Our Christmas Gingerbread House

We bake and decorate a Gingerbread House each year over Christmas and this year it was the last thing I baked in our condemned oven last night before it was replaced with a shiny new one this morning.  

It was decided that all the windows of the house would be different colours and shapes, definitely a non-conformist Gingerbread House this time.  To get the Gingerbread House assembled more quickly I stuck it together with molten sugar instead of royal icing.  

My 3 girls used royal icing to attach all the sweets and decorate the house.

After all the sweets and most of the icing had been used up they had finished!

Gingerbread House/Biscuit Recipe

125g softened butter
110g light soft brown sugar
125ml golden syrup or treacle
1 free range egg yolk
375g plain flour
1 Tblsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Crushed boiled sweets

Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan.  Line three oven trays with non-stick baking paper.  Using a hand held electric mixer or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.  Add the golden syrup or treacle and beat until completely incorporated.

Sift over the flour, spices and bicarb then mix until combined.  Form the dough into a round, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 5mm thickness.  Cut out shapes using a template or cookie cutters.  We used cookie cutters to cut window shapes out of the wall pieces and filled them with crushed boiled sweets before baking.  

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until golden and firm to the touch.  Cool on the trays for a few minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

The front of our Gingerbread House

The back of our Gingerbread House