Gingerbread Houses

[Rainbows41]

So, I've been thinking ahead to Christmas. I have always bought a gingerbread house kit which comes with premade gingerbread walls and roof to piece together with icing ect.
How easy is it to actually bake my own from from scratch?
The reason I ask is that the kits don't really come with enough bits and thendecs aren't really blingy or pretty enough, so I'd like to do my own.

I tried to do my own one year with a good housing keeping Xmas magazine I’d seen - disastrous and expensive.

last year I bought them from Lakeland with some extra bits and they were brilliant I’d absolutely recommend them

I have also tried my own. Mine made some weird, puffy shapes that made a mutated house so I also recommend buying them

It should be quite easy but quite fiddly. The dough for making gingerbread people is very good natured and puts up with any amount of re-rolling. You'd need to make the house pieces in cardboard then put them on the rolled-out dough and cut round them with a small vegetable knife. I'd also guard against overbaking as burnt edges will chip off. It's easy to overbake because of the syrup and treacle. You take the gingerbread out of the oven when it's still soft. It hardens as it cools. This the recipe I use: www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/biscuits-and-cookies/gingerbread-men

I tried making one years ago , they always look like a fun wholesome way to spend the afternoon with the DC , in a Christmas Cheesy Hallmark Film sort of way .

Found the recipe for crispy gingerbread ( used a gingerbread man recipe)
Cut out some templates from card (cereal box )
Made some extras , just in case of breakage , ( can eat the spares )
Mixed up royal icing and bought clear decorators 'glue' from Lakeland
Let the dough chill , rolled out on parchment , cut out , bake .
Cool the biscuits

Trying to get the pieces to stand while waiting to set the icing, I was wedging with mugs weighted down, . DC were bored by now .
Then they let loose with icing and sweets .( kitchen table now looks like a bombsite )
It was "interesting" .

Then it sat there , being demolished bit by bit looking sadder .
As I said , did it once

I think I;d buy the kit and extra sweets that you;d like . Jelly tots , silver balls , candy canes , Jazzies

Aldi or Lidl do a ready-made gingerbread house that you then decorate with icing etc - soooo much easier!

We do one every year as our family tradition.

It can be as easy or complicated as you want to make it. We generally do a basic cottage but have done one or two larger/ more complicated GBHs. They generally turn out well.

It can be expensive, but we do mostly piped decorations to keep costs down and split the add ons (sweeties and decorations etc) between us.

The kids get a few gingerbread cookies to decorate whilst the adults are focussing on the real building project - it's a really nice afternoon!

Thank you everyone for your replies. I might just stick to baking gingerbread men!
I bought a gingerbread house from Aldi or Lidl (can't remember which one) a few years back and it was amazing! I will try and get a couple this year and get some extra sweets to make them extra blingy.

I find it quite straightforward.
I've got cardboard templates cut out from cereal boxes.

Easiest way to do it is to bake trays of flat gingerbread then use the templates to cut out the shapes after its cooled down a bit.

You end up with nice straight edges that sit together nicely, and a box full of extra bits of gingerbread that either be cut into nice extra shapes or scoffed.

Find a recipe for a gingerbread house rather than men, the dough is thicker and not as crisp so it stands up more easily. Mine is from and old book I specifically bought for the gingerbread house!

I spotted packs of gingerbread house kits in b&m today! I purchased two! I will get extra sweets for them!

Slightly off topic, but after weeks of it sitting out in the open- do you eat the gingerbread house or throw it away?

I lived abroad for a period as a child and Swedish friends made one from scratch each year. I always assumed flies, bees and other insects, along with dust within the house would accumulate on it so couldn't imagine it would be eaten- happy to be proved wrong though? 🤔

We make them every year sometimes we make lots of small ones, sometimes one for each child (teens included) sometimes a huge house, always some trees, once a castle...
Honestly have never found it tricky, my tip is that using a small grater to smooth any puffy/bent edges ensures tight joins.

if you don't feel confident about creating a template there are loads to print for free.

I make one most years. I make a template and trim gingerbread while still warm to ensure sharp edges and square corners. I don't worry too much about precision - lots of icing to hold it together gives a snow covered effect. Gaps on roof covered with chocolate button roof tiles, jelly tots etc on walls, a log pile of broken bits of flake under the eaves, again glued together with "snow". Sometimes I add a few gingerbread christmas trees, decorated with licorice strings, or a matchmaker picket fence. It's never that neat but very festive looking. Get the kids involved only at the decorating stage. Over the Xmas period kids pick the sweets off and I nibble away at the gingerbread.
One particularly ramshackle effort made me think a Halloween themed house would be fun.

Ours is usually eaten within 24 hrs

My teen son has made one two years in a row now. He started out using instructions from bbc good food but has gone his own route now.

He’s v crafty and good at DT though!

Top tips - if you’ve got a roof sloping down either side, stick the pieces together with a paper hinge underneath, stuck on with royal icing. Stops the sloping roof bits sliding down.
Also if you use popcorn to be smoke coming out of the chimney it looks amazing.

@Rainbows41 do you know how big the house will be for the one you found in b&m?

We have a "Gingerbread House Day" with the kids inviting some friends over to decorate houses...we love it!

I always get the kits, but glue them together with hot caramel. Sets much quicker than icing and is much stronger.

Then buy more decorations and sweets etc from the shops to add to it. Also make our icing at it's much whiter and better quality than the ones that come with the kits.

May I ask for your icing recipe?

@SussexLass87 the hot caramel glue is a brilliant idea!!!

Of course....I use this one...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/royal-icing/amp/

X

Stole the idea off someone on Insta - works a treat though!

I make one every year.

Some have been amazing and perfect.

Others not quite as good!

I've learnt from my mistakes to cook the gingerbread a bit more so its not soft.

I use the usbourne gingerbread recipe with about 1/2 the amount of syrup.

For years i made my own templates from paper, but about 5 years ago i bought a kit so I had proper cutters for the relevant bits of the house.

Me and my children (and my charges when I was a nanny) love making these, its a lovely activity, and my homemade gingerbread does not contain all the crappy UPF (although the sweets do). It's an activity that takes up most of the day in the run up to Xmas

I love making windows with boiled sweets

We did a Halloween one last year. After all, the original gingerbread house was surely the witches cottage in Hansel and Gretel. We had chocolate pumpkins growing outside and marshmallow ghosts haunting the place.

I generally buy the pre made kits, as the edges stay straight. When I cut my own I can never transfer them without getting wobbly sides.