Homemade Gingerbread House Recipe

To build a homemade gingerbread house from scratch, it is important to choose the right recipes for ginger bread house dough and homemade icing for gingerbread. The details of the gingerbread house should be smooth, light, with clear edges and shape, and should not be deformed during baking. And the gingerbread icing should securely fasten the details, not spread, not crumble, and be safe for consumption. Congratulations, you’ve found the perfect homemade gingerbread house recipe!

Gingerbread house cookie recipe

Gingerbread cookies are well stored, so you can prepare the gingerbread house details in advance and assemble them on another convenient day. By the way, homemade gingerbread for houses can be stored in an airtight container for several months, and the maximum that they are at risk of is becoming a little harder.

The flavor of gingerbread cookies according to this recipe will impress you from the moment you start kneading the dough, it is so flavorful, spicy, and festive.

The homemade gingerbread recipe for gingerbread house contains aromatic spices, such as nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, butter, honey and flour, and you can add orange zest as a fresh touch.

Prepare templates of the gingerbread house details you need in advance. You can cut them out of parchment or, if they are paper or cardboard parts, cover them with tape or cling film so that they do not stick to the gingerbread dough.

Homemade gingerbread house ingredients:

unsalted butter at room temperature
sugar
eggs
honey
ground dried ginger
ground nutmeg
ground cinnamon
orange zest
salt
all-purpose flour
baking powder

1. Whip softened butter with sugar.
2. Add eggs one at a time, whipping after each.
3. Add liquid honey, orange zest and spices, whisk until smooth.
4. Gradually add the flour. When it becomes difficult to mix, add the remaining flour and knead the dough by hands. Add a little more flour if necessary. The honey gingerbread dough should stop sticking to your hands, but it shouldn’t be too tight either, so don’t add too much flour.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and press down a little to make it flat. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
6. Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment into a layer ~3 mm thick, no thinner. Immediately transfer it to a baking sheet covered with parchment and cut out the details of the future gingerbread house directly on it: put the prepared templates on the dough, leaving 2-3 cm gaps between them, and carefully cut out the details on the dough with a knife. Remove the templates and the extra pieces of the dough between the details.
7. Put the baking sheet with gingerbread in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170°C.
9. Take the gingerbread out of the refrigerator and immediately place in a preheated oven. Bake until golden brown, the time depends on the size of the parts (the wall takes 15–20 minutes, and the doors will bake in 5–7 minutes).
10. Remove the finished gingerbread house details from the oven and cool on a baking sheet.

Store the homemade gingerbread house details in an airtight container.

Next, make gingerbread icing – the “glue” for decorating the gingerbread house and fastening all its parts together.

Homemade gingerbread house icing

There are not many gingerbread icing recipes, but there is a lot to choose from and a lot to get confused about. If you’re interested in figuring it out, I recommend my separate post about Homemade icing for gingerbread, where I describe in detail three working recipes – with egg white, with pasteurized dry protein (albumin powder), and no egg gingerbread icing (based on aquafaba), and also describe in detail the types of gingerbread icing and the consistency of the icing for different purposes.

And today we’re going to prepare an easy homemade icing for a gingerbread house that you certainly have the ingredients for at home.

The gingerbread icing should be prepared right before you start decorating or gluing the parts, as it cannot be kept wet for long. Throw away all the leftovers after drawing and gluing the gingerbread house without regret, for your and your loved ones’ safety.

Don’t rush to paint on the gingerbread house details immediately after they are baked, give them time to sit for at least a few hours, or preferably overnight. This way, the icing will adhere well to the surface and won’t deform.

Gingerbread house icing ingredients:

egg white
icing sugar
lemon juice

1. Sift the icing sugar.
2. Add the egg white to the icing sugar.
3. Thoroughly grind them with a spoon or silicone spatula. (Do not skip this step, it is important).
4. Whip with a mixer on low speed for 2 minutes.
5. Add lemon juice. Whip for another 3 minutes.
6. Add water, a few drops at a time, until you get a consistency called “soft peaks”. It does not spread, holds its shape, but is soft. Check the readiness of the icing in this way: if you run a toothpick over it, the trace will disappear in about 15 seconds.

We use the ready-made gingerbread icing to decorate and glue the gingerbread house parts. It hardens quickly and holds the details firmly.

If you want to completely fill some parts of the gingerbread house with icing, you can add a little more water to some part of the icing, so it will have the consistency needed to cover the gingerbread house detail.

So, decorate the details, assemble the gingerbread house and decorate it according to your imagination, there is no recipe here 🙂

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024!

What do you think about this homemade gingerbread house recipe? Did you like it? I am happy to share my experience with you and waiting for your feedback!