19th of December

Gingerbread House

Foto Thomas by Thomas


Oh, what sweet temptation! There are two children walking hungrily and alone through the forest and suddenly they are standing in front of a gingerbread house. Decorated with lots of sweets. Delicious! They gnaw a little here and nibble a little there ... until the owner of the house makes herself noticeable: "Nibble, nibble, gnaw, who is nibbling at my little house?”

The fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel rather frightened my son in his childhood days ... with the nasty stepmother, the sneaky witch and the idea that she actually wants to eat children. Cruel. But the temptation of the gingerbread house is hard for both of us to resist . Until today. And so, even now that my son has long since grown up, we meet every year during the Advent season to bake a gingerbread house together. Or better: to build it! Usually it remains on our sideboard until well into the new year, only the sweet decorations are still being nibbled away quickly, quietly and secretly. But we all know: This is "the wind, the wind, the heaven-born child ...".

Making a gingerbread house yourself is real work! After all, you are a baker, architect, master builder, roofer, facade designer ... You should make sure you have a pair of children's hands to help you and make sure that there are enough sweets for the house AND the staff ;-)

It makes sense to spread the work over two days: First you bake the house parts. Of course, you will have to think together about how the house should look like so that the right parts are made. On the second day, construction and decorating will be done.

Recipe for a gingerbread house

Ingredients

  • 750 g flour
  • 250 g honey
  • 200 g sugar
  • 50 ml water
  • 1 egg
  • 1 packet potash
  • 1 packet of salt of the hartshorn
  • 1 packet of gingerbread spice
  • Cinnamon and cocoa powder to taste
    • and
  • powdered sugar
  • fresh lemon juice
  • sweets like liquorice or mini pretzels, colourful chocolate lentils, sugar pearls, liquorice snails and fruit gums,...
Instructions

The first step is to prepare the dough. For this, sugar and honey are slowly heated in water until a sweet syrup is obtained, but it must not boil. Then let the pot cool down to room temperature. In the meantime, put potash and salt of the hartshorn in two small bowls and mix them with milk. For the dough put flour, butter, egg, sugar syrup, the dissolved leavening agents and spices as well as 1-2 tbsp. cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Use the dough hook to mix the mixture to an even dough, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for one hour.

When the resting time is over, roll out the gingerbread dough to a thickness of approx. 5 mm on the floured work surface. Now comes the time for the architect in you ... or in your team: You have to think about which parts you need for your house and design them.

For the witch house you need:
  • 1 x each front and back side
  • 2 x rectangular walls (narrow rectangles in landscape format)
  • 2 x roof
  • 1 x large base plate
  • if necessary 1 x small door
Tip: Draw the individual pieces on baking paper, cut them out and stick them on cardboard.

Place the homemade templates on the dough and cut out the individual pieces. Then they are placed on a baking tray covered with baking paper and coated with milk. Bake in the preheated fan oven at 170 °C for about 12-15 minutes on the middle rack.

Making a witch's house from gingerbread

In the last step you finally make the gingerbread house. Mix powdered sugar and a little lemon juice into a viscous icing and brush the edges of the gingerbread pieces to stick them together.

Now the icing can be filled into a piping bag to decorate the house or the front garden with it. It also serves as glue to fix the sweets on the witch's house. How about a fence of liquorice or mini pretzels? Also colorful chocolate lentils, sugar pearls, liquorice snails and fruit gums are excellent for decorating. (Do not forget: The building inspectorate is also responsible for supervision, so that not too many construction and decoration parts disappear secretly ☺) Then let the icing dry completely and carefully slide the gingerbread house onto a Christmas plate.

Nibble, nibble, gnaw, who is nibbling at my little house?

✦ You can download the recipe as pdf here: Gingerbread House