’ll show you a gingerbread house template with the dimensions I used to make it. Dimensions of the base (stand) 14 by 14 cm. Roof 9 by 12 cm. Side wall 10 by 7.5 cm. front and back wall, width 10 cm, height first 7.5 cm, and then diagonal 9 cm. Then there is a door the width of which is 3 cm and a smoker consisting of three parts. First draw the details, then cut them out.
I already have the dough for the gingerbread house ready and have been in the refrigerator for a day, so now I can work with it. I roll it out thinly, about 5 mm wide, then I put one of the blanks on top and carefully cut it along its contour with a knife. I do this with all the details.
Colored caramel candies I break it into small pieces with a knife.
I put a Teflon mat on a baking sheet and place the pieces on it. In those parts where there are windows, I put pieces of candy directly into the windows.
I put parchment on the second baking sheet and bake the remaining parts on it.
I bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 12 minutes. Be careful not to burn them, otherwise they will be hard. I don’t immediately remove those parts where there are windows from the baking sheet, but let the caramel harden, this happens in a couple of minutes. Thanks to the melted caramel, beautiful glass windows were created.
I put all the parts on wooden boards and leave them to cool.
As you can see, so far the DIY gingerbread house master class is very easy and understandable, and now that the pieces are ready and have cooled down, or better yet, they have been left for 2 hours or more, you can start icing.
The icing for the gingerbread house is exactly the same as I always make for gingerbread, except that it can be a little thicker, which is important when gluing the parts. So, for the glaze, I pour the powder into the mixer bowl, add the protein and lemon juice or acid. I beat all this for 3 – 4 minutes at the lowest speed. If you run the side of a fork across the icing, there will be a mark that should disappear in 7 to 10 seconds, which means the consistency is correct. If this happens before 5 seconds, add more powder, and if after 12 seconds there is still a trace, then you will have to add about half a teaspoon of water. After that, I put it in a pastry bag and tie it, and cut off the corner a little so that there is a small hole for a thin line. Now I’m starting to paint, I’m making 3 houses at once, so don’t be surprised if something in the photo is in double or triple quantity. To paint doors, I draw an outline along the edge, then vertical lines at a distance from each other and the door handle. Then I set them aside to dry.
Now I take the Christmas trees, first draw its outline, and then fill in the middle.
Using a wooden toothpick, I spread the glaze evenly so that it lies evenly. You can shake the Christmas tree a little, from side to side, this will make the glaze even smoother.
Immediately after pouring, without waiting for it to dry, I sprinkle the Christmas trees with colored sprinkles. If you wait a little, it will not stick to the icing. Then I also leave them to dry.
Now I take the parts for the smoker. I carefully glue them together with glaze, carefully holding them with my hand so that the glaze grabs a little and it doesn’t fall apart. Then you can prop it up with something and leave it to dry.
Now I’ll show you the painting of the gingerbread house itself, first I paint the outline around the window, but I don’t make it very thin, then I put small dots around the door, and at the bottom and top I make triangles. Don’t forget to smooth the glaze with a toothpick and adjust it.
On the back wall, in addition to the triangles, I outline the outline of the tree and fill it.
Immediately after this, I lay out stars of different colors in rows and press them a little into the glaze so that they stick more firmly.
Now I'm making the roof. The roof consists of two halves. First, I fill one and straighten it, shake the gingerbread so that it lies flat, attach the dried smoker on top and lay out the colored candies. I also add stars to them. You don't need a smoker for the second half, so I just decorate it with candies and stars.
Also look at how I painted the side wall. You need to let all the parts dry completely and only then assemble the gingerbread house.
Next, I’ll show you how to glue a gingerbread house together step by step so that it holds its shape. I spread glaze on the side wall and attach it to the back and front wall, then I spread the second side wall and also glue it. At first you will have to support this structure with your hands so that it does not move in different directions, but this will literally take a few minutes, then it will stand on its own.
When the walls have already dried, I fill the base with glaze and immediately place the walls on it. I smear the back of the tree a small amount icing and attach it to the side of the house. I also coat the door and glue it to the house, making it slightly open.
Now I’m attaching the roof, this needs to be done one at a time, since these parts are the heaviest and they need time for the glaze to set and the roof not to move away. It’s better to prop it up with something; I used cups of the required height. I fill all the holes between the roof and walls with glaze. I also finish drawing the smoker so that it looks like there is snow on it.
There was a hole between the two parts of the roof, so I filled it with the same icing and laid out colored candies in a row. This is how beautiful it turned out, I leave them to dry, this takes at least 5 hours, and preferably 12.
I hope you liked the DIY gingerbread house recipe and understood how it is made. I showed you the simplest version of painting and decoration, but thanks to it, you will understand the process and stages of preparation, which means you will be able to make complex variations correctly. I recommend trying it!
On the eve of the New Year, you always want magic. It's no secret that we are the arbiters of our own mood. I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time how we made our gingerbread house.
The fact is that this is not the first attempt this year. You may have seen my first gingerbread house on my Instagram; a poor choice of dough and gluing the house together with icing did not give a good result. The house fell apart, and my boys laughed for a long time about this situation, but at least we ate our fill of painted doors, walls and windows 😉 I didn’t stop there and today I present to your attention a recipe for a honey gingerbread house
Ingredients:
- 450 g sugar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 150 g butter
- 450 g honey
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp soda
- a pinch of salt
- 1.3 - 1.5 kg wheat flour
For the glaze:
- 2 egg whites
- 500-600 g powdered sugar
For caramel glue
- 150 g sugar
- 1 tbsp water
Candy for decoration
1. Pour half of the total sugar into a saucepan or frying pan and melt until golden brown. This should be done carefully, making sure that the sugar does not burn out. Very carefully, carefully pour a glass of boiling water into the caramel, stirring 
2. Add the rest of the sugar and cook until the caramel has reduced slightly, about 4 minutes. 
3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour the caramel into a large bowl where we will knead the dough. Add butter and honey to the still hot caramel. Mix well 
4. Add cinnamon and a glass of flour, mix well and let the mixture cool until warm. 
5. Lightly beat the eggs with a fork and add to the dough. Next, sift about 2 cups of flour into the dough along with baking soda and salt. Stir and add flour to the dough until it becomes thicker and difficult to mix in the bowl 
6. Next, we will knead the dough on the table. It is still quite liquid and very sticky. Therefore, pour a heap of flour onto the table and make a depression, pour in the dough and gently stir in the flour. 
7. Gradually adding flour, knead the dough. It will be sticky, very pleasant and soft. If you take it in one hand, the dough will seem to slide off. It is very important not to fill it with flour, then the dough will be easy to work with and the gingerbread cookies will turn out very tasty. Ready dough Divide into 4 parts and wrap in film. Place in the refrigerator for 5 hours, or preferably overnight. 
8. Prepare a pattern for the gingerbread house. It can be easily found on the Internet. I drew my details myself 
9. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm up a little. Gingerbread dough sticky, so it’s convenient to roll it out covered with film. It is best to roll out the dough directly on baking paper or on a silicone mat; the finished cut out parts cannot be transported. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm, carefully cut out the details of the house. You can put caramel in the windows, then the house will have beautiful glass windows after baking 
10. Bake the house parts for 10-15 minutes. Finished goods You can immediately after baking coat it with lightly beaten yolk with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of water, then the parts will shine, the photo shows that I did not grease all the parts and some remained matte. Place the finished products on a flat surface and let cool completely. From the specified amount of dough you can make a house, a stand for the house, and it will be left for gingerbread. I made spare parts, but I never needed them. Also, if desired, you can adjust all the unevenness of the parts using a grater. As you can see, not all of my windows were filled with caramel; I wanted to make some of the windows yellow. Surprisingly, I never found yellow caramels on sale anywhere. Therefore, I simply melted the sugar, as in step 13, and filled the windows of the finished parts with caramel. Of course, you first need to put foil under the window. When the caramel froze, yellow windows turned out 
11. When the pieces have cooled down, you can start decorating the house. I find it more convenient to decorate the house before assembly. For the glaze, beat the whites gradually adding powdered sugar. It's better to do thick glaze, and then dilute with boiled water or lemon juice to the desired consistency 
12.Place the glaze into a pastry bag or a tight bag (the corner of which needs to be cut off) and decorate your house. Let the glaze dry. It is better to leave the parts to dry overnight. This is an example of how I decorated my house 
13. To glue the house together, cook caramel. To do this, simply melt the sugar in a saucepan or frying pan. You can add a few tablespoons of water, but do not add a lot of water, otherwise the caramel will be liquid and the parts of the house will not stick together, but will separate. Carefully apply caramel to the joints and connect all the parts of the house. You should act quickly and carefully, the caramel hardens quickly 
This is the magical gingerbread house I created. I think yours will turn out even more beautiful. Write in the comments if you have ever made a gingerbread house and what kind of dough you used.
You can place an LED candle or flashlight in the doorway, and our gingerbread house will emit magical light from the windows
Gingerbread house recipe with step by step photos
Gingerbread house recipe with step-by-step photos and manufacturing instructions
Ingredients
- 450 g sugar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 150 g butter
- 450 g honey
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp soda
- a pinch of salt
- 1.3 - 1.5 kg wheat flour
For the glaze:
- 2 egg whites
- 500-600 g powdered sugar
For caramel glue
- 150 g sugar
- 1 tbsp water
- Candy for decoration
Cooking method
- Pour half of the total sugar into a saucepan or frying pan and melt until golden brown. This should be done carefully, making sure that the sugar does not burn out. Very carefully, carefully pour a glass of boiling water into the caramel, stirring.
- Add the rest of the sugar and cook until the caramel has reduced slightly, about 4 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour the caramel into a large bowl where we will knead the dough. Add butter and honey to the still hot caramel. Mix well.
- Add cinnamon and a glass of flour, mix well and let the mixture cool until warm.
- Lightly beat the eggs with a fork and add to the dough. Next, sift about 2 cups of flour into the dough along with baking soda and salt. Stir and add flour to the dough until it becomes thicker and difficult to mix in the bowl.
- Next we will knead the dough on the table. It is still quite liquid and very sticky. Therefore, pour a heap of flour onto the table and make a depression, pour in the dough and gently stir in the flour. Gradually add more flour and knead the dough. It will be sticky, very pleasant and soft. If you take it in one hand, the dough will seem to slide off. It is very important not to fill it with flour, then the dough will be easy to work with and the gingerbread cookies will turn out very tasty.
- Divide the finished dough into 4 parts and wrap in film. Place in the refrigerator for 5 hours, or preferably overnight.
- Prepare a pattern for a gingerbread house. It can be easily found on the Internet. I drew my details myself.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm up a little. Gingerbread dough is sticky, so it is convenient to roll it out covered with film. It is best to roll out the dough directly on baking paper or on a silicone mat; the finished cut out parts cannot be transported. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm, carefully cut out the details of the house. You can put caramel in the windows, then the house will have beautiful glass windows after baking.
- Bake the house parts for 10-15 minutes. Place the finished products on a flat surface and let cool completely. From the specified amount of dough you can make a house, a stand for the house, and it will be left for gingerbread. Also, if desired, you can adjust the details of the house using a grater
- Next, you can start decorating the house. I find it more convenient to decorate the house before assembly. For the glaze, beat the whites gradually adding powdered sugar. It is better to make a thick glaze, and then dilute it with boiled water or lemon juice to the desired consistency.
- Place the glaze in a pastry bag or a tight bag with a corner cut off and decorate your house. Let the glaze dry. It's best to leave the parts to dry overnight.
- To glue the house together, cook caramel. To do this, simply melt the sugar in a saucepan or frying pan. You can add a few tablespoons of water, but do not add a lot of water, otherwise the caramel will be liquid and the parts of the house will not stick together, but will separate. Carefully apply caramel to the joints and connect all the parts of the house. You should act quickly and carefully, the caramel hardens quickly. Next, you can glue the candies using caramel or icing and decorate all the seams.
Preparing for the Christmas holidays takes a lot of time. To please the children and add a festive mood, make your own gingerbread house. Get creative and decorate it with affordable products. Of course, you can buy ready-made blanks, but we will consider several options for independent “construction”.
Gingerbread house - step-by-step DIY recipe
The whole process can be divided into several stages, each of which should be given enough time so that the result does not disappoint. It is immediately worth noting that the structure hardens quickly. Therefore, it is better to bake a gingerbread house immediately before the feast or use it only for decoration.
How to prepare dough for treats?
Ready-made cakes should keep their shape, so we will use shortbread dough. Immediately stock up on various spices so that your festive Christmas house will attract attention with its aromas. There are two options ready dough. Let's take a closer look at them.
1 way. For him we will take:
- 1 kg of baking flour;
- ½ tsp. soda;
- 3 eggs;
- 200 g each of sugar and butter;
- the same amount of honey;
- ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice add ¼ tsp each.
First, using a mortar, grind all the spices. Add slightly warmed honey, granulated sugar, eggs and butter, which can be replaced with full-fat margarine if necessary. Mix everything well.
Separately combine soda with flour, and then, gradually adding to the spicy mixture, knead the dough. We put it in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.
Method 2. The dough for the gingerbread house will be: chocolate taste. The only thing that will have to be changed is to leave only ginger and cinnamon from the spices and remove exactly 4 tbsp from the composition. l. flour, which will replace cocoa in this recipe. We prepare the dough in the same way as in the first version.
Glaze for holiday dessert
You can also use 2 types of glaze. But the main one is icing.
For cooking, prepare the following products:
- 2 egg whites;
- 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice;
- 400 g of powdered sugar.
Helpful Tips:
*Instead of cinnamon, ginger and zest, you can use 3 tsp. any spices for gingerbread
*If you want the color of the dough to be darker, then replace a couple of tablespoons of flour with cocoa
*The dough turns out to be quite a lot, probably enough for 2 eggs, but I made it with a reserve (you can make cookies from the rest).
*Preparation can be divided over several days: on one day make the dough in the evening and draw a pattern, on another day cut out and bake the house parts, on the third day decorate and glue.
1. Prepare the dough:
Heat honey with sugar until sugar is completely dissolved.
*It is better to take fine sugar and add it to the honey gradually, in portions, as it melts.
Add butter and spices, stir until dissolved.
Add eggs one at a time, stirring each time until smooth. Sift some of the flour with soda and add orange zest, pour in the honey mixture and stir.
Add the rest of the flour gradually until you get a soft dough.
Divide the dough into 2-3 parts, give each a flat rectangular shape, wrap in cling film and put in the refrigerator for 3 hours (or better yet, overnight).
*It will be easier for you to roll out a flat layer of dough than a whole round lump.
*The dough immediately after cooking becomes a little sticky due to the honey; after a night in the refrigerator it becomes more convenient to work with. Cold dough is rolled out with a rolling pin with little effort, but it sticks less to your hands and to the board, and it will be easier for you to work with the details of the house.
*Dough follows remove from refrigerator approximately 30-60 minutes before use so that it warms up a little.
2. Draw a diagram of the house:
It will be very easy to draw all the details of the house on large sheets of checkered paper.
We will need -
- 2 pieces of end walls (high), one of them with a window and a door slot
- 2 side wall parts
- 4 window shutter parts
- 2 window sill parts
- 2 rectangular chimney parts
- 1 rectangular chimney piece with a cutout at the bottom
2 roof parts
- 1 long piece for the chimney at the back of the house
- 1 piece of house base measuring 20x20 cm
You can see the dimensions of all the parts in the photo (click on the photo with the left mouse button to enlarge it).
Cut out the parts and transfer them to cardboard or thick paper, cut out again.
*The house according to this scheme has slightly trapezoidal walls, with bevels, which makes gluing it a little more difficult. You can simply make the walls rectangular if you want to make it easier to connect the parts.
3. Baking the details of the house:
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 4 mm (it is better not to make the parts too thin, as they will be more fragile, or too thick, as they will be more difficult to work with)
Cut out the details of the house according to the prepared patterns. Mark “logs” on the walls of the house with a stick, and “tiles” on the roof parts using a bottle cap.
*I also made additional parts for the small bench. You can also cut out Christmas trees or little animals from the excess dough using molds (then they can be placed next to the house).
*After cutting out large parts and transferring them from the board to a baking sheet, check them again with the pattern and adjust them a little with your hands if the shape was slightly deformed when transferring.
Bake the house parts at 175 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, until slightly golden brown (do not overcook them in the oven).
I made the windows with glass like this:
Cut out the part of the wall with the window and transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, I laid out the pattern again and cut out windows on the baking sheet with a knife and carefully corrected them with the handle of a teaspoon.
*You can also pour caramel crumbs into the windows not immediately, but only after 5 minutes of baking, so they will boil and bubble less in the oven.
*I added it a second time, after the first layer had melted, taking the walls with windows out of the oven again. This made the glass thicker.
Remove the parts of the house from the baking sheet carefully, using a spatula, allowing them to cool slightly.
The parts of the walls with windows and glass must cool completely on the baking sheet!
The remaining parts can be transferred to a flat surface to cool; you can carefully trim them if something turns out uneven (while they are still warm, it is easier to cut them).
Let the finished parts rest for a couple of hours.
4. Prepare the glaze:
Lightly beat the egg white with a fork, sift the powdered sugar and add it to the egg white gradually, stirring thoroughly, until the glaze reaches the desired thickness.
The amount of powdered sugar may differ slightly from that indicated in the glaze, you may need more or less, rely on consistency and thickness.
You can try putting a little icing in a bag with a small round tip (or just in a bag, cutting off a corner) and try to draw a couple of lines, they should not blur.
File the edges of the wall parts using a grater to create oblique cuts at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, this will make it easier to connect them together.
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Next, we start decorating the walls with glaze, and then we will glue them together with caramel.
Many people do the opposite: first they glue and assemble the house, and then decorate it.
It is easier to decorate parts lying on the table than a house assembled vertically, but there is a risk of slightly damaging the already made decor when gluing.
It is more convenient to glue a house without decoration, but its decoration will then be less neat.
Choose the method that seems more correct for you personally.
I first painted the walls and only then glued them together. When gluing, I actually slightly violated what I had drawn before, but then I easily corrected everything once the house was assembled.
You can glue the house together not with caramel, but with the same glaze, but it dries much longer: you will have to hold the walls longer and wait until the parts dry to attach the next ones. Caramel is a little more difficult to work with, but it dries very quickly and sticks stronger than glaze.
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5.Decorating the details:
We draw different patterns-decorations with glaze, glue shutters and window sills, outline the tiles, and glue the chimney. Having drawn the desired patterns, immediately add multi-colored sprinkles where necessary (before the glaze begins to dry out)
I decorated the chimney with whole almonds, or you can sprinkle chopped ones (this will be the “stonework” of the chimney).
Allow the glaze to dry completely and only then proceed with gluing.
6.Glue the house together:
Place a small frying pan over high heat, add 1-2 tbsp. sugar, add 1 tsp. water and stir until completely melted. Then add 1 more spoon and stir again until the sugar melts, etc.
If the sugar does not melt well at first, you can add a teaspoon of honey and remember to stir constantly, the lumps of sugar will gradually disperse. There is no need to add any more water or honey. Let the sugar simmer for a couple of seconds (but not long so it doesn’t start to burn), turn off the heat.
Take the parts, dip the slices into hot caramel and attach one to the other.
*Caramel hardens quickly, so you will also have to work quickly.
*Caramel is very hot, be careful not to burn yourself! Place a bowl of cold water, to put your hand into it if scalding caramel accidentally gets on it.
*First, we attach the long end wall to the side wall, hold it for 20-30 seconds, then attach another end wall and hold it, and then another side wall.
*Have someone help you hold up the walls of the house (or you can prop them up with cups or other objects)
*Next, we attach the house to the base, hold it, slightly pressing it down. If necessary, you can lightly grease the joints from the inside with hot caramel.
*The last thing you need to do is attach the roof parts. Because Since the shape of the walls is slightly trapezoidal, you will have to slightly concave the upper triangular part of the end walls towards the center of the house (otherwise the roof will not fit on the walls). If you made the walls just rectangular, it will be easier.
Here I no longer dipped the parts in caramel, but quickly applied it to the joints with a spoon and placed the roof parts on top. Finally, I coated the joint on top of the roof with caramel.
*If the caramel hardens in the pan during operation, it can be reheated and melted. I reheated it twice.
The New Year and Christmas holidays are already upon us. Together with elements of Western culture, come to us new year holidays fashion came not only for Santa, Christmas wreaths, reindeer, but also for gingerbread houses.
Today for you are several recipes for gingerbread houses with step-by-step photos, as well as a video master class from Tatyana Litvinova on how to bake and beautifully decorate a festive gingerbread house!!!
Gingerbread house No. 1
For the test:
4 cups flour
salt
1 packet of baking powder
200 g butter
200 g powdered sugar
5 tablespoons of liquid honey (if the honey is candied, heat it in a water bath)
4 egg yolks
Spices 1 tsp:
ground ginger,
cinnamon (this is to taste, because not everyone likes cinnamon),
zest of 1 lemon,
cardamom,
anise
Cooking method:
1. Knead the dough, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.
This dough is very tasty and fragrant, but you need to work with it very carefully.
2. To build our house, we need to cut out templates. The wall is 15 cm wide and 17 cm high.
3. From each such template we need to cut out two parts from the dough - these will be two of the four sides of our house.
4. And one more template for the two remaining sides of our house.
The template is 17cm long and 7cm wide.
5. The roof template is 22 cm long and 14.5 cm wide.
6. On a sheet of parchment, roll out the dough into a layer 5-6 mm thick. If you roll it thinner, the gingerbread will be too dry.
We attach ready-made templates and cut along the contour.
We remove the trimmings and transfer the cut out parts along with the parchment to a baking sheet
7. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven at 180oC for 20 minutes.
8. After baking, while the dough is still hot, cut out the details of the doors and windows using the same templates cut out of paper.
9. Cut out while the pastry is hot. Cut the cut out window in half lengthwise. These are future shutters. Cool all parts on a wire rack.
10. Now we cut out the windows in the side walls of the house.
11. From the remaining dough, cut out the roof of the house, Christmas trees, a pipe, small stands for the Christmas trees, any interesting details and figures.
12. This is what the windows look like from the inside. We attach the marmalade to the cut out windows using a glaze of powdered sugar and egg white.
13. Let's do white glaze or icing:
It simultaneously replaces paint for painting on the house and glue for gluing parts together.
