Preparing for the Christmas holidays is time consuming. To please children and add a festive mood, make a gingerbread house with your own hands. Imagine and decorate it with available products. Of course, you can buy ready-made blanks, but we will consider several options for independent "construction".

Gingerbread house - a step-by-step recipe with your own hands

The whole process can be divided into several stages, each of which should be given enough time so that the result does not disappoint. It is immediately worth noting that the structure quickly hardens. Therefore, it is better to bake a gingerbread house just before a feast or use it only for decoration.

How to cook dough for treats?

Ready-made cakes should keep their shape, so we will use shortbread dough. Immediately stock up with various spices so that the festive Christmas house attracts attention with its aromas. There are two options for the finished test. Let's consider them in more detail.

1 way. For him we take:

  • 1 kg of baking flour;
  • ½ tsp soda;
  • 3 eggs;
  • 200 g of sugar and butter;
  • as much honey;
  • ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice add ¼ tsp.

First, using a mortar, grind all the spices. Add a little warmed honey, granulated sugar, eggs and butter, which if necessary can be replaced with fat margarine. Stir everything well.

Separately, combine soda with flour, and then, gradually adding to the spicy mixture, knead the dough. We put it in a plastic bag and send it in the refrigerator for several hours.

2 way. The dough for the gingerbread house will turn out with a chocolate flavor. The only thing that will have to be changed is to leave only ginger and cinnamon from the spices and remove exactly 4 tbsp from the composition. lflour, which in this recipe will replace cocoa. We prepare the dough in the same way as in the first embodiment.

Glaze for a festive dessert

Glaze can also be used in 2 types. But the main thing is icing.

To prepare, prepare the following products:

  • 2 egg whites;
  • 2 tbsp. l lemon juice;
  • 400 g of powdered sugar.

To achieve a good result, use a mixer.

  1. Separate the proteins in a deep cup and turn on the device first at a slow speed, increasing it over time.
  2. Gradually, in small portions, add powdered sugar.
  3. When the consistency began to hold in shape, pour in the lemon juice. You can use food coloring if you want to take several colors for decoration.

As an option, chocolate glaze can also be used for the gingerbread house.

To weld it, take:

  • 70 g margarine;
  • 4 tbsp. l cocoa and sugar;
  • 2 tbsp. l milk.

Mix all this in an iron bowl and cook over low heat until thickened. You can just buy a bar of chocolate and melt using another bowl of hot water.

Cardboard blank - gingerbread house template

Now you can take advantage of our sizes, but if you wish, then fantasize and first draw a project on a piece of paper. Then it’s easy to realize the idea already on cardboard.

So, the blanks will do the following:

  • base of the house - 1 pc. (150x210 mm);
  • side walls - 2 pcs. (107x120 mm);
  • facade - 2 pcs. (with a wall height of 107 mm, 105x160 mm);
  • roof - 2 pcs. (90x140 mm).

To make the house natural, be sure to cut out the windows and doors.

How to bake a gingerbread house?

Now we take our dough out of the refrigerator, divide it into 7 parts and roll it thinly on baking paper. We put one template on top and carefully cut the blank with a knife or a special tool.

 

There is one trick that will help you “insert frames” into windows right away. Take a couple of caramels, they need to crumble and fill the cut-out gaps under the glass with fragments. Everything in the stove will melt and immediately stick to the cake.

Having transferred the blanks with the paper to a flat sheet, we send them to the oven, which was preheated to 180 degrees. Usually 6–8 minutes are enough for baking.

When pulling out the finished elements, do not forget that the cakes are brittle.

You can get around all the above steps, buy ready-made blanks from Ikea and just glue them. How to do this we will analyze further.

We collect the gingerbread house with our own hands

Everyone understands that edible products must be taken as glue. Some use ice cream to connect parts. But there is a danger that under its own weight the structure will fall apart.

Therefore, it is better to cook a thick caramel syrup, for which you need:

  • 80 ml of water;
  • 200 g of sugar.

All this is immediately placed in a small saucepan and boiled until brown. In this case, do not stop stirring so that the mass does not burn.

Such “glue” should be used while it is warm, because when it hardens, it immediately hardens and becomes unsuitable for the implementation of the task.

Now we proceed to the responsible and, perhaps, the most difficult stage.

  1. Remove parchment from all blanks.
  2. Put the base on a flat surface.
  3. We take the wall of the facade and a plastic spatula or spoon (only carefully, so as not to leave marks on the wall), we apply “glue” to its lower part. Immediately press it to the base.
  4. Now we take the side wall, but we put caramel not only on the lower part, but also on the front, which will be attached to the facade.
  5. Repeat these steps until all the details are in place. We install the roof in the last turn.

Remember that the adhesive is best applied to loose cake. After installation, you should hold the figure a little so that the caramel “seizes”.

In the same way, you can glue the gingerbread house from Ikea. If you understand that you do not have time and the caramel freezes, then call the assistant. Children will be happy to work on “building” with you.

How to decorate a gingerbread house

When the main work is behind, you need to give our building a festive look. Why is icing used more often? Yes, because it is attractively shiny and keeps fit. But, you can use not only her.

Often applied:

  • powdered sugar;
  • multi-colored flat sweets;
  • chocolate M & M’s;
  • marmalades;
  • various pastry toppings;
  • coconut flakes.

Having decided to decorate with white icing, transfer it to a pastry bag or a simple plastic bag, making a small hole in its corner.

Begin decorating from the joints to hide irregularities and glue that has come out due to careless actions. Then we proceed to decorate the windows and doors (if you also baked it and hooked it). Here you can draw shutters and various patterns around the edges.

On the roof we will make a picture of a tile or paste a candy on a protein glaze. You can also simply apply patterns, and make icicles hanging along the edge.

Christmas, New Year's house - ideas

If you don’t have experience or you just want to make your own, different gingerbread house with your own hands, then the suggested ideas may help you find your own option:

  1. If you are making a village hut, then be sure to add a chimney. Draw various snowflakes. From the remnants of the dough, cut out the pet figures, which you place on the basis of the house, you just have to make it bigger.
  2. Do you want the light to burn in the house? Put a candle inside, and for the convenience of its ignition, do not stick the roof to the walls.
  3. The shape of the house does not have to be rectangular and even. You might want to translate the idea of ​​a “hut on chicken legs”. Then Baba Yaga is required, which is easy to mold all from the same test.
  4. A multi-story gingerbread house is also not difficult to decorate. It is enough to recall foreign films in which people use multi-colored garlands, signs and billboards. If desired, everything should work out for you, and the idea will become original.
  5. You can collect a yurt from triangular shortbreads, and next to place edible figures with deer and sleigh.
  6. If you have experience, then try to assemble a carousel, which will need a colorful design. Use sweets and marmalade here.

When there are many helpers, it’s realistic to make a whole town out of gingerbread houses or build a whole fairy-tale castle. Remain in your soul at least during these holidays and let your imagination run wild!

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