20 Days Of Christmas Cookies- Day 15

Gingerbread Cookie House Recipe

Don’t be afraid of baking and decorating a gingerbread house with your kids and grandchildren. There are no rules to decorating, only rules for baking the dough. Oh, the magical gingerbread house, we remember them as kids, we cherish them as adults and pass the tradition along to our children and grandchildren. 

This gingerbread house recipe, along with the recipe for gingerbread house icing, is tried and true. Based on the original gingerbread house cookie recipe- published by Wilton almost 30 years ago, Grandma’s Gingerbread Cookies. I have yet to find a recipe that is as tasty, sturdy, and easy as this one. Over the course of time, I have altered the spices, but the basic recipe is the same. 

I have a cardboard pattern that I have been using for the past 30 years. Yes, you heard me 30 years. 30 years ago, gingerbread house cookie cutters were few and far between. They have come a long way baby, and this  gingerbread house cookie cutter set is the closest I could find to my cardboard pattern, and it works great! 

My boys grew up making gingerbread houses, and it’s nice to see that as adults, they cherish the memory. We have made them with their friends as teenagers, those teenagers are grown and having kids, and we are passing the traditional along to them. We have baked them and have put kits together to share with family and friends across the country. That was fun to see their take on the gingerbread house, no rules, just pure imagination, and fun. As a family, we still make one every year, and I love it!

Ingredients

5 ½  - 6 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Saigon cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1  tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp cardamom

1 cup solid vegetable shortening

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs (room temperature)

1 ¼ cup molasses

 Gingerbread House Icing Ingredients

6 TBSP meringue powder

7 ½ cups powdered sugar

10 TBSP water

 Decorations

Full size and mini candy canes

Tootsie Rolls

Meringue Christmas Trees

Sanding sugar

Gold dragees

Colored hard candy- crushed

 Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer

3. In a large saucepan, melt the shortening and cool to body temperature.

4. Add the eggs and molasses and mix well.

5. Pour the molasses mixture into the dry ingredients.

6. Using a heavy-duty stand mixer, mix until well blended. 

7. Roll the cookie dough out on a floured pastry board, to ⅛ inch thickness. Just like our Christmas cutout cookies, consistency should be the same as your earlobe.

8. Cut your cookie house shapes out.

9. Place the cutouts on greased 11x15 inch cookie/jelly roll pans.

10. If you want windows, and doors, cut them out now.

11. For windows crush colored hard candy and place it in the openings. When the cookie bakes, it will melt and look like stained glass.

12. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until set.

13. Slightly loosen the cookies using a small thin spatula, and let them cool completely. If you made stained glass windows this is extremely important to carefully loosen them from the cookie sheet while they are still warm.

14. Let the cookies cool completely, or overnight, before putting the house together.

To make the gingerbread house icing

1. Using a heavy-duty stand mixer, fitted with a grease-free metal bowl and whip, sift the powdered sugar and meringue powder into the bowl. Depending on your mixer size, you may need to do this in 2 batches.

2. Add the water and mix on low until the ingredients are incorporated.

3. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip until stiff peaks form, adding a flick of water with your hands if needed.

4. Keep the bowl covered with a damp towel as you decorate the house.

To Assemble and Decorate the Gingerbread cookie house

1. The night before decorating, using the gingerbread house icing, cover a half sheet heavy-duty cake board, with icing for snow.

2. Using a 10-inch cake decorating bag fitted with a #32 star or #12 round decorating tip, pipe icing in a zig-zag pattern along the end of one side of the house and place it in the icing snow.

3. Pipe icing in a zig-zag pattern on the same end of the back of the house, and attach it to the side you just piped, placing it in the icing snow.

4. Pipe icing on one end of the second side of the house, and place it in the icing snow.

5. Pipe icing in a zig-zag pattern on the same end of the back of the house, and attach it to the side you just piped.

6. On the front of the 2 sides of the house, pipe icing in a zig-zag pattern

7. Pipe icing in a zig-zag pattern on the 2 sides of the front house piece, and attach it to the sides you just piped in the icing snow.

8. Let this sit for about an hour, before adding the roof pieces in the same manner as above.

9. The next day you can decorate the house. The sky is the limit on decorating your gingerbread house.  Remember there are no other rules, and you should just have fun!

10. Let everything dry overnight and then eat and enjoy or gift. When gifting I fill the inside of the house with candy. It’s a nice surprise when the roof comes off.