Looking for a fun way to keep kids busy during winter break? Why not make a gingerbread house? Building a gingerbread house is a day-long activity that teaches baking skills and is a fun way to be creative!
I have written this recipe so older children can follow it on their own. However, younger children can help make gingerbread houses too. Here are some cooking skills that a little kid may be able to help with:
• The littlest kids can help measure dry ingredients and mix with wet ingredients.
• Young kids can cream the butter and sugar together, crack and beat in the egg, roll out dough and cut out shapes.
• Older kids can separate egg yolks from egg whites and beat eggs and icing sugar into stiff peaks.
Gingerbread Dough Recipe
Wet Ingredients
1⁄2 cup of butter 1⁄2 cup of brown sugar
1⁄4 cup of molasses 1 small egg
Dry Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger 1⁄2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1. Soften the butter by microwaving it for 30 seconds in a glass bowl. You don’t want it fully melted, just soft enough to cream easily.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to cream the butter into the sugar.
3. Beat in the molasses and egg.
4. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large measuring cup. Stir so that the spices and baking soda are mixed into the flour.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. It will form a very stiff ball of dough.
6. Place the dough in a plastic bag and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
8. After 30 minutes, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface. It needs to be about 1 cm thick for a gingerbread house.
9. Lay the paper gingerbread pattern (these can be found online) on the dough, place them next to each other but not overlapping.
10. Use a butter knife to cut out all the pieces.
11. Use any extra dough to make cookies. Tree-shaped cookies are fun to add to your gingerbread house. The scraps of dough can be rolled out up to three times. Put the gingerbread house pieces and cookies onto greased cookie sheets.
12. Bake for 12–17 minutes until the pieces are firm and starting to brown.
13. Allow the pieces to cool on the cookie sheet for one hour before moving. This is necessary to make the pieces strong enough to build a house.
Royal Frosting
Ingredients
3–4 cups of powdered sugar 2 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1. Whisk egg whites and vanilla together. Sift in two cups of sugar and whisk until smooth.
2. Sift in the remaining sugar and beat until the frosting forms stiff peaks. If it doesn’t form stiff peaks, add more sugar a spoonful at a time. The exact amount of sugar needed will depend on the size of the eggs.
3. Place a damp towel over the bowl to keep the frosting from drying out.
4. The easiest way to frost a gingerbread house is with a frosting bag. If you don’t have one, fill a plastic zip-top bag with frosting and cut a tiny hole into one corner for the frosting to come out.
Building the Gingerbread House
Pecans, blanched almonds, hazelnuts
Raisins, dried cranberries
The candy of your choice
1. It takes two people to build a gingerbread house. One person to add the frosting and a second person to hold the pieces in place.
2. Start by frosting along the bottom and one side of the back piece of the house. Connect it to one of the side pieces. Place them on the base and add more frosting along the joints. Work your way around the house until you have all four sides frosted to the base.
3. Let the frosting dry for 30 minutes before working on the roof.
4. Frost along the top of the house walls. Use a lot of frosting because you won’t be able to add more later.
5. Place on the roof pieces and hold them in place while someone else applies frosting to the top ridge. Hold the roof in place as the frosting starts to dry (at least five minutes).
6. Let the frosting dry for at least one hour before decorating with nuts, dried fruit and candy. Add gingerbread cookies. Get creative!