Category Archives: Seasonal

How to build the Best Gingerbread House

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It’s #TuesdayTips and with it being the holiday season, why not bring you the best recipe and tips to creating awesome gingerbread houses. We create gingerbread houses yearly and based on our mood we will either get a kit or not. I know the kit is technically cheating as a pastry chef but sometimes there’s just too much other things going on that you don’t have a chance to bake and put together. No matter how you choose to make your gingerbread houses, these tips and tricks will help you.

First let us start with the best cookie cutters for the job. Here are two versions I recommend, the first is easier in terms of placing together as it is a puzzle style.

18PC Christmas House Cookie Cutter Set 3D Gingerbread House Cutters Kit DIY Stainless Steel Christmas Series Cookie Cutter Including Christmas Tree, Snowman, Reindeer, Sled Shapes with Box

  • Package including 18 Pcs/set 3D Stainless Steel DIY Gingerbread House Cutters Kit .  
  • ✨Made of premium stainless steel,not easy to rust,non-sticky, easy cleanup and no special care required. 
  • ❄️Our 3D christmas house cookie cutter set edge is sharp, and the holding edge is folded to be soft on hands; To clean, just wipe under hot water and towel dry. 
  • 🎄Unique design: package includes 18 different Christmas patterns for a variety of Christmas muffins. Molds can be used to cut Christmas-shaped cookies, muffins, breads, sandwiches, cheeses, etc. 
  • 🎁Our christmas cookie cutters suitable for most adults and children,so you can use them to make decorative desserts with your family or friends , make baking more meaningful

Gingerbread House Kit,10pcs 3D Stainless Steel Cookie Mold Cutters Set for Christmas Halloween Holiday Thanksgiving Festival,Gingerbread House DIY Kit Baking Pastry Tool with Gift Box

  • 3D Gingerbread House Cookie Cutters : Holiday Cookie Cutters Kit Contains 10 pieces parts which give 3D effects of your favorite gingerbread house shapes including wall, floor, window, cross, chimney and star decor 
  • Durable and Food Grade : Christmas Cookie Cutter Set is made of premium food grade 430 stainless steel, with welded seam won’t come unstuck, thus these cutters will hold their shape for years 
  • Safe and Beautiful Cookies Mold : The cutting edge is sharp, and the holding edge is folded to be safe for hands. With beautiful and eye-catching gift package, this cookie cutter set is a wonderful gift for friends and family members 
  • Multi-functional Cookie Cutter Set : Suitable for making cupcake/Jelly/Chocolate/Candle Cookies, Fondant Cakes, sugar paste, petal paste, marzipan DIY cooking or craft clays 
  • DIY Kit for a Variety of Occasions : Such as Home use,Birthdays Party,Valentine’s Day,Thanksgiving, Halloween,Christmas,Anniversary Day,Fundraising and etc.

The recipe is below but before you get to that, I want to cover the best tips on how to actually build the house. You can make a soft caramel or royal icing. Most kits contain royal icing but I would save it (or make it) for the decor. That recipe will also be below. Now for the decor. It is perfectly okay to use any candy you want but if you want to be more intentional about it, here are the best uses for these products.

For Roofs:

  • Crispix Cereal
  • Mini starburst
  • Ann’s Swedish Thins
  • Nonpareils and Sno-Caps
  • Pretzel Snaps
  • Airheads Extreme Bites
  • Necco Wafers
  • Twizzlers
  • Slices Almonds
  • Pecans
  • Gum Drops

For Doors:

  • Sugar Wafer
  • Vienna Cookie
  • Tea Biscuit
  • Pretzel sticks
  • rolled out gum drop
  • Spearmint Gum

For Windows:

  • Oreo cookie
  • Starbursts
  • Lemon Tootsie Chow
  • Melted jolly rancher (glass stained window)
  • melted Gelatin sheets (glass window)

For Siding:

  • Pretzels
  • Jelly Beans
  • Candy Blox
  • Candy Coated Chocolate

For Chimney:

  • Tootsie Roll
  • Red Hots
  • Payday bar
  • Jelly beans
  • Candy Coated Chocolate

For Paths:

  • Pez
  • Chocolate Sprinkles
  • Peppermints
  • Necco Wafers
  • Jelly Beans
  • Lint White chocolate
  • Candy Blox
  • Candy Coated Chocolate

For Extras:

  • Snowman – sugar cookie or marshmallows
  • Porch – White chocolate covered pretzels
  • Wreath – gummy ring with thin licorice ribbon
  • Lights – Mike and Ike with M&Ms
  • Trees – Shredded Wheat Ice cream cones, Sugar ice cream cones with royal icing, stacked mint M&Ms, Rice Crispy treat Cereal Trees, Chocolate covered grape stems for realistic trees
  • Logs – Mini Charleston chews, Pirouette Wafers, Chocolate Wafers
  • Fire – Pretzels with flattened gum drops

If you don’t want to bake gingerbread houses, you can buy the kits, I do highly suggest the prebuilt kit. You can also use graham crackers.

For more tips check out:

The BEST Gingerbread House Recipe and Printable Gingerbread House Templates – Tikkido

Ten top tips for Making a Gingerbread House – Craft Invaders

We hope you enjoy and have fun.

Gingerbread Cookies

This recipe is also great for Gingerbread houses just don't add baking powder
Print Recipe
Prep Time 8 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Resting time 2 hrs
Total Time 3 hrs 30 mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine Slovakian

Equipment

  • Mixer with whisk
  • Cookie cutters
  • Cooking sheets
  • Rolling Pin

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 Cup Room Temperature butter
  • 1 Cup Brown sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 3 Cups All purpose flour
  • 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
  • 2 Tsp Ground Ginger
  • 2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
  • 2 Tsp Ground All Spice
  • 1/4 Tsp Salt
  • 1/2 Cup Molasses
  • 1/2 Cup Milk onlt if the dough doesnt come together

Instructions
 

  • Begin with creaming the butter and the sugar. Add the egg in.
  • Now add the molasses and mix in.
  • Mix in your dry ingredients, Flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, baking powder, and salt Until it forms a dough. If it is still crumbly the add the milk little by little.
  • Refridgerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours
  • Preheat the Oven to 350.
  • Prepare your counter with extra flour and roll it out, You can also roll it out between parchment with some flour to keep it off the counter. Roll to a 1/4 thick.
  • Cut out your cookies using your cookie cutters
  • Bake for 13-15 minutes for smaller cookies and 18-20 minutes for larger.
  • Allow to cool before decorating
Keyword Gingerbread Cookies

Royal Icing Frosting

alexandra neznamy
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 6 mins
1 hr 30 mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 24

Equipment

  • Mixer
  • Bowl(s)
  • Pastry bags
  • Tips
  • Food coloring
  • toothpick or a scribe

Ingredients
  

  • 8 cups Powdeered Sugar best if sifted
  • 5 tbsp meringue powder
  • 6-8 tbsp warm water

Instructions
 

  • In your bowl, mix the powdered sugar, merungue powder and water. Start eith a little water (5 tbsp), Mix until your icing peaks (7-10 on low or 10-12 on high)
  • Tap the bowl to get the air bubbles out and stir to release the bubbles
  • If you are coloring the royal icing, add it before you tap out the bubbles. Prep your piping bag, put in 3/4 of the way and twist
  • Begin with outlining your cookies then flood. Use the toothpick to gently release the air bubbles.
  • If you are dipping, do that instead of outlining.
  • Once you have your cookie covered, you can go ahead and paint (vodka and food gel) or add piped designes on top as just 2 of those fun options

Notes

There are a few ways to actually decorate cookies. Most have royal icing as its easier to pipe and decorate using the methods I list below but some do use a buttercream.
  1. Pipe on
  2. Dip
  3. from the top two, either pipe designs or paint (food coloring and a little bit of vodka, check out the video for example)
Keyword Decoated cookies, Iced Sugar Cookies