We have over the years tried many different Gingerbread recipes for our Gingerbread house. However, this is the one we have ended up with.

This recipe originally came from my mother in law’s Good housekeeping recipe book however we have tweaked it a little over the years.

We have done houses of various sizes over the years but always simplistic designs however, if you’re into trying something more complex this will still work and templates can be found online for all sorts of different designs.

If you decide to give our recipe then please share your creation using the hashtag #wiltshiregiftschristmas
To find out what we create this year watch out for the Children’s house going up on Wiltshire Gift’s Instagram and Facebook social media pages.

Gingerbread house:

Ingredients:

  • 700g Plain white flour
  • 10ml Bicarbonate of soda
  • 20ml ground ginger (we also replace this for fresh ginger when making biscuits)
  • 220g butter or block marg
  • 350g soft light brown sugar
  • 2 egg
  • 120 ml golden syrup

Make the Dough:

  1. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl
  2. Rub in the butter until you create crumbs
  3. Stir in the sugar and then make a well in the centre of the mixed ingredients
  4. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and syrup.
  5. Pour the syrup mixture into the well of the dry ingredients.
  6. Mix to create a dough
  7. knead the dough until smooth then wrap up airtight and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (we leave it overnight)

Plan your house:

Make yourself a template

  1. divide the dough into 2, put one half to one side and split the 1st half into two again and roll out to fit your template. Repeat until you have made all 4 sides and both roof pieces.
  2. Cut out windows as you go, adding any excess dough into the unused dough to be incorporated until you have all your house pieces and any excess can be turned into gingerbread men (or ladies or reindeer by turning your basic gingerbread man shape upside down so the “legs” become the antlers).
  3. Line baking trays with greaseproof paper and carefully transfer your gingerbread pieces to them. Add the crushed hard boiled sweets at this point in the window holes if you are wanting glass windows.
  4. Bake at 190c fan gas mark 5 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
  5. Leave on the sheet to cool for a few minutes before replacing templates back on and trimming if required and removing to cool leave to cool overnight before trying to construct your house.

Decorate your pieces the next day before construction off all the pieces.

Royal Icing (for construction):

  • 2 Egg Whites
  • 450g Icing sugar

Method:

  1. Add egg whites to a bowl and with a clean wooden spoon beat them slowly adding in the icing sugar until a stiff mix.
  2. Add into a piping bag and pipe up the insides of the house ensuring it is secured together until the icing has fully hardened.

To decorate:

We have used so many different decorations over the years some of our houses have glass windows others haven’t. You can let your imagination run wild however here is a list of some of our favourite decorations that really made the house taste amazing.

Hard boiled sweets crushed (these get added to the holes cut out for windows in the gingerbread before cooking and create glass windows)

Chocolate buttons (milk, white or dark) roof Shingles

Melted chocolate to coat and mark on roof tiles with different types of chocolate

Strawberry laces (window decoration also used it to mark roof tiles and then coated with chocolate on our first house)

Jelly tots along the top of the roof

Chocolate fingers make a great log cabin effect.

Smarties are great for all sorts.

Coconut flakes dyed green make great grass. 

We have often saved sweets from Halloween to decorate our houses in the past.

Our Gingerbread houses over the years

LIVE ON: Thursday 9th December 2021

We will be making Gingerbread men live at 2 pm and decorating some we made earlier (or Morrisons depending on our time getting back from girls morning lessons 😉 it’s ok to “cheat” if needed)

Facebook live & Instagram live

To check out more of our Christmas activities we have posted for Wiltshire Gifts you can find them all listed here.