Homemade Gingerbread Houses

Thinking of still making a gingerbread house with your kiddos? Here's an easy recipe you can try out if you're not planning on buying a kit at the stores. My boys love decorating one of these every year!

Homemade Gingerbread Houses

slightly adapted from Things that make you say MMM

Ingredients:

2 and 2/3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

2/3 cup molasses

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together. Roll out the dough on a greased piece of foil. To make the rolling easier, spray or grease your rolling pin as well. The dough won't stick as bad. Place foil onto a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes. You want it to be very firm.

Right out of the oven, cut out the shapes. Lay the pattern pieces right on top of the cooked gingerbread (click here for pattern) or cut how you want it to look. Make sure to cut the pieces before the cookie cools, because it will harden and you won't be able to cut it. It needs to be very firm to stand up, so if the pieces are too soft, return to the oven.

To assemble, use any icing (to make mine easier, I used a tub of icing.) to put all the pieces together. A royal icing recipe is listed below. Let harden for at least 5-6 hours. I recommend doing the assembling the night before. Don't try to assemble it and then decorate it, because it will inevitably fall over and then you'll have crying kiddos on your hands, and we don't want that! Enjoy!

Royal Icing Recipe:

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 lb powdered sugar

Beat all ingredients thoroughly with an electric mixer until the icing stands up in peaks, about five minutes. Use icing right away, because it will harden. When not in use, keep it covered with a damp cloth to keep moist.