Simple gingerbread house

Simple gingerbread house

Use this gingerbread recipe to get the kids in the kitchen and create some magical memories

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Makes 1 house!

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Method

  1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won't quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.
  2. Cut out the template (see below to download). Put a sheet of baking paper on your work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees, if you like.
  3. Pick out the most intact flaked almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections, pointy-end first, to look like roof tiles. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few mins to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
  4. Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.
  5. Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. The angle is steep so you may need to hold these on firmly for a few mins until the icing starts to dry. Dry completely, ideally overnight. To decorate, pipe a little icing along the length of 20 mini chocolate fingers and stick these lengthways onto the side walls of the house. Use three, upright, for the door. Using the icing, stick sweets around the door and on the front of the house. To make the icicles, start with the nozzle at a 90-degree angle to the roof and squeeze out a pea-sized blob of icing. Keeping the pressure on, pull the nozzle down and then off - the icing will pull away, leaving a pointy trail. Repeat all around the front of the house. Cut the chocolate mini roll or dipped Flake on an angle, then fix with icing to make a chimney. Pipe a little icing around the top. If you've made gingerbread trees, decorate these now, too, topping each with a silver ball, if using. Dust the roof with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Lay a winding path of sweets, and fix gingerbread trees around and about using blobs of icing. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week but will last a lot longer.
Try

Watch the video

Click here to see Jane demonstrate how to make and decorate the house.

Print a template

Click here to download a template.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2008.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • Binder photo Donna

    2007-11-28 12:46:29.665917

    Donna commented on this recipe

    Slight problem with the recipe, Step 1 and Step 2 are the same. What should step 2 be? Thanks

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  • Binder photo lisasbinder

    2007-11-28 22:54:11.122209

    lisasbinder commented on this recipe

    This looks fab,but there seems to be a printing error on step two? The video is great Please could we have the full and correct method please? Thanks

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  • Binder photo SRedgrave

    2007-12-06 21:08:13.900403

    SRedgrave rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    My thirteen year old daughter with a little help from me made the Gingerbread House. It turned out really well. I would suggest that it's best not to put the flaked almonds right up to the edge as the mixture does expand quite a lot whilst cooking. We decided to leave the walls to dry overnight before putting on the roof as there was a bit of a disaster when it all collapsed. But overall we were very pleased with the final result.

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  • Binder photo Kathreenie

    2007-12-10 11:12:43.640708

    Kathreenie commented on this recipe

    Does anyone have any good suggestions about what to use instead of almonds on the roof? as I want to make it for someone who unfortunately is allergic to nuts!

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  • Binder photo Jan

    2007-12-19 09:52:54.341326

    Jan commented on this recipe

    Almonds on the roof_? - I made this with 18 girls at our school and we avoid using nuts for the same reason. We baked the roof plain but we did use a grooved rolling pin to mark it in a thatch-like pattern (could have done it with a knife) When we came to decorate it we stuck chocolate buttons in an ovelapping pattern on the roof - looked great - just like tiles!

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  • Binder photo maccasmissus

    2007-12-21 14:27:51.88205

    maccasmissus rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    my children and i have just finished making this and it now has pride of place on the sideboard. they now cant wait for their dad to come home to see the finished article. it was a lot of fun to do and they are so pleased with it

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  • Binder photo sissy

    2007-12-21 22:59:59.505217

    sissy rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    This recipe was scrumpdididlyumptious.Yummmmm!!I will defointly be using it again!!!

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  • Binder photo Liz

    2007-12-22 10:33:29.435857

    Liz commented on this recipe

    Maybe its just me, but I had a few problems with this to say the least! I'm going to try it again, but his time I will leave the gingerbread to completely hard in an airtight box before trying to assemble it as the last one was just too soft and it all collapsed on me. I think that the quantities are too much - I had a lot of waste, both dough and icing. Also, there is no mention in the recipe that you need to leave the dough at least an hour before it is able to be used. The timing of one hour and 12 minutes is optimistic! Apart from that its fine! I used chocolate buttons on the roof instead of almonds.

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  • Binder photo Liz

    2007-12-22 11:59:32.770568

    Liz commented on this recipe

    Ok - It was just me. I just remade the house, much quicker this time. Obviously got my quantities wrong last time - this time it has worked perfectly. Sorry I doubted you!

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  • Binder photo KIRSTY

    2007-12-23 09:52:00.340316

    KIRSTY commented on this recipe

    Wow, I can't believe how easy this was to make. I expected to encounter some difficulty in assembling it, but had none! Makes a lovely centrepiece for the children. Would definitely recommend to friends to try.

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  • Binder photo KIRSTY

    2007-12-23 09:52:28.780114

    KIRSTY rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo Marieken

    2007-12-24 10:42:50.056988

    Marieken commented on this recipe

    I am baking them right now! I was wondering if anyone knows a sticky substitute for the royal icing. I will take this to a christmas party with plenty of young kids and some will not be allowed to taste the house if I use raw egg-whites in the icing. But is there any alternative that will keep the house together just as well?

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  • Binder photo livetocook

    2007-12-24 19:56:28.75648

    livetocook rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made 28 of these houses with the Year 3/4 class that I teach. On Friday, there were several missing so we only ended up with 21. This recipe was incredibly easy and the children really enjoyed making the houses. The only problem was that the children were not brilliant at cutting the walls, et cetera, accurately so the houses came out a bit wonky. If anyone is considering doing the same, I would recommend etting cutters of a similar size to the template on this site. When it was home time, I lined up two tables that were covered with greaseproof paper and put the houses on them, lined up to look like a street. I then put some toy cars in front of some of the houses and sifted a small amount of icing sugar over all of it to look like snow. When the children came out and saw it, they gasped.. literally. Parents were equally impressed and most were reaching for their cameras! I will use this recipe again next year, but will use cutters instead of the template. I have a photo of

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  • Binder photo Nic Nic

    2007-12-27 16:42:28.521382

    Nic Nic rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    The house is a great centre piece for a family xmas party looks great even if it does come out a bit messy and wonky! You need to be really careful when cutting out the template making especially sure that the front and back panels are exactly the same size or (as I did) you will have great trouble getting the roof on.

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  • Binder photo Amy

    2007-12-30 19:19:20.170279

    Amy commented on this recipe

    This looks incredible, I can't wait to make it... But How do you make the trees?

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  • Binder photo Lucy

    2008-01-02 15:11:57.064675

    Lucy rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Wonderful recipe!!! I'm quite an experienced cake baker, but had never had much luck with biscuits and had never made gingerbread before and it came out perfect!!! I added a little more ginger, though, as I like my gingery things strong! Tons of lovely comments made about the two I made and I had so much fun decorating them! As an alternative to Royal icing, I used Super Cook's white designer icing (available in most supermarkets in large tubes with a variety of nozzles) and this held perfectly! I also made the little icicles and a lot of the decoration with them. Another handy tip I found while googling is to make small window-shaped cutouts in the dough just before baking and piling them full of crushed hard-boiled fruit sweets which then melt and set in the oven to create little see-through windows! I stuck to filling each with sweets of the same colour, so I got one each of a red window, a green window, an orange window and a yellow window!

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  • Binder photo Alison

    2008-01-13 13:13:39.419227

    Alison commented on this recipe

    This was a wonderful recipe! I loved making it. After it was built I put chocolate buttons on as roof tiles which worked well. Also I cut a window into each end piece and put crushed boiled sweets in and then put little fairy lights inside the house. Thank you for a fantastic Christmas project. BTW we didn't know what to do with it so this weekend we ate it - delicious!!!

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  • Binder photo HelenBird

    2008-01-16 12:45:15.109482

    HelenBird rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    My kids and I had a brilliant time making this. I haven't made a gingerbread house before and expected it to fall apart on me...it didn't, it was wonderful. We made snowmen from royal icing and sprinkled it all with edible silver glitter. Tasted delicious too!

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  • Binder photo jarjar

    2008-01-24 20:08:28.534174

    jarjar commented on this recipe

    Yes I made this and thought the recipe was excellent. I added more trees and put my house on a large mirror which I then dusted with icing sugar. I found a miniature Robin which I added to the chimney pot and placed a few tiny, wrapped parcels by the front door. It was completely demolished by my son and nephews, who didn't leave a crumb. I certainly will make this again next year.

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  • Binder photo Sarah Laclau

    2008-01-30 10:06:03.845101

    Sarah Laclau rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was so easy to make with the children just before Christmas. Fortunately there were bits to nibble when it was finished. Waitrose were selling a ginger bread house and it cost £40 - the house that I made with my boys was priceless as we had such fun making it. I will definitely use the recipe to make normal biscuit shapes all year round!

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Makes 1 house!

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Keep the kids busy

Ingredients

FOR THE GINGERBREAD

  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 200g dark muscovado sugar
  • 7 tbsp golden syrup
  • 600g plain flour
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 4 tsp ground ginger

TO DECORATE

  • 200g bag flaked almonds
  • 2 egg whites
  • 500g icing sugar , plus extra to dust
  • 125g pack mini chocolate fingers
  • generous selcetion sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
  • 1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake
  • few edible silver balls
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