A Gingerbread House for Christmas

As you saw in this post, one of our favorite holiday family rituals is to bake and decorate an array of Christmas cookies. Now that the kids are getting older, this family ritual is becoming a bit less messy and easier to organize. I love getting them involved in the kitchen, even if that means I'll have more to clean up. I don't mind at all. Well, I should say that my type A tendencies seem to subside. At their age {and in these types of activities}, I'm more about watching and letting them do their own thing.On this day, we tackled another favorite holiday family ritual -- the making of our first ever homemade gingerbread house. I usually buy the boxed sets, but after pinning a few gingerbread houses I got the impulse to make my own. Just take a look at my Pinterest Christmas board and you'll get some ideas. I came up with a template after seeing this one I loved.I first traced my template onto cardboard. I then taped the cardboard pieces together to resemble the house and made sure it would work.I made the gingerbread dough the day before and chilled it overnight. The next day, I was ready to roll the dough. Line some big cookie sheets {about 3} with parchment paper so that you are ready for your cut dough pieces. And make sure you roll the dough big enough for your pieces. Once it's rolled, I took a sharp paring knife to cut the dough. As I made my dough pieces, I would place them on the cookie sheets and then in the refrigerator to have them nice and chilled before baking. I think that makes a better cookie. For the dough recipe see below.The process took me about 4 days. I'm sure it could take less, I just decided that I would space the steps and not rush the project. So once I baked my pieces I let them cool for a day before decorating. You could wait a few hours if you wanted too. Having little helpers in the kitchen helped too!

I pretty much followed Emily's design. It was easier that way and specially because I hadn't come up with a plan of my own.Find the gingerbread house template here.Christmas Gingerbread House3 1/2 cups self-raising flour1 cup plain flour1 tablespoon ground ginger2 teaspoons ground cinnamon1 cup firmly packed brown sugar185g butter, chopped1/2 cup golden syrup {or 1/4 cup light corn syrup + 1/4 cup of molasses}2 eggs, lightly beatenicing2 egg whites3 cups powdered sugar1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine flours, ginger, cinnamon, sugar and butter. Mix until it resembles breadcrumbs. Whisk golden syrup and eggs together in a jug and add to the dough mixture until it just comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until well chilled.2. Roll dough, 1 portion at a time, between 2 sheets baking paper until 5mm thick. Remove top layer baking paper. Using cardboard cut-outs as a guide, cut shapes from dough.3. Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Place gingerbread on trays. Bake, 2 trays at a time, for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays.3. Make royal icing: Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add icing sugar, beating constantly until thick.4. Once gingerbread has cooled pipe and decorate the walls and roof. Once decorated, use icing to join the walls to the plate & the walls together (you may need an extra hand or cans of food to hold until icing dries). Use icing to attach roof to walls, using cans to support roof (to prevent it from slipping off walls) until icing dries completely. Use any sweets to finish decorating!For the fence, I used small licorice pieces {I found them at Target in a bag}. For the wreath, I used Jolly Rancher Sour Gummies. I added some bottlebrush trees to add some more whimsy.Recipe and Inspiration Source