Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (2024)

Recipe courtesy of The Great British Baking Show

Create your own winter wonderland with Mary Berry's gingerbread recipe. It makes a wonderful centrepiece for parties, and children will love it.

This gingerbread house recipe by Mary Berry is featured in the Season 2 Masterclass: Christmas episode.

Ingredients

375g (13oz) unsalted butter
300g (10½oz) dark muscovado sugar
150g (5½oz) golden syrup
900g (2lb) plain flour
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp ground ginger
For the icing
3 free-range egg whites
675g (1½lb) icing sugar, sifted
3 tsp lemon juice
To decorate
15 yellow or orange boiled sweets
1 x 30cm (12in) square cake board
200g (7oz) giant milk chocolate buttons
2 night-light candles
6 co*cktail sticks

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together in a large pan. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger together into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in the melted butter mixture, stir it in and, when cool enough to handle, knead to a stiff dough.
Divide the mixture into five equally-sized pieces, cut one of these pieces in half (so you have six pieces in total). Roll each piece out on a sheet of greaseproof paper to ¾cm/⅓in thick. Using the templates, cut out the sections for the roof, sides, front and back of the house. Slide onto three baking trays lined with baking parchment.
Using the template as a guide, a ruler and the rim of a cup, cut out the arched windows on the front and sides of the house. Using a star cutter, cut out a star in the front and back of the house. Using a knife, cut out the door on the front and back of the house and place the doors separately on the baking trays.
Re-roll the trimmings and use to cut out the chimney pieces, three Christmas trees and three triangles to use as supports to help the trees stand upright. Bake the gingerbread for 7-8 minutes.
Meanwhile place the boiled sweets in a pestle and mortar and crush to a rough sand texture.
Remove the gingerbread from the oven. Trim the windows if the mixture has spread and sprinkle the crushed sweets into the windows. Return to the oven and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the sweets have melted and the gingerbread is firm. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
For the icing, whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy. Using a wooden spoon or a hand-held electric mixer on slow speed, add the icing sugar a tablespoonful at a time. Stir in the lemon juice and beat the icing until it is very stiff and white and stands up in peaks. Cover the surface with a damp cloth if not using immediately.
Spoon a little of the icing into a piping bag fitted with a medium plain nozzle. Pipe blobs of icing on the back of each chocolate button and stick, overlapping onto the two roof sections, to create a tile effect. Transfer some icing to another piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle and pipe frames around the windows, doors and stars to decorate. Spoon six tablespoons of the icing over the cake board and, using a palette knife, spread the icing to cover the board with a snow effect and to create a base to stick the house on to.
Pipe some icing along the wall edges and join the house together on the iced cake board. Leave the icing to dry and harden for a minimum of four hours, but preferably overnight.
Once dry, place two night-lights inside the house before attaching the roof.
Cut the pointed ends of the co*cktail sticks into 1cm (½in) pieces (you should have 12 small pointed pieces). Push the blunt end of the co*cktail stick pieces into the sloping edges of the front and back of the house, leaving the pointed ends sticking out to act as peg supports to attach the roof. (Remember to remove the sharp co*cktail sticks from your gingerbread house before eating it, to avoid a choking hazard.) Pipe icing between the co*cktail sticks and fix the two roof panels onto the house. Pipe icing around the base and edges of the chimney and attach to the roof.
To decorate, pipe icing along the apex and edges of the roof to look like snow and icicles. Stick the front door in place with icing. Cut the back door into three pieces to use as props to keep the trees upright. Decorate the Christmas trees with piped icing and fix them onto the cake board with icing and gingerbread props. Dust the roof with icing sugar and light the night lights using a candle lighter through the open back door. Do not leave the candles lit unattended, and it is best not to burn the candles inside the house for longer than 15 minutes or they may singe the inside of the roof and start to melt the chocolate buttons.

Tips/Techniques

Note: This recipe contains U.K. measurements and may require conversions to U.S. measurements. It has also not been professionally tested.

Tags: Baking Recipes, britishbakingshowrecipes, Masterclass Recipes

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Gingerbread House Recipe | PBS Food (2024)

FAQs

How do you make the strongest gingerbread house? ›

Once the gingerbread has cooled, start spooning dollops of melted white chocolate onto the edges of the walls, roof, and sides, working bit-by-bit. Assemble one corner, put it in the fridge to set, then add another wall, and so on.

What were the ingredients in the first gingerbread house? ›

The gingerbread house had an estimated calorific value exceeding 35.8 million and ingredients included 2,925 pounds (1,327 kg) of brown sugar, 1,800 pounds (820 kg) of butter, 7,200 eggs and 7,200 pounds (3,300 kg) of general purpose flour.

What is the best ingredient to keep a gingerbread house from falling? ›

Royal icing is the edible "glue" or mortar that holds a gingerbread house together and can be used to make fancy sugar decorations. It's the best option for projects like gingerbread houses since, unlike buttercream frosting, royal icing will harden once dry and keep your gingerbread house from falling apart.

Find Out More ›

What are rules for gingerbread house? ›

All Gingerbread Houses must be made of gingerbread, 100% edible candy/embellishments/materials except the base board. Non-‐edible support structure material other than the baseboard may not be used. 7. Non-‐edible decorations, like paint, ribbon, figurines, etc.

What supports a gingerbread house? ›

I like to use a combination of things to help hold the structure up: pretzel rods, graham crackers, and/or candy bars. Use the Royal Icing Recipe to glue down the edges and add your supports.

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How long does it take to make a gingerbread house from a kit? ›

We spent over 15 hours assembling and decorating ready-to-build gingerbread house kits, so we know firsthand how to avoid cookie collapses, icing avalanches, and missing gumdrops. To keep this family tradition from going from merry to mayhem, try these tricks for sweet success.