The holidays have always been my favourite time of year. Looking back on my childhood, I can recall setting up the Christmas tree with my family, opening up the first door on my advent calendar, and the Holy Grail – decorating a gingerbread house. Back then, my parents would get the store-bought kits that came with everything you needed, and I always made sure to use up every piece of candy while decorating.
But I bet you didn’t know that making it from scratch is actually pretty easy. If you can bake cookies, you can make your own gingerbread house from scratch. Plus, you’re not limited to the two kinds of candy that a standard kit comes with!
Design
As with any baking, the first step is planning. Gingerbread houses can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. The Fairmont Banff Springs builds a gingerbread house every year that takes 24 hours to construct with 131 pounds of gingerbread and 135 pounds of icing.
The design of your gingerbread house ultimately determines how much dough you will need. Try my favourite template or search online for custom creations.
Dough
Gingerbread recipes combine spices and sugars, including molasses, to create a harder consistency biscuit perfect for construction.
The dough needs to be chilled first, which makes it easier to work with. The dough may become sticky as it warms, which is easily fixed by dusting the dough and rolling pin with flour.
Roll your dough out on a piece of parchment paper so that you can easily transfer the perfectly cut pieces to your cookie tray without the risk of the pieces stretching or becoming misshapen.
After baking your gingerbread, ensure it still matches the template and trim any excess if necessary. Allow the gingerbread to cool completely before assembling your house.
Decoration
Construction of a gingerbread house resembles that of a real house. Make sure you have a good, sturdy base. I like to use a thick piece of gingerbread, but you can also use a flat plate, thick cardboard covered in foil, or serving platter.
Make sure walls are square and don’t use too much candy on the roof – you don’t want it to collapse. Royal icing is the glue that holds everything together, but there are also other alternatives.
Almost anything can be used to decorate your house. Pick your favourite candy, chocolate, cookies, nuts, pretzels and even cereal. If your gingerbread house has a chimney, use cotton candy as the smoke billowing out the top. A light dusting of icing sugar gives the allusion of a fresh snowfall.
Place all of your decorations into muffin tins so you can easily see and grab what you need. Whenever possible, decorate your outer walls before assembling. Take your house to the next level by piping details with icing, creating glass in windows by melting crushed hard candies, and landscaping the yard.
Imperfection is perfection. So what if there’s some extra icing between the joints of your walls - it’s what gives your house character! Your windows aren’t perfectly level? You’re probably the only one who will notice. Just have fun, and don’t eat too much candy while decorating.
Nicole Harling is a cookbook addict, cooking school instructor, travel junkie and lover of all things sweet. Discover her food journey on Culinary Cool.