Follow the Holiday Trail to LAs Famous Gingerbread Houses

To speed things up, use a hair dryer on its cool setting and on high speed and use the cool air to dry out the royal icing. Do not use warm air as this will melt the royal icing. Once all the walls are “cemented” on to the base, and to each other, pipe more royal icing on the inside to reinforce the joints (Image 40). Snip off the end of the piping bag (about ½ cm opening) with royal icing.

More Ideas for Decorating Your Gingerbread House:

This recipe is the best icing for building and decorating. It’s light and fluffy, easy to pipe but also dries hard. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the gingerbread pieces on the prepared sheets to bake. This gingerbread house making project requires a trip to the candy section of your local grocery store. You can decorate your house with whatever types of candy please you. Agree with others - cut the gingerbread after it comes out of the oven, while it is still soft.

Gingerbread House Recipe to Build One Like a Pro

I found it helpful to weigh the dough into 20 oz chunks, pat into squares, and wrap individually before refrigerating. That way, you can take out a square of cold dough and roll it out for each slab.

Bake and Make Frosting

Step 2 – Start creaming the butter and sugar. If your butter is not as soft, then place the butter in your mixer and mix it for about 5 minutes with a paddle attachment to make it soft and creamy (Image 3). The art of making a gingerbread house doesn’t have to be difficult to master. The icing is one of the trickiest parts to get right. This means it will stay sticky for longer, making more of a mess.

What Gives Gingerbread Its Flavor?

Keep your gingerbread house in a tightly closed container as long as it’s out on your counter or in your pantry. This way, it will last for a few weeks until going stale. Your gingerbread house will last between six to eight months that way and still be edible when you thaw it out! If you leave it out for decor, you can use a glass dome over a cake stand or platter to keep it fresher.

Pipe royal icing to make decorative designs around the walls of the house and roof. Use royal icing to "glue" pieces of candy to the house. FYI, if your stand mixer has an 11 lbs or higher dough capacity (like the Ankarsrum which is what I used), it will be able to hold the whole recipe in a single batch. But it was at the limit, so an even slightly smaller mixer probably wouldn't work. I had a hard time portioning and rolling out the dough until it had been at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, at which point it became much easier.

Place the front of the house on a cake stand or flat platter and hold for a minute. Add icing to the bottom of the house front panel and the bottom of the side pieces, as well as the sides. Once the house has finished baking, let it completely cool for a few minutes before transferring it to a wire rack. Submit your question or recipe review here. Please see our FAQ page for many answers to common questions. Re-roll the scraps so you have enough dough for the entire house.

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Crusting Buttercream for Decoration

Step 6 – Print out the gingerbread house template and get the tools ready. Such as a glue stick, cardboard, and craft or utility knife (Image 16). While the dough is chilling, prepare the gingerbread house template. You can even do this the day before, to save time. But if you do love a sweet gingerbread cookie, then decorating the cookie with royal icing will add that extra layer of sweetness to it. A tried-and-true Easy Gingerbread House recipe with a gingerbread house template and tips on how to construct and decorate it.

There will be an overhang off the side of the wall. The gingerbread should just start to darken at the edges, and then you know it’s done. Form each dough portion into a smooth disc, while dusting it with flour to prevent it from sticking (Image 14). I like to weigh the dough and divide it equally (Image 13). Scrape down the bowl as much as possible to prevent the flour from settling at the bottom of the bowl. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature.

Remove the extra parts around the pieces you cut (you get to eat these “scraps” your reward for the day!”. English toffee is another favorite this time of the year and it is so easy to make. All the house and chimney templates will fit on one 20” x 15” sheet pan. You can use 2 smaller 13” x 9” pans if you do not have a large sheet pan. Gather your little ones together for an activity that will build long-lasting treasured memories! Don’t forget your camera, you’re going to want to capture all the precious moments as the kids unleash their creativity.

If the dough is soft, then I recommend rolling it out between two pieces of parchment paper (Image 23). Add the next amount of flour, while there are still white streaks in the dough (Image 10). You don’t have to wait until one portion of flour is completely mixed in before adding the next. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can make this with a hand mixer as well. However, you will need to make half a batch at a time and be gentle with incorporating the flour to make the dough.

Join to receive our email series which contains a round-up of some of our quick and easy family favorite recipes. Then once the houses are all done, move them to another location and clean up all the sprinkles and icing and mess in one go. Making Gingerbread Houses is really fun and a great activity to put you in the holiday spirit. They make a fun Christmas decoration that you can enjoy too!

There are so many beautiful (and SIMPLE) decorated gingerbread houses out there. Here’s the video tutorial to guide you along. You can watch me make this gingerbread house from start to finish, including rolling out the dough and decorating the house. Sprinkled throughout are my highly recommended tips and methods to guarantee gingerbread house success. But you'd need a truckload of candy to deck these adorable abodes, for several of LA's gingerbread houses stand at two stories or more.

Pipe a line of royal icing on the base to stick the wall (Image 37). Place the royal icing in a large piping bag or a ziploc bag (Image 36). Seal the opening of the piping bag or ziploc bag, making sure to remove as much air as possible. Exposure to air will cause the royal icing to harden. Bake the gingerbread (maximum of 2 trays at a time), for about 15 – 20 minutes (cut out pieces) or 20 – 25 minutes (without removing scrap dough). The rolled out dough is easier to cut if it’s frozen, so you can choose to freeze it for about 30 minutes before cutting it.