Grab some family members or friends and make a day of building and creating these fun, Homemade Gingerbread Houses! Design your own from scratch or download this FREE gingerbread house template!
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, baking soda, gingerbread spice, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the unsalted butter, then add in the granulated sugar and full flavored molasses. Stir continuously until combined, then remove from heat.
1 cup Unsalted Butter, 1 cup Granulated Sugar, 1 cup Full Flavor Molasses
Slowly pour the molasses mixture into the dry mixture and, using a baking spatula, blend it all together. Once it starts to form into the dough you can switch to using your hands. Trust me, it will be much easier this way! Keep mixing the dough with your hands until the flour has absorbed more of the moisture. The dough will be soft at first, but will firm up as you work with it.
Adjust your oven rack to the 2nd level position (just above center) and preheat your oven to 350ºF.
Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper and set aside.
Roll out some of the gingerbread cookie dough onto a floured surface to a ¼ inch thickness. Carefully cut out your pieces using my homemade gingerbread house template (or a template of your choice or gingerbread house cutters). Carefully transfer the pieces onto a parchment lined cookie sheet using a serving spatula.
Bake at 350ºF for 12-15 minutes (mine only took 12 minutes). Allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Allow the pieces to dry out for several hours (or overnight) in a warm, dry environment before using to build your houses.
See my step-by-step gingerbread house build guide for the best way to build your gingerbread houses. Before building, you can choose to decorate the pieces first or wait until you've built all the houses.
Royal Icing
Using your hand mixer or stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the water and meringue powder on high until frothy. Switch the speed to low and add in 1 cup at a time the powdered sugar. Beat on high once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated.
The icing should be like glue and should take some time to blend back into the bowl of icing. To test this just lift the head up on your stand mixer and allow the icing to fall back into the bowl. If it blends immediately back in with the icing then it's too runny.
If the icing is too runny, add a little more powdered sugar. If it appears to be thicker than glue, add a teaspoon of water at a time to get to the glue-like consistency.
I used a No. 6 Wilton piping tip to pipe the icing on the the houses to "glue" the pieces together. For detailed decorations likes the wreaths, windows, etc. I used these piping bottles from Sweet Sugar Belle. What's nice about these is you can swap out the piping tips if you want. I used the tips that it came with for the houses.
As you wait for the houses to dry, you can wrap the piping tip end of the bottle/piping bag with a little plastic wrap or aluminum foil. I like to use these silicone decorating piping tips from Wilton. You may need to take a toothpick or a damp paper towel to clean out any royal icing that may have dried up inside the piping tip. After that, give it a little shake and you should be good to go again with any piping that needs to be done.
Notes
While this is a flavorful gingerbread recipe that can be eaten, this tutorial is really meant for those that are creating gingerbread houses that will be used as a fun display in your home. If you plan to eat your gingerbread houses, they're best enjoyed within a day or two of making them.
To make the best gingerbread houses, the dough should be very dry and firm when cooled. If it is not completely dried out, the pieces will continue to pick up moisture as they stand, and your house could eventually collapse.
When building homemade gingerbread houses, it's best to use royal icing. Buttercream frosting—or any frosting made with shortening—contains moisture that will lead your house to collapse. Royal icing dries super hard like cement and will hold your house together much, much better!
If you're piping on any decorations like the wreaths I did and you make a mistake, fear not. Take a slightly damp paper towel and very gently wipe it off. I had to do this a few times with the roof panels because I goofed.
You can also pipe wreaths separately onto wax paper, then let them dry completely before carefully placing them onto the house. Use royal icing again as the "glue".