Gingerbread House

A few years ago we made a gingerbread house from a kit but I've always fancied making one from scratch. I had been scouring the Internet looking for a good template to download when I saw that Working London Mummy had posted a link to a gingerbread house recipe on Tesco Real Food, where there was a recipe as well as a link to download a template.


Although there were comments on the Tesco site stating that the dough was too dry to roll out I found it to be perfect and didn't need to use all the liquid to make it to the right consistency. I'm not sure if it makes a difference  if you roll it out when the dough is still warm, which I did and found it very easy to roll.


The recipe for the gingerbread is as follows :

• 250g (8oz) unsalted butter

• 200g (7oz) light muscovado sugar

• 4 tbsp golden syrup

• 2 tbsp treacle

• 625g (1¼lb) plain flour

• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2 tsp ground ginger

• 2 tsp mixed spice

• 500g Royal Icing Sugar

For the stained glass windows I used crushed pear drops and spooned them into the holes cut for the windows.

• Melt the butter, sugar, syrup & treacle in a pan over a low heat
• Sieve the dry ingredients together
• Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix well until a dough forms - I used my Kitchen Aid and poured it in slowly as it was mixing, and found that I didn't need to use all the liquid (I think my spoons of syrup were very large!)
• Roll the dough out to approx 5mm thick and cut the walls & roof out using the template. 
• Cut out the windows and fill with the crushed sweets.
• Bake in a 200 degree (C) oven for approx 8 minutes
• Leave on the baking sheet until the windows have set & then transfer to a wire rack until cooled completely.
• Assemble the walls & roof using the royal icing sugar made up as per directions on the pack.
• Decorate with sweets however you want.

For a special effect I cut a hole approx 2" square in the board (strong cardboard covered with foil), when the house is assembled on the board you can light a tealight candle and position the hole in the board over it.

Tips

• roll the dough directly onto the baking sheet as the pieces go a little out of shape when trying to transfer them to the baking sheet
• Use silicone sheets on your baking trays as the sweets don't stick when they're baked
• Pipe some icing onto the board to hold the house in place
• Make sure you use Royal Icing as it dries really quick.

Family stockings waiting for Santa to fill