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Gingerbread House

Photo: Natalie Levin

We hosted our first real Christmas party 2 days ago. It’s not that we didn’t celebrate Christmas over the past few years, but it’s only this year we had a really bog party with all our friends.

I baked tons of cookies of all kinds; we decorated a cute Christmas tree with colorful ornaments; decorated the whole house with glitter and lights; played traditional carols for the perfect ambience – and it was just so COOL!

One of the things I always dreamed of making was a gingerbread house. I found so many gingerbread house recipes over the past few days, and after calming myself it would’nt be THAT hard and complicated to make – I got right on it.

So I assembled the gingerbread house according to these templates, and after quite a lot of effort got this cute gingerbread house that made me smile every time I opened the fridge.  I think that for a first time gingerbread house it’s not that bad, and I really enjoyed decorating it!

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food magazine with few adjustments. Merry Christmas everyone ♥

Gingerbread House

Photo: Natalie Levin



Gingerbread House

For the gingerbread cookie dough:

  • 250 grams butter
  • 200 grams dark brown sugar
  • 140 grams honey or molasses
  • 600 grams all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp. baking soda
  • 4 tsp. ground ginger
  • 2-3 tbsp. water (as needed)

For the roof tiles (optional):

  • 200 grams blanched silvered almonds

For assembling the house:

  • 100 grams white chocolate chips

For the royal icing decorations:

  • 200 grams sugar powder
  • 1-2 tsp. cold water

For decoration:

  • M&M’s of all kinds
  • Little Chocolate Santa
  • Funfetti
  • Sugar powder
  1. Preheat the oven to 180c degrees.
  2. In a large pot melt butter, sugar and honey until fully melted.
  3. Add flour, soda and ground ginger and stir with a wooden spoon until large chunks of dough form. If the dough won’t come together, add some water.
  4. Cool the dough for about 2-3 hours in the refrigerator before rolling.
  5. Cut out the house pattern (download here).
  6. Place baking papers on baking trays.
  7. Roll the dough about 1 cm thick and cut out shapes according to the templates. Place the cut our cookies on the baking trays. If you have left over dough you can cut out small gingerbread men or trees for decoration.
  8. Pick out the most intact sliced almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections to make a roof tiles appearance.
  9. Bake all the cookie cut-outs for about 12-15 minutess or until set.

  10. 10. Cool completely at room temperature. Using a Microplane zester, gently scrape the edges of the sections to make it neat and accurate before assembling the house.
  11. 11. Assemble the house: melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave or over double-boiler until completely melted and smooth.
  12. 12. Transfer the chocolate into a small piping bag.
  13. 13. Pipe “snakes” of white chocolate on the edges of the sections and build the house, freezing it for a few minutes (to harden) before adding each section.
  14. 14. Freeze the assembled house for about 2-3 hours for complete stabilization.
  15. 15. Remove from the freezer and decorate with royal icing (mix sugar powder and water until you get a thick pasty consistency) – pipe it on the roof and walls to make it “snowy” looking. Decorate with sugar powder and M&M’s in the desired shape. Add Funfetti as desired.

  • Keep the house in the freezer until serving.
  • You can decorate the house in any way you want, using different kinds of candy and chocolates.
  • I like working with white chocolate as “glue” because it doesn’t dry so fast as royal icing. The decoration is made with royal icing as it’s a lot whiter than white chocolate.
  • You can add cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into the dough.

Gingerbread House

Photo: Natalie Levin

Gingerbread House

Photo: Natalie Levin