Gingerbread House

The Holidays are here!  I love this time of year, with all the treats and traditions.  We always decorate Gingerbread houses, but this year Brynlee and I decided we wanted to make our houses from scratch.  The gingerbread really wasn't difficult to make but it did require a little bit of elbow grease to get it rolled out.  The pattern was easy to follow and make for some sweet little houses.  Larger than your average Graham Cracker houses, but not as big as some store bought versions.  We worked on these houses over a few nights and it tuned out to be a fun little project.  The best part of making your own house is being able to customize it.  We both cut out a few windows and a door and then filled them with crushed jolly ranchers before baking them.  Looks like a stained glass window!  For the frosting, I used a traditional royal icing recipe with raw egg whites because I didn't have any merengue powder.  I'm including two recipes for Royal Icing: one with merengue powder which is great if you don't feel comfortable using raw eggs, and the more traditional recipe that uses raw egg whites in case you can't find any merengue powder or just don't want to make a special trip to the store for it :).  Anyway, if you feel like getting a little crazy and making your own Gingerbread House this year this is a great place to start! Have fun with it! 

P.S.  Can you tell which one I decorated and which one Brynlee did?  She is getting to be such a good decorator! 

* The Gingerbread House and Royal Icing Recipe make enough for 1 house.  You could maybe get away with one batch of Royal icing for two houses but I ended up needing more since we used only that, and pretty liberally.  

Gingerbread Houses

Sally's Baking Addiction

Check out Sally's site for an awesome tutorial, printable template, and even a video!

She includes recipes for the gingerbread, merengue icing, and buttercream icing if you want to add that too.  

Traditional Royal Icing

INGREDIENTS

3 ¾ cups/1 pound/454 grams confectioners’ sugar
3 large egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch kosher salt
Food coloring, as needed

PREPARATION

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar and salt. Whisk until stiff and glossy.

Spoon into a piping bag with small tip, or just cut a small tip off.  You can also just use a ziplock bag.  I find it helpful to put the bag inside of a big cup such as a blender bottle and fold the top around the sides first.  Once the icing is in the bag, secure the top with a twist tie.  

Tips:

Try decorating the sides and roof of house before assembling. 

Allow house framework to dry for at least 4 hours before adding roof and extra decorations.

For stained glass windows, use a small cookie cutter or a glass to cut out window shapes.  Crush up Jolly Ranchers or other hard candy in a bag and sprinkle into the window, making sure to cover the area well.  Bake as normal.