Gingerbread House (Mini Gingerbread Houses)

Chef floWer's Note:

I have made these several times and they are a lot of fun. I've always made them with Little Miss (DD) and she loves it. The recipe makes two or more gingerbread houses, so I let my daughter decorate one to her heart desires. Yes, it's not an art gallery item, but her face is amazing to watch as she decorates her little house. I've also have given these as gifts and they have used them as a centre piece for Christmas table. I've also entered one of Little Miss master piece in Zaar 2006 Gingerbread House and Cookie Contest. Recipe comes from a book call 100 favourite cakes and biscuits by Alison Holst. Happy Holidays.

• Total Time: 48 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 28 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 2 small h ...

House

• 50 g butter , cubed
• 100 g packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup golden syrup
• ¼ cup treacle , plus
• 1 tablespoon treacle
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 ½ cups plain flour (plus more until the dough holds its shape)
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

White icing for piping

• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup icing sugar , sifted (plus more until the icing holds its shape)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 180°C (170°C fan bake), with the rack just below the middle. Line a baking tray with baking paper or a Teflon liner.
2. Cut three shapes from cardboard. (Each piece of card will be used twice to cut the 6 gingerbread shapes for one house. Cut an 8 x 10 cm rectangle (for the roof) and a 6 x 8 cm rectangle (for the side walls). To make the peaked end-wall shape, draw a 10 x 6 cm rectangle, then make a mark 4 cm from one end on the two long sides, and another mark in the middle of the short side nearest the other two marks. Join this mark to the other two, then cut out.
3. Warm the first four ingredients together (butter, brown sugar, golden syrup, treacle and extra treacle), mixing until smooth. Take off the heat and stir in the egg yolks.
4. Then the sieved dry ingredients (plain flour, ground ginger, & baking soda). Knead to form a smooth dough, adding a little water or extra flour if necessary. Cut the dough into four even pieces and wrap until using.
5. To make one house, roll one piece out about 3 mm thick on the floured board. It should be just large enough to cut two each of the three cardboard shapes from it. Re-roll dough scraps if necessary.) Place the shapes on a prepared baking tray.
6. Bake for about seven minutes or until evenly browned. (Do not under cook.) While pieces are warm, carefully lift them onto a cooling rack. Repeat for other houses.
7. To construct and decorate houses, make 'White Icing' for Piping. Whisk two egg whites until foamy. Beat in about one cup of sifted icing sugar at a time, until the icing holds its shape when piped from an icing bag (or a tough plastic bag with a small hole in one corner). This icing sets hard and can be quite brittle if not stuck firmly to (or supported by) the biscuit base.
8. Pipe the icing on the walls and roof making shingles, doors, windows, etc. Leave plain or decorate with sweets if desired. Using more of the icing, "glue" the walls together on a cardboard base. When the walls are firm position the roof on top using more icing, and leave to set.
9. Enjoy.

Reviews

[Lavender Lynn]

This was a really fun and adorable Christmas project for my DD and I. We totally enjoyed ourselves for a whole day. The directions were great. We had 2 places that we didn't have enough ingredients. We added a cup of flour to the dough and we added powdered sugar to the icing to get it to the right consistency. Made for Aus/NZ swap

[The Flying Chef]

This is a fantastic recipe!! I had never made gingerbread before and this was so easy to follow and tasted fabo. My son and I took on the task of making an edible Christmas village this year, we made three houses to the sizes you have listed below and 2 larger houses. It was one of the most fun projects we have done what with the baking, decorating and of course the eating. It was fun collecting all the things to put in the village and the only things that were unedible were the grass, train and trees. I made everyone wait through Christmas day though, before destroying it as it looked great and so all the guests could get photos. We eventually demolished it which was fun and it tasted great. A perfect recipe if you have never made gingerbread houses before and very clear precise instructions thanks Chef floWer for a great recipe.

[kiwidutch]

Great recipe! the dough is fairly easy to handle ( I did need a little extra flour as mine was rather too soft at first) and it baked up well, and the baked pieces held together well when putting the house together too. One point: with two egg whiles in the icing I needed more than 3 cups of icing sugar to get even a slightly stiff paste, with only one cup of icing sugar the mixture had the fluidity of oil.... but we got there in the end, even with two kids underfoot . My decorating skills were not up to par today (apologies) but I needed to get this assembled rather quickly for DD's end of year class lunch and the teacher hamper... so the decorating suffered. Next time I will make it far enough in advance to not have the time problem. The results taste great... and this is a recipe that I will use again. Please see my rating system: 4 excellent stars for a great tasting recipe. Thanks!