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Simple gingerbread house

Ingredients

  1. Step 1 250g unsalted butter
  2. Step 2 200g dark muscovado sugar
  3. Step 3 7 tbsp golden syrup
  4. Step 4 600g plain flour
  5. Step 5 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  6. Step 6 4 tsp ground ginger
  7. Step 7 200g flaked almonds
  8. Step 8 2 egg whites
  9. Step 9 500g icing sugar, plus extra to dust
  10. Step 10 125g mini chocolate fingers
  11. Step 11 generous selection of sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
  12. Step 12 1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake
  13. Step 13 few edible silver balls
  14. Step 14 template (see tips below)
Simple gingerbread house
Calories: 636 Carbohydrate: 80 g Protein: 10 g Fat: 30 g
Cook time: 72 minutes Prep time: 120 minutes Total time: 192 minutes Servings: 112

TAGS

Afternoon tea Dessert Treat Swedish bake cake chocolate Christma Decorating Decoration Egg white Egg white Flaked almond Flaked almond Gingerbread Gingerbread house Golden syrup Ground ginger How to make a gingerbread house Icing sugar Jane Hornby Kids cooking Make Ahead Silver ball Silver ball Sweet Sweet Xma

Directions

  1. Step 1 Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won't quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.
  2. Step 2 Cut out the template (download from the tips below). Put a sheet of baking paper on a work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees, if you like.
  3. Step 3 Pick out the most intact flaked almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections, pointy-end first, to look like roof tiles. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few minutes to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
  4. Step 4 Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.
  5. Step 5 Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. The angle is steep so you may need to hold these on firmly for a few mins until the icing starts to dry. Dry completely, ideally overnight. To decorate, pipe a little icing along the length of 20 mini chocolate fingers and stick these lengthways onto the side walls of the house. Use three, upright, for the door.
  6. Step 6 Using the icing, stick sweets around the door and on the front of the house. To make the icicles, start with the nozzle at a 90-degree angle to the roof and squeeze out a pea-sized blob of icing. Keeping the pressure on, pull the nozzle down and then off - the icing will pull away, leaving a pointy trail. Repeat all around the front of the house. Cut the chocolate mini roll or dipped Flake on an angle, then fix with icing to make a chimney. Pipe a little icing around the top. If you've made gingerbread trees, decorate these now, too, topping each with a silver ball, if using. Dust the roof with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Lay a winding path of sweets, and fix gingerbread trees around and about using blobs of icing. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week.