Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe – It is that time of the year to build it. Last year I made a small Gingerbread house for the Christmas Bakes class. This year we wanted to upgrade the house, both in details and plan.

Last year, my daughter helped me with the plan for the house, but there was some technical flaw which we overcame. So this year, I wanted the design to be perfect and my daughter delivered it. She did some research, made the house templates and assured me that it will be fine.

Any gingerbread house needs the correct template for it to succeed. So my daughter was the reason for this year’s success.

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe – Points to be noted

Working on gingerbread house needs utmost patience. Let me list the work it needs.

1. Planning the house and making the templates
2. Making the gingerbread cookie dough.
3. Rolling the dough, cutting out the template pieces.
4. Baking them to perfection and cooling them.
5. Preparing the royal icing to decorate.
6. Decorate each panel, allow them to cool completely.
7. Assembling the panels to create the magic.
8. Dust with icing sugar.

So anything can go wrong at any stage, so you need to be prepared. As mentioned before, it needs a lot of patience. I took two days to do all of the above and only on the third day, we could take photos of the house. So you need storage space to keep the house intact.

I have included the templates of all the parts of the house in this post. Print each on an A4 sheet and then cut them out and use them to make your own house.

The house has a main large room with roof and chimney, a side room on the left with a slanted roof attached to the main room and a side entrance in the left which has a roof similar to the main room. I have also shared step wise photos of attaching the house’s panels.

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe – Checklist

1. Once you make the dough, refrigerate it until it is firm to touch. This will help you get neat panels.
2. Roll the dough between parchment paper and cling film. You can easily shift the panel to a baking tray if it is cut on parchment.
3. Make sure to roll the dough to 1/4″ thickness. Also the thickness of all the panels should be the same. Otherwise, the panel may break while assembling.
4. Refrigerate the cut out panels along with baking tray until firm. Bake it straight out of fridge. This will avoid the spreading of panels and ensure that the shape of cutout remains the same.
5. Remove the panels when they start browning at the sides and are still soft to touch.
6. Cool on wire rack. The panels will crisp up when they cool. Do not over bake the panels as this tends to give you really hard cookies/panels.
7. Once completely cool, you can either store them in an airtight box for upto a week or you can start decorating immediately.
8. Use royal icing, either with egg whites or without egg whites. I have shared the vegetarian version using whey protein.
9. Once decorated, let the decorations dry completely. If they are soft to touch, just let them air dry until hard.
10. You can store the decorated panels for two or three days before assembling or you can assemble them immediately. Do not refrigerate the decorated panels.
11. While assembling, start with a single side. Add the side panels only when the icing is completely dry to touch. Place heavy objects on all the sides so that they set straight without leaning towards any side.
12. Once all the side panels and walls are set, place the roof. Again use heavy objects to hold them in place until they dry.
13. Fill the gaps with icing. You can also use thicker icing and do some decorative fillings. Also pipe icing on all the sides of the panels so that it looks like covered with snow.
14. Allow the icing to completely dry before storing it in your cabinet. Do not refrigerate the house.

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe – Spices and Flavours

The flavour and colour of gingerbread cookies are majorly because of the sugar, molasses and the spices used. It gives the cookies an unique flavour and a caramel like note when you taste them. The combination of cinnamon and ginger powder is what gives the Christmas flavour to the cookies. So don’t omit them while making.

Check out the slideshow below. I have tried to take step wise photos. May be next time I will make a full video to demonstrate. I didn’t do it this time as I didn’t expect the house to turn out stable and good. But I should have filmed it.

I also made a short video while we took the house apart. After so much work, it is hard to do, but you should do it so that you can taste the fruit of your hard labour. Check it out in my Instagram.

As this is a huge house, I have a huge box full of cookies. And am yet to distribute them. these cookies are not crisp but are soft because the house was let to sit outside. It has absorbed the moisture and become softer, but they are really good.

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe – Template

To download the template, right click on each image and print it out on an A4 sheet. Cut them out and use them to cut panels on rolled cookie dough.

Right Click on image to download

• Right room wall 1 – 1 piece
• Right room wall 2 – 1 piece
• Main House wall – 2 pieces
• Main house Side Panel – 2 pieces

Right Click on image to download

• Right room wall – 1 pieces

• Chimney – 1 piece each

Right Click on image to download

• Chimney – 1 piece each
• Left Entrance Door Panel – 1 piece
• Main House Roof – 2 pieces
• Right Room roof – 1 piece
• Left Entrance Roof – 2 pieces
• Left Entrance Side Wall – 2 pieces

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe

Gayathri Kumar

Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe will help you create a beautiful gingerbread house from scratch and will also help you nail it.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Cookies

Cuisine America

Ingredients

  

• 600 gm Maida
• 1.5 tbs Cinnamon
• 1.5 tbs Ginger Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 180 gm Butter
• 150 gm Brown Sugar
• 225 gm Molasses
• Vanilla

Instructions

 

• Beat together butter, sugar, molasses and vanilla.
• In another bowl, combine together maida, cinnamon, ginger and baking soda.
• Add the dry mix to the butter mixture and combine to form a slightly crumbly dough.
• Divide into four portions, wrap them in cling film and refrigerate for one hour.
• Once the dough is firm enough to be handled, take one portion at a time.
• Roll it between parchment papers or cling film to ¼” thickness.
• Place the house template and cut the shape out.
• Carefully transfer them to baking tray lined with parchment paper.
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 175C.
• Bake the cookie cut outs, one tray at a time for 8-10 minutes.
• Once the sides start browning, remove from oven and allow them to cool completely in the tray itself.
• You can store the baked pieces in an airtight box for a week before assembling.
• While assembling, use royal icing to first decorate the panels.
• You can even colour the royal icing to make amazing designs. To keep it simple, just use the plain white icing.
• Once the designs are completely cool and firm to touch, it is time to assemble.
• Start with a side. Place support on both sides of the piece, apply royal icing on the base of the piece as well as on the base board.
• Allow it to completely set. It should be firm to touch.
• Now add the pieces that join this initial piece. Every time you add a piece, make sure to pipe royal icing on the sides of the piece and the base.
• Whenever you add a new piece, give it time to set before adding additional pieces.
• Add roof once all the base pieces are assembled. Have ample support on both sides so that the roof doesn’t slide off.
• Then add the roof for the side rooms again giving them enough time to set.
• Arrange the chimney separately and add it once the roof is set.
• Add more royal icing for the ground around the house.
• And now it is time to allow the house to set completely.
• Place it in a shelf overnight.
• Next day, sprinkle icing sugar on the house using a sifter.
• Now your gingerbread house is ready!

Keyword Eggless Gingerbread House Recipe