Gingerbread cookie cottage

Recipe uploaded by

Jane Hornby

3 ratings

Recipe by Jane Hornby

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1. Video tutorial: Making a gingerbread house

1. Place the flour, ginger, cinnamon and butter in a food processor and pulse until they resemble breadcrumbs (do this in two batches if the bowl is small). Combine the sugar, treacle and egg in a large mixing bowl. Tip in the flour mix and stir, then bring the dough together with your hands. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Cover and chill for at least 1 hr.
2. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line three baking sheets with non-stick paper. Divide the dough into three and roll out on a floured surface to the thickness of two £1 coins. Using the templates, cut out two each for the roof, sides and two pointed end walls. Lift them onto the baking sheets. Re-roll scraps of dough, then cut out the small trees. Bake for 12 mins or until just firm. Leave to firm up for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
3. To assemble the house, pipe a door on an end wall and a window on a side wall, using the squeezy icing. Pipe icing generously along one long edge of one side wall and stick it to the board. Repeat with an end wall, join the corners with a line of icing, then fix a flake bar to the base as a 'foundation'. Stick the remaining walls together. Use another flake bar to support the other end wall. Fix on the roof pieces, then leave overnight to set.
4. Stick the marshmallows all over the roof, using the decorating icing as glue. Fix chocolate buttons around the door and to cover the corner joins. Pipe icicles along the front edge of the roof using the squeezy icing - start each one with a small pea-sized blob of icing. Pull the icing nozzle downwards and away from the blob - the icing will break off in a jagged 'icicle'. Alternatively, decorate with a line of white chocolate buttons.
5. Mix the icing sugar with drops of water until you have a thick but spreadable icing. Spread this over the board and decorate with the lollipops (fastened to soft sweets), sweets, chocolate buttons and gingerbread trees. Dust lightly with icing sugar for a snowy effect.
6. NOTE: To make the templates draw each shape on card or paper, using the following measurements. Side walls: 16cm x 10cm. Roof walls: 19cm x 12cm. End walls: Total height 18cm to the apex. 10cm tall to the top of the box. Angled line 11cm long.

Print a template

Click here to download a template.

We made the mixture together, cut out the shapes and enjoyed getting messy hands with the dough. The gingerbread was really moist and tasty.

Latest comments and suggestions

• Laura

  10 November 2007

  Laura commented on this recipe

  Good straight forward recipe but no templates! also how long will it keep?

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• Laura

  12 November 2007

  Laura commented on this recipe

  I can't find the templates either, but if the flakes are being used as supports for the end walls, then the end walls must be 6 inches/15 cm long as this is how long a (cadbury's) flake is. The triangular section at the top of the wall looks to be about half the height of the wall. Therefore I would guess that you need a wall that is 15x15cm square with a triangular section on top with a height of 7.5cm and a width of 15cm. The house above looks reasonably square, so it would seem that all 4 walls are the same length. If none of that made sense, I apologise!

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• Soo

  13 November 2007

  Soo commented on this recipe

  My son aged 4, would love to have a go at making this, PLEASE tell us where to find the templates.

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• CJ

  16 November 2007

  CJ commented on this recipe

  Hi, this may sound like cheating a little, but you can use the Gingerbread houses by IKEA for templates. The edible "houses" are sold in the deli section in IKEA stores and cost around �2.95. Each comes flat pack (naturally!) and contains 4 walls, 2 roof panels and a 4-sided chimney pot. Well worth a look, if you can still get them

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• Mairi

  22 November 2007

  Mairi commented on this recipe

  Measurements are End Wall - base 18cm vertical 16cm ridge another 11cm above this rectangle side wall - 16cm x 10 cm roof - 12cm x 19cm I made this last year it was very good

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• Debbie

  28 November 2007

  Debbie commented on this recipe

  What a great shame, I have used this for the last 2 years and have lost the templates. My son loves making this on a Sunday afternoon before xmas...mind you i have to buy more sweets than it needs as he eats, them all part of the fun. Then xmas morning we are allowed to start eating bits of it, great fun. Come BBC Good Food put the templates on the web site.

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• fran from Malta

  02 January 2008

  fran from Malta commented on this recipe

  I am a bit lost. Ttrying to get all the things i need together to make the ginger bread house, but cant understand what black treacle is? Can anyone help.

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• hayleytucker

  04 January 2008

  hayleytucker commented on this recipe

  This was a recipe i had seen before, but never got round to making. I am so glad I did. I found it suprisingly easy. i printed the templates from this web site, and away i went. The gingerbread was simple to make, and fixing the walls together went really well, I left it over night to set, and loved decorating the next day. The gingerbread lasted for a week, but by then it had all been eaten. Will definatley make again next christmas

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• hayleytucker

  04 January 2008

  hayleytucker commented on this recipe

  You'll find a tin of black treacle near the golden syrup and jams. Its a thick dark liquid. You can use the remainder to flavour casseroles.

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• Kittychan

  06 January 2008

  Kittychan commented on this recipe

  I made this for Christmas and it was wonderful. The recipe for the gingerbread was easy, although sticking all the pieces together was tricky at times. Decorating it was great fun and I really enjoyed myself making the house. I would recommend buying far too many sweeties so you can munch on them as you go along. It was torture sitting and smelling them, but not being able to tuck in! I couldn't get any marshmallows so I used white chocolate buttons on the roof instead, which looked great. I also made a snowman out of two toffee bon bons - it was very cute! I wanted to post a picture on here, but I can't work out how to do it. Let me know if there is a way.

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• Joanna

  23 October 2008

  Joanna rated and commented on this recipe

  

  This is a really tasty ginger bread recipe although i subsituted a bit of the flour for much more of the spices.

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• Bakingmad

  16 December 2008

  Bakingmad commented on this recipe

  don't understand the flake part can someone please explain it

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• Bakingmad

  16 December 2008

  Bakingmad rated this recipe

  

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• Bakingmad

  16 December 2008

  Bakingmad commented on this recipe

  when i made this gingerbread house i didn't use black treacle i used golden syrup and it still tasted nice and looked nice

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• Amy

  08 October 2009

  Amy commented on this recipe

  This is an amazing recipe which as used as part of a christening gift last wekend...it was loved by all and nobody wanted to eat it as it looked sooooo nice!!!!! For the templates, I just cut pieces of card before hand and made my own measurements!!!

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• Deb

  30 October 2009

  Deb rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I made this last christmas and will be doing so again this year! My 9 year old and I had so much fun putting it together. It was fiddly with the icing but worked and my daughters sense of achievement after was sky high. She spent the whole of christmas showing it to people. I cut windows in the sides and baked with boiled sweets crushed in them to make stained glass. I also put a bit extra ginger and cinnamon in but that's how we like it.

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Ingredients

FOR THE WALLS AND ROOF

• 650g self-raising flour , plus extra to dust
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 175g butter , cut into cubes
• 225g brown sugar
• 175g black treacle
• 2 eggs , beaten

TO DECORATE

• 2x 120g tubes white ready-to-use icing
• 2x chocolate flake bars
• 2x 200g packs white mini marshmallows
• 200g icing sugar , sifted, plus extra for dusting
• coloured lollies, chocolate buttons, sweets
• 30cm square silver cake board

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Difficulty and servings

Preparation and cooking times

Prep 30 mins

Cook 15 mins

Ingredients

FOR THE WALLS AND ROOF

• 650g self-raising flour , plus extra to dust
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 175g butter , cut into cubes
• 225g brown sugar
• 175g black treacle
• 2 eggs , beaten

TO DECORATE

• 2x 120g tubes white ready-to-use icing
• 2x chocolate flake bars
• 2x 200g packs white mini marshmallows
• 200g icing sugar , sifted, plus extra for dusting
• coloured lollies, chocolate buttons, sweets
• 30cm square silver cake board

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