Gingerbread House Recipe

Learn how to make a sturdy and completely edible gingerbread house! My recipe includes a template for one large house or two small houses. Please see the "Recommended Equipment" section below (just above the instructions) for the printable templates to make the houses.Make sure to watch my how-to video!

Prep time: PT45M

Total time: PT58M

Rating

4.44 stars (30 reviews)

Keywords

gingerbread house

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter (softened)
½ cup dark brown sugar (firmly packed )
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
5 cups powdered sugar
2 ½ Tablespoons meringue powder
6 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Food coloring (optional)
Candies (sprinkles, peppermints etc. for decorating (optional))

Cuisine

American

Steps

Before beginning, please select your gingerbread house template from the "Recommended Equipment" section above. Click the link and print the template you would like to use (you can make either 2 small houses or 1 large with this dough). Print and cut out the shapes. A heavier card stock paper works best/is easiest to use, but I've done this with regular printer paper, too.
Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine butter, sugar, and molasses in a large bowl using an electric mixer. Beat until creamy and well combined.
Stir in egg, vanilla extract, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt and stir until well combined. Mixture may look piecey/separated, this is fine.
Gradually add the flour to the wet ingredients (about 1/2 cup at a time), mixing on low speed until all ingredients are combined. Dough will be stiff and a bit crumbly but should cling to itself if pressed and no dry spots/flour should be remaining.
Drop dough onto a clean, lightly floured surface and divide into two. Press each half together, form into a smooth, tight ball (important for preventing bubbles, see below) then flatten into a smooth disc. Working with one disc at a time, use a rolling pin to roll to ¼” (.6cm) thickness.
Overlay the cutout shapes over the dough, and use a pizza cutter, sharp knife, or any straight edge to cut shapes out of dough. Use a large spatula to carefully transfer pieces to prepared baking sheets, spacing pieces at least 2” (5cm) apart. If you have extra dough, cut out gingerbread men or trees for decorating!
Bake in center rack of a 375F (190C) oven for 13-14 minutes (check at 11 minutes if making small houses). Pieces will be turning slightly darker around the edges when they are close to done. Note that house pieces will still be soft when warm, but will harden as they cool. Let cool completely before building your house. Chimney note: The chimney will cook much faster than the other house pieces, I bake mine on the same sheet as the other pieces but set a timer for 5-7 minutes and remove the chimney early, otherwise it will burn.
Allow pieces to cool completely before assembling with royal icing.
For the icing
- In the clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar, meringue powder, and water. Use whisk attachment to mix on low speed until combined.
- Once ingredients are combined, add vanilla extract and gradually increase mixer speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form (this will likely take 5 minutes or longer.) When icing is ready, it should look billowy and almost fluffy, not dense and pasty.
- If coloring icing, separate into smaller bowl and mix in color until evenly incorporated.
Assembly
- Transfer icing to a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip, or you can simply cut off the tip of the bag (you could also use a butter knife to spread along the edges). Assemble your house by lining the edges with icing and pressing two pieces together. Hold for several seconds until the pieces stay together. Repeat with each piece. It’s also helpful to have a base, like a cake platter, for the house, and to use the icing to cement the pieces to the base.
- Decorate with colored icing and various candies. Allow house to sit for several hours for house to be completely stable.

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 6013 kcal
Carbohydrates: 1221 g
Protein: 63 g
Fat: 102 g
Saturated Fat: 61 g
Trans Fat: 4 g
Cholesterol: 408 mg
Sodium: 1422 mg
Sugar: 823 g
Unsaturated Fat: 33 g

Reviews

Mark on 2025-12-21 (5 stars):
Made this recipe a number of times. One year, I doubled the recipe and had way too much - I kept it in the freezer for a whole year! Still turned out amazing ;-) fun tip: if it puffs up, use a microplane to shave the sides down to keep them level.
jonathan on 2025-12-20 (1 stars):
Terrible recipe that makes a crumbly mess every time.
Vickie on 2025-12-13 (5 stars):
Love this recipe! I've come back to it. The instructions are clear and simple. The gingerbread always turns out sturdy enough to build with and still soft enough for my kids to devour afterwards!
Mom4 on 2025-12-12 (5 stars):
Great recipe, I’ve made multiple batches and it always comes out well. Love that there are printable templates!
Teresa on 2025-12-11 (5 stars):
I’ve made thousands of cookies and this recipe is SO easy to follow! We followed it to a T, and it came out perfectly. The taste is good but not my favorite only because I don’t like ginger at all in any form in any recipe 😂😂 Everyone else really enjoyed it though! And it’s sturdy which is the main thing anyway. Making a triple batch again today to make more fun cute houses for our little gingerbread house village.