I have been using this Gingerbread recipe for close to twenty years. It came in a Wilton gingerbread house kit. It works great for a house as well as cookies and makes plenty for both. The gingerbread flavor is spot on!
When my kids were little, every year I would make a gingerbread house and let them decorate it.
I would buy bags and bags of candy, nilla wafers for the roof and tootsie rolls for ‘logs’ to put along the house. They loved it.
We have decorated a few now that they’re older, but not every year like we used to. Maybe it’s time to start the tradition again.
If you’ve never made royal icing, you really need to make it for this recipe. You need it to hold a gingerbread house together, but also it’s the icing that compliments gingerbread the best!
It dries hard, so you can stack cookies on top of each other without messing up the frosting as with most cookies.
This make them great Holiday treats for school or neighbors and friends.
Tips for rolling out and baking your house or cookies:
Get a kitchen towel damp and lay it on the counter, take your cookie sheet and turn it over, sot the back side is up.
Roll your dough right on the back of the cookie sheet and pull away the excess dough. This way, you wont have to move your cookies or walls.
This is really important when you’re building a house, so that the walls are straight and match up with the other side, just like a real house!
You can buy house kits, with templates at your craft store.
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 4 dozen | 15 mins |
| Cook Time |
| 10 mins |
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I have been using this Gingerbread recipe for close to twenty years. It came in a Wilton gingerbread house kit. It works great for a house as well as cookies and makes plenty for both.
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- 5 to 5 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 C shortening
- 1 C Sugar
- 1 1/4 C unsulphured molasses
- 2 eggs beaten
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Thoroughly mix flour, salt, soda and spices.
- Melt shortening in a large saucepan over low heat until just melted, not hot. Add in order, sugar, molasses and eggs. Mix well. Cool slightly, then add four cups dry ingredients and mix well.
- Turn mixture onto lightly floured surface. Knead in remaining dry ingredients by hand. Add a little more flour, if necessary to make a firm dough.
- If you're not going to make your gingerbread house or cookies right away, wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate. Refrigerated dough will kepp up to a week, but be sure to remove it 3 hours prior to rolling it, so it softens and is workable.
- Roll out about 1/4" thick in desired shapes. Bake 10-12 minutes for large pieces and 6-8 for small pieces. Do not over bake.
- If you're making a gingerbread house, wait 48 hours after you bake it to assemble your house, or it will be too soft and will break.
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