By The New York Times
- Total Time
- About 2 hours 20 minutes, plus time for construction
- Rating
- 4(287)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Here is all you need to know to build a gingerbread house: a delicious recipe, instructions for assembly, and a printable template provided by Nina Cooke John, a Manhattan architect. The recipe came to us from Genevieve Meli, the pastry chef at Il Buco Alimentari in Manhattan, and it works just as well for cookies as it does for a gingerbread house. This recipe makes one small house, so you may consider doubling the recipe for a larger structure, but note: only one recipe at a time will fit in the bowl of a standard stand mixer, so plan ahead. (Ms. Cooke John and Ms. Meli also built a gingerbread structure for us, and you can watch that here.)
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Ingredients
Yield:1 small gingerbread house
- ½cup/120 milliliters dark corn syrup
- ½cup/120 milliliters molasses
- ¾cup/160 grams dark brown sugar
- 10tablespoons/142 grams margarine or shortening
- 4½cups/540 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
- ½teaspoon salt
- 4teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2¼teaspoons ground cloves
- 1½teaspoons ground ginger
- 1teaspoon ground star anise, from 2 to 3 stars (optional)
- Royal icing, see recipe
- Candy, such as gumdrops, licorice and candy canes, for decorating
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Make the gingerbread: Combine the syrup, molasses, brown sugar and margarine in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until the margarine is melted and the sugar has dissolved; set aside.
Step
2
Place the flour, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and star anise (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Step
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With the machine running on medium-low speed, slowly stream in the sugar mixture and beat until incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
Step
4
Heat oven to 375 degrees. (If using a convection oven, heat to 350 degrees.) With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to about ¼-inch thickness on a large sheet of parchment paper. Cut out your desired shapes with a chef’s knife or pizza cutter and pull away scraps (if making the gingerbread house from the templates provided, you'll need to cut out two sides and two roofs). To minimize distortion, gently slide the parchment onto a baking sheet. Reroll the scraps and repeat as needed to cut out all of the necessary shapes.
Step
5
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. If using the template, be sure to bake the door piece. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheets. The cookies will harden as they cool.
Step
6
Assemble the house: Using a pastry bag fitted with small plain round tip, draw windows with royal icing on the pieces as they lie flat. Let the icing set, about two minutes. Then, using icing as glue, attach the 4 walls of the house to each other and support the walls with jars or cans to allow the icing to set. Attach the two roof pieces with icing, and let the icing dry. Attach the door with icing, and then decorate with icing and assorted candies.
Tip
- Using cardboard for the template will help provide structure when cutting out the shapes.
Ratings
4
out of 5
287
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Hally
The notes I've read here are consistent with my experience. There is not enough dough, the paper template is not the same design as in the photograph, and the roof doesn't fit. But I trimmed two inches off the bottom of both roof pieces and was then able to stretch the dough far enough. Remind me not to hire Ms. John to build anything.
Jeremy B.
Great recipe but if I made it again, I would increase the amounts by 1/4. I was short 1 roof piece so I had to make another batch by cutting the original by 1/4. This gave me enough for the 2nd roof and a little extra for repairs and extras. My pieces were a hefty 1/4" thick and very sturdy!
j. Clarke
Where is the template?
Peggy Herron
We made gingerbread houses for many years and always used butter . They did not look wonky .when the parts of the house were half baked I would take them out and place the precut pattern pieces over the gingerbread and recut the pieces to match the pattern , that way we always had nice straight edges on our houses.
Mary Ann
Hmm. I've made a few g'bread houses, and this recipe is the worst. The dough, even warmed after time in the frig, is so tough it almost broke my rolling pin. Once baked, the pieces barely rose and were wafer thin (1/4") — far too fragile for kids to decorate. The pieces also bubbled and cracked. I will try to salvage it with lots of royal icing but if not, I'm grabbing a pre-baked g'bread house kit at the market. And deleting this recipe.
Ed K
We just finished baking the house and noticed that the template does not really match the photo. The photo shows a very steep pitch to the roof, however the template does not have that. As a result, the roof piece is likely way to big for the house.
Daniel
Good thing to know for non-US readers: the template is for US letter size paper, so if you print it on A4 paper you will end up with walls and roofs in the wrong proportions!
liz p
I just spent hours on this and I strongly feel there is not enough dough to make all the pieces. We managed to do it, barely, and with much re-rolling and some dangerously thin walls (haven't assembled yet). If I were to do again I'd make a slightly larger batch of dough.
Jean
Once orchestrated a big office holiday party for the Washington Mutual legal dept. at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle. The highlight was a gingerbread house building contest for our hyper competitive teams. The winning team created a hilarious sub-prime subdivision with Longbeach Mortgage signs everywhere — but here’s the tip — they built their houses faster and stronger using a hot glue gun — while others struggled with royal icing that was slow to set up and no one was ever going to eat anyway.
Brittany
Was this supposed to be edible? It was very sturdy but hard enough to crack a tooth on, even when underbaked. This was a good *gingerbread house* gingerbread recipe, but I will stick to my grandma’s recipe for softer gingerbread for eating.
Tim
A lot of work only for the paper template to get stuck to the rolled out dough. I ended up ditching the house and making gingerbread cookies with it instead.
Liz
I would very much appreciate if the volumetric measurements for the molasses & corn syrup would be replaced with weights, thus allowing all to be measured in the pot they’re to be cooked in. Thanks for considering this update.
Mel
Made this, and it came out perfectly!!!!
Brett
Tip: Speed your dough rolling and achieve a perfect thickness every time by getting two 1/4” wooden dowels about 18” long from any home store. (Or get a 3’ dowel and cut it in half.) Place them the width of your rolling pin and roll the dough between. Of course, works best with a rolling pin at least 12” long.
Mary Ann
Hmm. I've made a few g'bread houses, and this recipe is the worst. The dough, even warmed after time in the frig, is so tough it almost broke my rolling pin. Once baked, the pieces barely rose and were wafer thin (1/4") — far too fragile for kids to decorate. The pieces also bubbled and cracked. I will try to salvage it with lots of royal icing but if not, I'm grabbing a pre-baked g'bread house kit at the market. And deleting this recipe.
Daniel
Good thing to know for non-US readers: the template is for US letter size paper, so if you print it on A4 paper you will end up with walls and roofs in the wrong proportions!
Lissa
Tried to make the dough but it came out so crumbly I cannot use it. I used butter instead of margarine (I don’t like the artificial taste of margarine or shortening!) I notice there are no eggs or baking powder....is there something missing? Help! I really want to fix my dough to use it, the spices smells wonderful! Now after reading comments I will probably need to make another batch anyway:)
Brittany
Was this supposed to be edible? It was very sturdy but hard enough to crack a tooth on, even when underbaked. This was a good *gingerbread house* gingerbread recipe, but I will stick to my grandma’s recipe for softer gingerbread for eating.
Sarah
Not impressed. As others have said, the templates don't fit. I figured that if we scaled the template down and used dowels to roll out dough precisely, there would be enough dough. Nope. This one's a fail. Don't recommend as written.
Cindy
Melted sugar also works as a great glue. You have to be careful using it, as it can burn-- but it sticks better than royal icing and is edible! Watch out though- you have to be quick because it dries almost instantly.
Jean
Once orchestrated a big office holiday party for the Washington Mutual legal dept. at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle. The highlight was a gingerbread house building contest for our hyper competitive teams. The winning team created a hilarious sub-prime subdivision with Longbeach Mortgage signs everywhere — but here’s the tip — they built their houses faster and stronger using a hot glue gun — while others struggled with royal icing that was slow to set up and no one was ever going to eat anyway.
Hally
The notes I've read here are consistent with my experience. There is not enough dough, the paper template is not the same design as in the photograph, and the roof doesn't fit. But I trimmed two inches off the bottom of both roof pieces and was then able to stretch the dough far enough. Remind me not to hire Ms. John to build anything.
Jeremy B.
Great recipe but if I made it again, I would increase the amounts by 1/4. I was short 1 roof piece so I had to make another batch by cutting the original by 1/4. This gave me enough for the 2nd roof and a little extra for repairs and extras. My pieces were a hefty 1/4" thick and very sturdy!
j. Clarke
Where is the template?
Ed K
We just finished baking the house and noticed that the template does not really match the photo. The photo shows a very steep pitch to the roof, however the template does not have that. As a result, the roof piece is likely way to big for the house.
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