Prefer Easy Gingerbread House Recipes?

Are you looking for some easy gingerbread house recipes that you can do yourself at home? Whether this is your first gingerbread house attempt or you are a gingerbread house building veteran, we have some great tips, ideas and recipes here to keep you making fabulous houses from season to season.

Making gingerbread houses is both easy and fun. If you are creating them alone, as a family or even as a fun project for children, you can find easy gingerbread house recipes here that allow you to do just that.

There are a surprising number of recipes available for gingerbread. Not all of them are the best for house-building though. Here we share our #1 favorite easy gingerbread house recipe as well as an even easier alternative for a mini gingerbread house using graham crackers (although graham crackers CAN be crumbly so mixing up a batch of gingerbread MAY even end up easier!

For step-by-step instructions, from designing your template to baking, assembling and decorating, click here to start at our Step-by-Step page.

Our #1 Easy Basic Gingerbread House Recipe

Here is our favorite of the easy gingerbread house recipes for you to build your house with. This makes a dark, spicy gingerbread that's durable and delicious. This recipe will give the house walls strength so that you can decorate with candy, icing and even additional pieces of gingerbread without having to worry about the house collapsing.

• 6 cups of all purpose flour (+ extra for kneading)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup of dark brown sugar, packed
• 4 teaspoon each of ground ginger and ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 ½ cup of dark unsulfured molasses
• 2 large eggs

Directions - Phase 1 - Making Dough:

1. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together and set aside.
2. In a separate large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and salt. Beat in molasses and eggs.
3. Mix the dry into the wet ingredients just until well-combined.
4. Divide the dough into thirds and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour (or overnight works even better!) Tip:Once you've placed roughly 1/3 of the dough in the center of a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap tightly and then gently press to form a round, disc-like shape. This disc shape helps immenseley when you roll out the dough later as it's already in a nice, round, flat shape.

Directions - Phase 2 - Rolling, Cutting, and Baking Dough:

1. After at least an hour in the refrigerator, heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Roll out dough on a well-floured surface. You are looking for about ¼ of an inch in thickness.
3. NOTE: If your gingerbread is extra sticky, you will likely need to knead in extra flour in small amounts until the consistency is right (or try refrigerating longer!) That will help with much of the stickiness. Humidity and room temperature can make a big difference here, so just plan to add flour until it becomes less sticky. And, of course, flour your hands before kneading or ANY gingerbread will be sticky!
4. Use your pattern cut outs to help you to cut out the right sized parts for the gingerbread houses.
5. Place gingerbread cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and, ideally, chill for about 15 minutes to firm. (Don't stress if you don't have room in your refrigerator for this step. It just helps the cookies retain their shapes a bit better.)
6. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F or until slightly firm. Cool completely.

Mini Gingerbread House Recipe

This mini gingerbread house is about as easy as it comes. Instead of mixing and baking gingerbread, simply start with graham crackers! This is a fun, anytime project and kids have just as much fun decorating their own mini house as with a full-blown gingerbread house.

• 7 graham crackers
• Frosting- vanilla, chocolate, red and green
• Colored candy- for decorating
• Christmas ribbon

You can put your frosting in a pastry bag or in a Ziploc bag with a tiny hole in one corner. Use graham crackers to make the sides of your gingerbread house. Apply the frosting to hold the crackers together and then allow it to dry and harden.

Once dry, use more frosting, various candies and ribbon to decorate the house. Give each child their own house to decorate as they please. Or make a whole village yourself and use it as a Holiday party centerpiece.

These easy gingerbread house recipes should get you started. Search our site for more recipes, from simple to elaborate, and send us your favorite easy gingerbread house recipes along with photos of the end result.

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