How to Make Decorative Gingerbread

Make homemade gingerbread when you create a gingerbread house.

While you can easily make a gingerbread house using a kit with pre-made gingerbread pieces, creating a purely homemade gingerbread house can be a more satisfying experience. The gingerbread that is used for a house is different than the gingerbread you might use for cookies or gingerbread men because it has to be strong enough to create the house. Even still, the gingerbread has to be tasty so that you can dismantle it and eat it if you decide to do so. Does this Spark an idea?

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Oven
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup molasses
2 tbsps. plus 2 tsps. ginger
2 tbsps. plus 2 tsps. cinnamon
Large saucepan
Stove
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup butter
Knife
Large mixing bowl
1 egg
5 1/2 cups flour
Refrigerator
Rolling pin
Parchment paper
Sheet pans
Gingerbread house template
Paring knife

Instructions

- 1
  
  Preheat your oven to 325 F.
- 2
  
  Place molasses, sugar, ginger and cinnamon inside a large saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add the baking soda and remove from the heat.
- 3
  
  Chop your butter and place it inside a large, heatproof mixing bowl. Pour the sugar and molasses mixture over the butter and stir until the mixture is well combined.
- 4
  
  Beat your egg and add it to the mixture. Slowly add the flour in batches, stirring it in until the dough forms.
- 5
  
  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it several times. Add more flour until a firm dough forms. Divide the dough into two pieces and refrigerate it for about 30 minutes, or until it is cold.
- 6
  
  Remove the dough pieces from the refrigerator and roll them each out into rectangles that are about 1/4-inch thick.
- 7
  
  Choose a gingerbread house template. You can find these online or in craft stores. The template will contain patterns for each gingerbread piece you need to create the house. Place the template pieces on top of the gingerbread dough. Place them close together so that you are sure you can fit all of the pattern pieces onto the dough.
- 8
  
  Use a paring knife to cut out the gingerbread shapes.
- 9
  
  Line baking trays with parchment paper. Place the gingerbread pieces onto the baking sheets.
- 10
  
  Bake the gingerbread pieces for about 20 minutes, or until the pieces are dark brown. If you have some large pieces and some small pieces, consider placing the small ones together on one baking sheet and the large ones on another. The small ones will finish first and you can remove them from the oven earlier.