How to Make a Gingerbread House

You will need some gingerbread or even graham cracker can be used, icing from your favorite recipe, and assorted Christmas candies like peppermints, small candy canes, gum drops and/or any other candies that you choose.

Here are some gingerbread recipes from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook:

Christmas English Gingerbread

1 lb. flour 1 tablespoon ginger
1/2 lb. butter 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar Molasses

Mix flour, sugar, ginger, and salt. Work in butter, using tips of fingers, and add just enough molasses to hold ingredients together. Let stand over night to get thoroughly chilled. Roll very thin, shape, and bake in a moderate oven.


Fairy Gingerbread

1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup milk
1 cup light brown sugar 17/8 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons ginger

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and milk very slowly. Mix and sift flour and ginger, and combine mixtures. Spread very thinly with a broad, long-bladed knife on a buttered, inverted dripping-pan. Bake in a moderate oven. Cut in squares before removing from pan. Watch carefully and turn pan frequently during baking, that all may be evenly cooked. If mixture around edge of pan is cooked before that in the centre, pan should be removed from oven, cooked part cut off, and remainder returned to oven to finish cooking.

Here is a video that explains how to put it together:

This thread has so really great gingerbread houses and a great video showing how to make one:

https://permies.com/t/19582/gingerbread-house-space-travellers-gingerbread#813894

I didn't want to derail the Christmas Cookie thread by responding to a post about having better things to do than decorate really detailed cookies by talking about gingerbread houses instead.  So I'm reviving this thread instead.

I used to decorate gingerbread houses with a niece but we haven't done it since i moved away.  This year it's been on my potential fun list but I like to decorate them and then end up eating them.  It's part of the enjoyment for me.  But I've hesitated because it's tough to get candy that fits my gf/plant-based diet and I never eat candy so I'd have to research what that would be.  Plus, I usually avoid and don't need the sugar.  

So plan B was to just get a gingerbread house kit and decorate it with crappy candy so I wasn't tempted to eat any of it because it would make me seriously ill.  The fun would be in the decorating.  But it seemed super wasteful to buy a kit just to decorate it and toss it.  I was telling my best friend about it and she suggested that if I wasn't going to eat it anyway, I could just use cardboard and decorate it with frosting and candy.  Hmmm yes interesting idea.  From there I leaped to just gluing it together (rather than using frosting) and forget the candy and sugar, decorate it with stuff I have around the house - like baking soda for powdered snow, random screws and things for decorations....  

Then I thought okay, I have tons of wood and branches and random green stuff from my site clearing project and windfall from recent storms, maybe I could just build a fun house with all of that and forget the cardboard and glue.

I'm not naturally artsy/creative so at that point I was exhausted and didn't do anything....  BUT, there's still time yet.

Anyone made/make gingerbread or other mini houses this time of year?

My mom like to make gingerbread houses with lots of candy.  I saw these which remind me of the ones she made:


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Have you made a gingerbread house?  Tell us about it.

Building and decorating a gingerbread house was on my bucket list to do at least once. I wanted variety with the candy but didn't want to buy a bunch since I wouldn't eat it. My church's youth group had a lot of candy still left from Halloween, so I made a deal with them. They gave me candy, and I gave them the completed house to give away as a prize at their youth Christmas party.

It was fun. Not something that I want to do as a yearly tradition, but maybe occasionally. When my daughter is a little older, I'd like to build one with her using natural decorations. Nuts, seeds, pine needles, dried fruit, etc.

I love the idea of using Halloween candy for a gingerbread house.

I like the idea of natural ingredients even better:


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Your daughter might like these when she is old enough for these foods:


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I am going to post this idea to the Favorite Finger Foods thread:


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Ha, those are awesome examples! I had seen the top one with nuts before, so that's what I was thinking for natural gingerbread houses. Fresh fruit, veggies, or meat and cheese slices had never crossed my mind. It's like a whole world of possibilities has opened for me!