Gingerbread House

For the past few years, I’ve made a pretty detailed gingerbread house during each Christmas season. It’s not quite as intricate as the ones we see on competition shows, but it’s a bit more spruced up than your average. I’ve learned a lot along the way, such as window treatment ideas, which platters are best to assemble on and how to build a super sturdy gingerbread house (last year’s stayed up for three months!). Don’t worry, I’ve included all these tips and tricks (and so much more) along with Blanche Comiskey’s gingerbread house recipe below.

While there are a good amount of moving parts to build a gingerbread cottage, don’t forget to enjoy the process. Whenever I reminisce about building one of my past gingerbread houses, I don’t immediately think of the actual gingerbread house that was built. Instead, the first memories that come to mind are of who made it with me, the Christmas baking playlist we sang along to and how much fun we had. That’s exactly what should come from making a gingerbread house recipe. Don’t worry about the mistakes, let your creativity shine and, most importantly, have an absolute blast building it!

Downloadable Gingerbread House Template

Download and print our free gingerbread house template so you can follow along with our gingerbread house recipe. Make sure the template is printed and the pieces are cut out before rolling your gingerbread cottage dough.

Gingerbread House Ingredients

• Shortening: Unlike butter, shortening doesn’t spread as much during baking, keeping the shapes of your cutouts intact.
• Boiling water: Boiling water breaks up the shortening and dissolves the brown sugar.
• Dark brown sugar: Dark brown sugar, along with dark molasses, helps color the dough to a gingerbread house’s signature brown hue.
• Dark molasses: In addition to the assortment of baking spices, gingerbread’s iconic flavor comes from molasses. If you can’t find dark molasses at the store, use dark corn syrup instead.
• All-purpose flour: You’ll need 6 cups all-purpose flour. Please do not substitute a different type of flour or your gingerbread house may not be as stable.
• Baking soda: We don’t want to puff up the gingerbread pieces too much or they’ll lose their shape.
• Spices: Ground ginger, nutmeg and cloves permeate the gingerbread with their cozy fall scents and warm, spicy flavors.
• Royal icing: Whatever you do, don’t replace our royal icing recipe with another icing or frosting recipe! Royal icing hardens as it dries, acting as a “glue” for the pieces of the house and the candy decorations. You should be able to find the ingredients pretty easily, but if you’re having trouble finding meringue powder, know that it’s available online.

Directions

Step 1: Make the dough and chill overnight

In a large bowl, whisk together the shortening and boiling water. Add the brown sugar and molasses, and whisk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Beat the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until blended.

Divide the dough into three portions. Wrap each one tightly in storage wrap and chill overnight.

Step 2: Prepare the templates

Trace the full gingerbread house patterns onto waxed paper. Carefully cut them out. Trace the remaining (halved) patterns onto waxed paper as directed on the patterns, and cut them out.

Step 3: Roll out the dough

Preheat the oven to 375°F. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out one portion of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness directly onto a lightly greased and floured baking sheet.

Step 4: Cut out the front and back walls

With a sharp knife, cut out two front and back house pieces. On one piece, score a window and a door. You will fully cut them out later.

Step 5: Cut out the roof pieces

Roll out the second portion of the dough. Cut out two 8-1/2-inch x 6-inch rectangles for the roof.

Step 6: Cut out the sides of the house

Roll out the third portion of the dough. Position the house side pattern on the dough, and cut out two pieces. On each piece, score two window outlines. Then, cut out one 2-3/8-inch x 1-3/8-inch rectangle for the left side of the chimney and a 1-3/8-inch x 7/8-inch rectangle for the right side of the chimney.

Step 7: Cut out the chimney pieces

Roll out the scraps to cut out patterns for the sides of the chimney, the sides and roof of the porch, and the front, sides and roofs of the dormers. Score the dormer window outlines.

Step 8: Bake and cut out the windows and door

Bake the gingerbread cottage pieces until they’re lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool the gingerbread pieces for two minutes.

Place the cutout patterns over the baked dough and trim off the excess dough with a knife. Cut out the door and windows completely. Set aside the door cutout, but discard the window cutouts.

Cool the gingerbread pieces to room temperature on wire racks.

Editor’s Tip: Once the gingerbread pieces have cooled, I like to take a Microplane and gently shave any uneven sides so they’re as sharp and even as possible. It makes assembling so much easier!

Step 9: Make the royal icing

Prep the royal icing in small batches to avoid it from drying out. For one batch, take out a large bowl and combine 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, 3 tablespoons meringue powder, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 6 tablespoons water. Beat on low speed until stiff peaks form, 5 to 10 minutes. Place a damp cloth over the bowl and cover it tightly between uses.

Editor’s Tip: Feel free to decorate the gingerbread house pieces before assembling them. It’s easier to decorate on a flat surface than at a 45- or 90-degree angle. However, it does make assembling a tiny bit trickier, so choose whichever feels best for you.

Step 10: Start building the structure

Now it’s time to start assembling the gingerbread house pieces! Pipe royal icing along the base and edges of the front wall and on one side wall. Align the pieces at a right angle, making sure they are as tight as possible, and place them on a cardboard base. Prop the pieces up with small cans so they keep their shape as the royal icing dries. Pipe icing again along the inside and outside edges for added stability.

Repeat these steps with the back wall and the second side wall. Let all four pieces dry completely. Remove the cans.

Editor’s Tip: Instead of cans, use a cereal box as a guide to ensure you have a 90-degree angle at the corners of your gingerbread cottage.

Step 11: Assemble the roof

Generously pipe royal icing along the top edges of the house. Position the roof pieces so there is 5/8-inch overhang in the front and back. Prop the pieces up with cans, and let the royal icing dry completely.

Step 12: Piece together the chimney and porch roof

On waxed paper, assemble the two dormers, one chimney and one porch roof with royal icing, using cans for propping as needed. Let the royal icing dry completely. Attach the dormers and chimney to the roof and attach the porch roof to the front wall with the royal icing, holding each for at least one minute or until set. Let the royal icing dry completely.

Attach the front door to the front wall with royal icing.

Step 13: Decorate and have fun!

Now that the base of your house is all set up, it’s time to turn up that Christmas playlist and decorate to your heart’s content! Place wafers or breakfast cereals as edible shingles for the roof, use royal icing to glue candies on the walls, place candy canes or peppermint sticks along the house’s corners, and pipe on a Christmas wreath with green and red frosting. The only limit is your creativity, so have fun. We’ve linked some really great gingerbread house ideas below if you need a bit of inspo to get started.

Candies for Decorating a Gingerbread House

Here are some go-to candies for decorating a gingerbread house. During the Christmas season, craft stores also sometimes carry gingerbread cottage decorating candies, like snowflakes, Santas, reindeer, doors, windows and presents.

• Peppermint swirl candies
• Colorful marshmallows and marshmallow twists
• Candy canes
• Candy buttons
• Skittles
• M&M’s
• Gumdrops
• Christmas sprinkles
• Premade frosting
• Cinnamon sticks or star anise
• Graham crackers
• Swedish candy

Gingerbread House Ideas

Once you know the basics of how to make a gingerbread house, you may feel as if you want to get more and more creative every year. Luckily, there are tons of great gingerbread house recipes to pull ideas from. We love the idea of a gingerbread A-frame or a log cabin that’s lined with thick pretzel rods. We have an adorable gingerbread barn recipe that would look perfect next to this gingerbread country church. This fabulous gingerbread chalet looks luxurious, but we also love this idyllic gingerbread cottage. We’ve also seen quaint gingerbread greenhouses online for housing cute little Christmas trees!

How to Store a Gingerbread House

A gingerbread house can be stored, uncovered, at room temperature. It will still be edible within two days of building, but after that the gingerbread house will be too stale to eat.

Can you make gingerbread house dough ahead of time?

You absolutely can make the dough for your gingerbread house recipe ahead of time! In fact, the dough needs at least one day to chill overnight in the fridge, but you can make it up to five days in advance.

Gingerbread House Tips

How do you make a sturdy gingerbread house?

In my experience, rolling out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness creates an extra-sturdy house. Since we recommend 1/8-inch thickness, you may need to double the dough of this gingerbread house recipe if you want to roll the dough to 1/4-inch.

If you have a good amount of time on your hands, dry the baked gingerbread house pieces at room temperature for a day or two. Less moisture means they won’t be as heavy and delicate.

We also came across a TikTok hack that will definitely make a gingerbread house stay together: Instead of using royal icing, dip your gingerbread pieces in melted sugar so they harden quicker and hold stronger.

Lastly, make sure your royal icing is very thick when assembling the gingerbread house recipe. A thick royal icing will better hold the pieces together. Once you’re all done assembling, you can thin the royal icing with some water so it’s a pipeable consistency.

How can you fill the insides of the windows?

Adding window treatments to the gingerbread house will definitely take it to the next level, but it is absolutely not necessary if you want this to be a simple project. There are two window treatment routes to try: melted Jolly Ranchers for a stained-glass effect or sheets of gelatin for a glistening glass window look.

For the Jolly Rancher-stained glass windows, break up a few different colors of Jolly Ranchers with a mallet. During the last five minutes of baking, take your gingerbread house pieces out of the oven, fully cut out the windows and sprinkle three different colors of Jolly Rancher pieces inside. They thin out easily, so make sure there’s a small mound in each window. Place the gingerbread house pieces back into the oven for the last five minutes. The Jolly Ranchers should perfectly melt. Cool the gingerbread house pieces completely before removing them from the baking sheet.

Another window treatment option is using gelatin sheets. They have a beautiful perforated crisscross design that shines and sparkles in the light. Once your gingerbread house pieces are completely cooled to room temperature, gently flip them over and lay a gelatin sheet on top of one window cutout. Cut the gelatin sheet to the size of the window, plus leave a 1-inch border of excess so there’s room for the royal icing. Using the thicker royal icing (thin royal icing will bloom and warp the gelatin), spread a bit of the icing around the border of the window on the inside of the gingerbread house. Firmly but gently press the gelatin sheet cut out into the icing without letting any of the icing seep through to the front of the window. Let the icing harden. Repeat for all the windows.

What decorations should be put in the “yard” around the gingerbread house?

There are lots of fun, creative ideas for decorating the yard of a gingerbread house. First, smooth vanilla frosting on the base of your platter, then sprinkle shredded coconut or lay down cotton candy for a snow effect. For trees, flip waffle cones upside-down and pipe green frosting “leaves” all over them for a pine tree look. Build marshmallow snowmen, and stack pretzel rods on top of each other as logs of wood. Bake and decorate gingerbread men cookies and place them around the gingerbread cottage. Use chocolate rock candies or Sno-Caps to build a “stone” pathway leading to the house. Green gumdrops are the perfect candy to use as bushes.

Can you put a tea light inside of the gingerbread house?

We do not recommend placing a live flame inside of the gingerbread house, no matter how small. Instead, use electric tea lights or a short wire of very tiny fairy lights.

What platter is best to assemble a gingerbread house on?

The best platter for a gingerbread house recipe to sit on is a completely flat, non-wooden platter. Avoid anything with edges that slant or the house won’t sit straight. Also, avoid wooden platters. The frosting’s oils will seep through the porous wooden board and the board will be very hard to clean afterward.