I smiled when I saw these darling gingerbread house Christmas cookies. How adorable are these?! Same ideas as these cup topping stars, but well, …more involved.These, for sure, make special gifts.
They are made by Caketime. As I know you will want to learn more, and as this blog is in Polish, I thought to share with you a traditional gingerbread recipe and show you how to make cookies like this. Then you can have some ginger bread houses laying around too! And play a special kind of Monopoly during the holidays (wink).
Gingerbread House Cookie Recipe
Making gingerbread dough is quite easy, and very tasty! It’s a traditional recipe and many variations exist. I am giving you two version, with the second version between brackets.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (450 g)
- 1/2 cup molasses or honey (170 g)
- 1/2 cup castor sugar (100 g)
- 1/2 cup butter (113 g)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (use 2 if you use honey)
- 1 teaspoon allspice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger, 1 teaspoon clove, or 1 typical package of gingerbread spice.
Step-by-Step Baking Instructions
- On clean kitchen paper (e.g. freezer paper), draw the components of a simple miniature gingerbread house: pointed front and back of house w door, 2 sides (squares), 2 roofs (rectangles).
- Make your house a size that would fit on the rim of your cups. In fact, cut out the front/back door and test that the cookie house will indeed fit upon the rim of your actual cups. Modify the door shape & angle as needed.
Once you have cookie templates that will work, begin making the dough. - Combine sugar, molasses/honey, ginger, allspice, cinnamon and cloves in a pan. Bring to boil. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat when boiling.
- Stir in baking soda, butter, egg, flour (in this order).
- Flour your surface and knit dough till all ingredients are properly blended. You may want to cool your dough a bit before rolling it.
- With rolling pin, roll dough to 1/5-1/4” (2-3 mm)
- Place your templates on top of dough to cut shapes with a sharp knife.
- Bake cookie shapes at 325 F (180 C) for 4-6 minutes, depending on actual oven and thickness of dough. Let cool on wire rack.
- Once cooled, ‘glue’ cookie shapes into houses with icing sugar and decorate with cookie decoration biddy bits and more (colored) icing sugar.
Happy Holidays!
Photo credit : caketime.blox.pl/2012/12/Mini-domki-z-piernika.html (blog in Polish language)
