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Simple Gingerbread House

ByHani Updated on
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My Simple Gingerbread House is easy to make and super delicious to eat. In this DIY gingerbread house tutorial, I will show you how to make it from scratch.

Assembled gingerbread house displayed on a black plate.

HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE FOR CHRISTMAS

I know making a homemade gingerbread house can seem like an impossible task. Let’s break it up into steps, and I promise you’ll have fun building and decorating this tasty gingerbread house.

Back of assembled gingerbread house showing Christmas tree cookie.

TO MAKE EDIBLE SIMPLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE YOU NEED

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EDIBLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Start by making the cookie dough and baking individual cookies and house panels. I covered this step in my Edible Gingerbread House step by step tutorial.

What’s great is that you can bake house panels and built the house ahead of time. So hop over to my detailed step by step tutorial on how to make super tasty Honey Gingerbread Cookie Dough. Learn how to cut out and bake house panels and how to glue it all together into a 3D Gingerbread House. (video included)

Gingerbread house cookie panels on a cooling rack.

If you plan on building a house with a chimney then I recommend to glue the chimney panels first. Let it dry and then glue the chimney onto the roof once the house is build. Depending on the design you can glue it on before you decorate the roof, after or mid process.

Gluing chimney cookies with royal icing.

HOW TO DECORATE SIMPLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE FOR CHRISTMAS

Now it’s time to make the icing, take out the candy, cookies and sprinkles and decorate the house.

  • Royal Icing – use thick white royal icing to glue decorations onto the house. And also, use it to frost the house roof. Here is my recipe for Fresh Lemon Royal Icing. Be sure to use thick consistency icing not flood consistency. You can learn more about Royal Icing Consistency.
  • Candy Decorations – small Nonpareils Chocolates, M&M’s Candies, Sprinkles (Yellow Stars, Snowflakes and Hearts), White Sanding Sugar.
  • Fill the piping bag with thick royal icing. Cut the tip of the piping bag with scissors. 
  • You can decorate already built house standing up or turn on the side like I did. Start by making the door using small chocolate nonpareils. Use thick royal icing for the glue.
  • Then make candy wreath. Pipe a circle with white royal icing and attach regular green and red mini M&M’s candies. Finish wreath design by adding white snowflake sprinkles and a yellow star.
Decorating front door with chocolate nonpareils and making a candy wreath with red and green chocolate candies.

Continue decorating sides of the house. Make the windows with chocolate nonpareils. And decorate top with a pretty border alternating green M&M’s candies and red heart sprinkles. Repeat on the other side.

Decorating side of the house with candies.

To decorate the back panel. I piped simple white stars all over. Immediately dust icing with white sanding sugar. Then add white snowflakes and gray/silver pearls.

Piping star onto a back house panel and dusting them with sanding sugar.

DECORATE SMALL COOKIES

Decorate 2 small hearts cookies. Pipe white outline on each heart and then dip it into white sanding sugar.

Piping white outline on a heart cookie and dipping it in white sanding sugar.

To decorate the tree make a pretty garland using mini red M&M’s and small chocolate nonpareils.

Decorating Christmas tree cookie with chocolate nonpareils and red candies.

Decorate small gingerbread cookies (2.5inch) with white thick royal icing.

Decorating gingerbread man cookie with white icing.

Pipe white royal icing on the chimney and then dip it into the white sanding sugar.

Decorating chimney cookie with white icing and sanding sugar.

DECORATE THE ROOF

Spread a thick royal icing on each roof panel, working with one panel at a time. Use back of the spoon and circular motion to create texture. Immediately attach heart cookie. Then dust icing with white sanding sugar and decorate with some white snowflakes. Repeat on the other side.

Spreading icing onto the roof, attaching a heart cookie into the iced roof.

Now you can glue the chimney onto the roof. Pipe icing on the bottom edges and attach chimney onto a freshly iced roof. Then decorated top of the roof with chocolate nonpareils and red mini M&M”s candies.

Attaching chimney onto a gingerbread house.

Attach Christmas tree cookie onto the back wall. And decorate front and back roof edge with chocolate nonpareils and red mini M&M”s candies.

Gluing tree cookie on a back panel with royal icing.
Candy decorated gingerbread house on a black plate.

CAN I EAT MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE ?

Yes, you can eat this gingerbread house. Unless of course you decorate it with items that are not meant for eating. If so remove inedible decorations before you consume cookies.

HOW LONG DOES THIS EDIBLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE LAST?

I’d recommend that it is eaten within 3-4 weeks.

MORE CHRISTMAS TREATS

Honey cookies decorated with white icing, displayed on a kitchen counter.
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5 from 1 vote

Honey Cookies

Makes about 24 medium size cookies. Popular for holidays and year-round. 
Makes 1 standard-size gingerbread house, ( about 6-inch tall, 5-inch long, 5.5-inch wide)
This recipe can also be used to make delicious edible gingerbread houses. Check notes.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Slovak
Keyword edible dough for gingerbread houses, gingerbread, honey cookies, medovnicky
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Chill 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 18 minutes
Servings 12
Author Hani Bacova

Ingredients

HONEY COOKIES

    Cookie Dough

    • 5 tbsp room temperature butter (70grams)
    • 1⅓ grams powdered sugar (160 grams)
    • 3 tbsp honey
    • 2 whole eggs at room temperature
    • 2¾ to 3 cups all-purpose flour (400 grams)
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • 1 tsp baking soda (use only 1/8 to 1/4tsp when making an edible gingerbread house)
    • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon preferably Saigon
    • 1/2 tsp ground star anise (optional)
    • 1/4 tsp ginger
    • 1/4 tsp cloves
    • pinch salt
    • 2 tsp lemon zest (optional)

    Egg Wash

    • 1 egg (optional)

    Instructions

    Honey Cookie Dough

    • In a medium bowl, sift flour (2 cups and 3/4cup to 3 cups, 400grams), baking soda (1tsp), ground cinnamon (1tsp and 1/2tsp), ground star anise (1/2tsp), ginger (1/4tsp), cloves (1/4tsp), salt (pinch).
    • Cream room temperature butter (5tbsp, 70grams) and powdered sugar (1cup and 1/3cup, 160 grams). Beat till fluffy. Then beat in eggs (2 whole eggs), one at a time. Scrapping bowl a few times. Then gradually pour in honey (3 tablespoons), vanilla extract (1tsp), and lemon zest (2 teaspoons), optional). Scrape the bowl with a spatula and beat for a minute or so.
    • Then on low speed and gradually add flour sifted with spices and baking soda. Beat till combined. Invert the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute. If the dough appears too sticky add a little more flour. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
    • Preheat oven to 350F – 360F (176C-182C).
    • Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or perforated mat.
    • Roll the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper to 2/16 (3mm). If needed very lightly flour your bottom parchment paper. Roll the dough into approximately 3-4 mm thick. Cookies puff up in the oven. For even thickness use rolling guides.
    • Cut out cookies and transfer onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
    • Bake cookies for 6-8 minutes until puffy and golden.
      Larger cookies may take a little longer to bake
      Try to bake smaller shapes and larger shapes separately, smaller shapes will be baked before larger ones. Remove from the oven, let cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a cooling rack

    Egg Wash (optional, use for shiny cookies)

    • Whisk the egg well, and then strain the egg to remove any egg bits.

    Applying Egg Wash

    • To create a shiny finish on cookies, brush the cookies right after you take them out of the oven while they are still hot. Be sure not to add too much egg wash as it can drip down the sides and under the cookies.

    Gingerbread House

    • This recipe can be use to make tasty gingerbread houses. When using to make gingerbread house use only 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp baking powder.

    Bake Gingerbread House Panels

    • Roll the cookie dough for gingerbread houses to 1/8 inch (3mm) to 4mm. Bake large gingerbread house panels for 10-14 minutes, or until golden and light brown. Smaller cookies take shorter time to bake. Let panels cool on a baking sheet for 10 minutes then transfer them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

    Notes

    • DO I HAVE TO USE STAR ANISE? I DON’T HAVE IT. – I love using star anise, but if you don’t have it or can’t find it’s okay to skip it. The flavor of the finished cookies will still be delicious because of the other spices used.
    • HOW DO YOU GRIND SPICES? -I use a small coffee grinder. Then I sift ground spices thru a fine mesh sieve.
    • HOW LONG DO HONEY GINGERBREAD COOKIES LAST? – Stored in an airtight container, they last up to 4 weeks.
    • HOW WOULD YOU DECORATE THESE WITHOUT ICING? –Decorate cookies before baking with walnuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips, coconut, or dried fruit. Brush a little egg wash on the cookies before they are baked, and then embellish them with toppings. Or brush cookies with a little bit of water instead.
    • I WANT TO DECORATE THESE COOKIES WITH ROYAL ICING, BUT THEY ARE SLIGHTLY DOMED, WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO DECORATE THESE WITH ROYAL ICING? – Yes, cookies bake slightly domed. They are known for their rounded edges. If you plan to decorate these with simple piped designs, having the dough exposed, decorate the rounded top. Especially if you brushed it with an egg wash, it looks very pretty. However, when decorating a whole cookie with icing you have to be careful not to add too much icing onto the cookie, or it can overflow. The best course of action is to decorate the underside as it’s flat. I used this method to make my Easter Gingerbread House. Or use slightly thicker icing to outline and flood with the thinner icing.
    • WHAT ICING FLAVORS DO YOU RECOMMEND? -Lemon, Vanilla, Almond, Chocolate.
    • CAN I USE THIS RECIPE TO MAKE A GINGERBREAD HOUSE? – Yes, absolutely. You are going to love it. You can use this recipe to make a gingerbread house. Use 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp baking soda instead of 1 tsp. Here is Step by Step Tutorial on how to build a Simple Edible Gingerbread House using this recipe. 
    • CAN I USE MOLASSES? – I’d recommend using honey and molasses (1:1 ratio).

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    8 Comments

    2. Hi Hanie, can I replace the honey with molasses? If so, how much molasses should i use? Will it affect the toughness of the cookies? I want to make a gingerbread house. Please help..

      Reply

      1. Hi Claudia,
        my bad, recipe card wasn’t loading. I fixed it should be at the bottom of the post. THanks for letting me know.

        Reply

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