Why is my gingerbread so crumbly?

[WellingtonWomble]

I attempted to make a gingerbread house today using the Mary Berry recipe and the Lakeland mould. The dough felt quite dry when kneading it so I added some milk. I left the parts to cool and then tried to assemble the house and everything just broke The parts were all still quite soft, not crispy. Any ideas? A longer baking time perhaps?

I don't know. I was just about to start a thread asking for recommendations for ginger bread recipes. On bbc good food comments for the gingerbread recipe people have suggested adding milk to solve the problem.

I used this recipe for the gingerbread.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4900/simple-gingerbread-house.

Don't make the pieces to thin and wait for them to get completely cold before handling as they may break.

I stuck the pieces together with caramel and slatherered caramel all over. It's a pain to make it but it sticks much better than icing. My house has stayed together for the past three hours and stuck together really quickly.

I used to use a Mar y Berry recipe but switched to BBC Good Food recipe as found it better. I can't remember the difference now but i had the same crumbliness problem years ago.
I will google and see if I can work it out. Sounds like it's too dry, so a bit more butter maybe?

I have been looking at websites and they are different ingredients! Argh!

My nana used to make it without a recipe. If the dough seemed too hard and didn't go into a tidy ball (her words) before refrigerating for 15 mins she'd add a little bit more golden syrup and a teeny bit of butter or a dash of milk.