Inspired by the folktale of Hansel and Gretel, gingerbread houses have long been a popular tradition at Christmas. The tradition began in Germany shortly after the Brothers Grimm published their collection of German fairy tales in the 1800s. German bakeries started offering gingerbread houses with icing snow on the roof and elaborate decorations.

It’s great fun to create elaborate gingerbread houses and decorate them with a large assortment of colourful candies (in fact, the city of Bergen, Norway hosts a yearly gingerbread city), but In The Devil’s Kitchen, we also like to make these cute mini gingerbread houses. This way, everyone in the family can pursue their own artistic ideas.

We use a gingerbread recipe that has been passed down through the generations of our family. It makes a gingerbread that stays moist and chewy much longer. After Christmas you can enjoy eating these gingerbread houses without breaking any teeth.

Note: The dough has to rest for at least 4 hours between making and baking, so allow for this and make the dough early.

Click here to download and print house pieces template.

 

Ingredients (10 houses)

Gingerbread

1 cup butter, chilled

1 cup natural cane sugar

1 cup molasses

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

6 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

½ tsp nutmeg

 

Assembly & Decoration

3 cups royal icing (very stiff batch)

Assorted colourful candies

 

Make Gingerbread

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter.

2. Cream the sugar into the butter.

3. Add the molasses, eggs, and vanilla. With an electric mixer, beat for 2-3 minutes – until the mixture resembles porridge.

4. In another large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix the flour mix into the wet ingredients, adding a little at a time.

5. The dough should be pliable, but stiff enough to form into a ball. If needed, work some more flour into the dough. Form into a ball, wrap, and place in refrigerator for 4 hours.

6. Pre-heat oven to 350F (180c).

7. On a well-floured counter, roll the dough out to ¼” (5mm) thick.

8. Using the included paper templates (click here to download the template, print it out, and cut out the shapes) cut the house pieces from the gingerbread. Note: You need one base and two of each of the other parts per house. Hint: Dust your knife with flour when the dough begins to stick to it.

9. Use a thin spatula to gently transfer the gingerbread shapes to a floured baking tray.

10. Bake the gingerbread for 8 minutes.

11. Let the shapes cool on the baking tray for 8-10 minutes. Then, using a thin spatula, gently transfer the gingerbread house parts to a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 1-2 hours.

 

Assemble & Decorate Houses

12. When the gingerbread pieces have fully cooled and hardened, mix up a batch of stiff royal icing (stiffer than usual for piping). Use a piping bag and small round nozzle to apply icing to the edges of pieces – to use as a glue.

13. Assemble the two sides, front, and back on a base, using icing as glue at all joints. Allow to set for 10 minutes.

14. Apply icing to the top edge of the front, back, and sides.

15. Gently press the one roof piece onto one side, carefully pressing on the roof piece directly over the edges below (not in the middle of the roof piece). Then, pipe icing along the roof peak. Attach the other roof piece and allow to set 15-20 minutes.

16. Use a rubber spatula to gently spread icing on the roof. Spread it up to ¼” (5mm) thick.

17. Use a piping bag and small round nozzle to pipe a door and windows on each gingerbread house.

18. Using small blobs of icing as glue, attach colourful candies to your gingerbread houses.