Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (2024)

Recipe courtesy of The Great British Baking Show

Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (2)

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Occasion: Christmas, New Year's Eve
Theme: Cooking with Kids

    Ingredients

  • 375g (13oz) unsalted butter
  • 300g (10½oz) dark muscovado sugar
  • 150g (5½oz) golden syrup
  • 900g (2lb) plain flour
  • 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tbsp ground ginger
  • For the icing
  • 3 free-range egg whites
  • 675g (1½lb) icing sugar, sifted
  • 3 tsp lemon juice
  • To decorate
  • 15 yellow or orange boiled sweets
  • 1 x 30cm (12in) square cake board
  • 200g (7oz) giant milk chocolate buttons
  • 2 night-light candles
  • 6 co*cktail sticks

    Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
  2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together in a large pan. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger together into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in the melted butter mixture, stir it in and, when cool enough to handle, knead to a stiff dough.
  3. Divide the mixture into five equally-sized pieces, cut one of these pieces in half (so you have six pieces in total). Roll each piece out on a sheet of greaseproof paper to ¾cm/⅓in thick. Using the templates, cut out the sections for the roof, sides, front and back of the house. Slide onto three baking trays lined with baking parchment.
  4. Using the template as a guide, a ruler and the rim of a cup, cut out the arched windows on the front and sides of the house. Using a star cutter, cut out a star in the front and back of the house. Using a knife, cut out the door on the front and back of the house and place the doors separately on the baking trays.
  5. Re-roll the trimmings and use to cut out the chimney pieces, three Christmas trees and three triangles to use as supports to help the trees stand upright. Bake the gingerbread for 7-8 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile place the boiled sweets in a pestle and mortar and crush to a rough sand texture.
  7. Remove the gingerbread from the oven. Trim the windows if the mixture has spread and sprinkle the crushed sweets into the windows. Return to the oven and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the sweets have melted and the gingerbread is firm. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
  8. For the icing, whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy. Using a wooden spoon or a hand-held electric mixer on slow speed, add the icing sugar a tablespoonful at a time. Stir in the lemon juice and beat the icing until it is very stiff and white and stands up in peaks. Cover the surface with a damp cloth if not using immediately.
  9. Spoon a little of the icing into a piping bag fitted with a medium plain nozzle. Pipe blobs of icing on the back of each chocolate button and stick, overlapping onto the two roof sections, to create a tile effect. Transfer some icing to another piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle and pipe frames around the windows, doors and stars to decorate. Spoon six tablespoons of the icing over the cake board and, using a palette knife, spread the icing to cover the board with a snow effect and to create a base to stick the house on to.
  10. Pipe some icing along the wall edges and join the house together on the iced cake board. Leave the icing to dry and harden for a minimum of four hours, but preferably overnight.
  11. Once dry, place two night-lights inside the house before attaching the roof.
  12. Cut the pointed ends of the co*cktail sticks into 1cm (½in) pieces (you should have 12 small pointed pieces). Push the blunt end of the co*cktail stick pieces into the sloping edges of the front and back of the house, leaving the pointed ends sticking out to act as peg supports to attach the roof. (Remember to remove the sharp co*cktail sticks from your gingerbread house before eating it, to avoid a choking hazard.) Pipe icing between the co*cktail sticks and fix the two roof panels onto the house. Pipe icing around the base and edges of the chimney and attach to the roof.
  13. To decorate, pipe icing along the apex and edges of the roof to look like snow and icicles. Stick the front door in place with icing. Cut the back door into three pieces to use as props to keep the trees upright. Decorate the Christmas trees with piped icing and fix them onto the cake board with icing and gingerbread props. Dust the roof with icing sugar and light the night lights using a candle lighter through the open back door. Do not leave the candles lit unattended, and it is best not to burn the candles inside the house for longer than 15 minutes or they may singe the inside of the roof and start to melt the chocolate buttons.

Tips/Techniques

Note: This recipe contains U.K. measurements and may require conversions to U.S. measurements. It has also not been professionally tested.

Tags: Baking Recipes, britishbakingshowrecipes, Masterclass Recipes

Presented by:

Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (4)

Produced by:

Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (5)

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Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (2024)

FAQs

How do you make a strong gingerbread house? ›

So to make sure our walls could stand strong, we sandwiched melted marshmallow cement between two graham crackers. The marshmallow adds weight, which helps stabilize the structure. It also acts as a sealant, ensuring that the cracker won't crumble.

What were the ingredients in the first gingerbread house? ›

The gingerbread house had an estimated calorific value exceeding 35.8 million and ingredients included 2,925 pounds (1,327 kg) of brown sugar, 1,800 pounds (820 kg) of butter, 7,200 eggs and 7,200 pounds (3,300 kg) of general purpose flour.

Is a gingerbread house considered food? ›

Gingerbread houses are decorations and desserts all rolled into one, and they make a great activity for adults and kids. Baking and building one from scratch can be quite time-consuming, however, and you'll need some serious pastry skills.

What is the best ingredient to keep a gingerbread house from falling? ›

Then take your gingerbread house pieces, dip the edges in melted sugar and hold them together for a few seconds. That's it! The sugar hardens quickly and creates an solid base for tons and tons of decorating.

What is the best ingredient to keep gingerbread houses from falling apart? ›

Royal icing is the edible "glue" or mortar that holds a gingerbread house together and can be used to make fancy sugar decorations. It's the best option for projects like gingerbread houses since, unlike buttercream frosting, royal icing will harden once dry and keep your gingerbread house from falling apart.

How do you make a gingerbread house not fall apart? ›

Gingerbread House Construction Tips:
  1. Get the right texture. “Use royal icing, because it dries hard. ...
  2. Lay it flat. “Decorate the separate pieces of the house and let them dry before putting the house together. ...
  3. Let it dry. Beddall says patience is the most important part of gingerbread house making. ...
  4. Take a shortcut.
Dec 8, 2020

How do you keep gingerbread house crisp? ›

To achieve crispy, sturdy gingerbread, Lomas recommends letting the baked gingerbread pieces dry out for a day or two. Don't put the pieces in the refrigerator or keep them in a closed container, as this keeps the moisture in. “The longer it dries out, the easier it is to work with for construction purposes,” she said.

How long do gingerbread houses last? ›

How long do the houses last and how long are they edible? You can keep a gingerbread house for years with proper storage. Our houses will stay fresh to eat for up to 12 months depending on how they are displayed and/or stored.

What are the three types of gingerbread? ›

The three distinct types of gingerbread are brown gingerbread, wafer-based gingerbread and honey gingerbread.
  • BROWN GINGERBREAD.
  • WAFER GINGERBREAD.
  • HONEY GINGERBREAD.

What are rules for gingerbread house? ›

All Gingerbread Houses must be made of gingerbread, 100% edible candy/embellishments/materials except the base board. Non-‐edible support structure material other than the baseboard may not be used. 7. Non-‐edible decorations, like paint, ribbon, figurines, etc.

Do gingerbread houses go bad? ›

Under ideal conditions, a gingerbread house can last for several weeks without becoming stale or spoiled. However, it's important to note that gingerbread houses are primarily decorative and are not typically intended to be consumed long after they are made.

Is making a gingerbread house hard? ›

Making a gingerbread house is no simple task (unless, of course, you get one of those pre-fab houses, in which case these notes will be of little help).

What can I use instead of gingerbread for gingerbread house? ›

Any reasonably firm cookie dough will work. Sugar cookie dough is fine, as long as you don't roll it too thin. The thing to keep in mind is that gingerbread is made with both brown sugar and molasses. This keeps it flexible, even when baked, so it's less likely to break when you try to build with it.

How can I make my gingerbread house look better? ›

If you feel like your gingerbread house still needs a little something special, go wild and add some additional sprinkles and candy. Add ornaments to your icing trees, add lights to your holiday garland or create a cute walkway out of jumbo sprinkles. If only decorating our real house for the holidays was that easy!

What is used to decorate gingerbread? ›

One of our favorite aspects about making gingerbread cookies from scratch is being able to decorate them after they cool. Sprinkles, icing, gum drops, mints, chocolates—you can use all these edible items and more to give your cookies their own unique personalities.

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