How To Make Gingerbread House Cookies -Build A Village

Last updated on December 14th, 2021 at 02:43 am

Gingerbread house cookies are scrumptious and cute. These festive holiday cookies are perfect for Christmas baking and parties during the holiday season. Make them to serve as individual cookies or build a village with the tiny houses. Learn how to make gingerbread house cookies, and add a little architectural flair to your baking.

I have always loved gingerbread at Christmas.

Most often seen as little gingerbread men, gingerbread always adds that special touch to the holidays.

Throughout the years I’ve seen them not only on cookie platters, but also decorating Christmas trees and festive holiday bannisters along with ribbons and boughs.

Then there are the traditional gingerbread houses made with gingerbread panels which are fastened together with icing, and which are another holiday favourite. Decorated with peppermints, candy canes, gumdrops, jellies and icing, these houses are always fun to make and come in all shapes and sizes.

Gingerbread House Cookies

This year however I was inspired by Linda Lomelino’s special handmade gingerbread cookie cutouts atop her exquisite gingerbread village cake. These cookies are hand cut and decorated in a simple fashion.

These little gingerbread house cookies are one dimensional houses in the form of cookies.

Each cookie is unique, and they are just so cute. So I definitely had to give these a try.

They are fun to decorate, and fairly easy to make, so even the kids will be able to try their hand at decorating these sweet houses.

You can also use these cookies in your holiday decorating, placing them on the tree or adding to a gift tag like we did with our dried orange slices. They are natural and festive, and smell absolutely divine.

What Are The Ingredients For Gingerbread House Cookies?

The ingredients for gingerbread house cookies include brown sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, molasses, eggs, flour, and a number of different spices. There are many different gingerbread house cookie recipes available. Some have butter, and some do not. The most commonly used spices in these recipes include ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Make gingerbread house cookies out of your favourite gingerbread cookie recipe, or gingerbread house recipe.

If you don’t have one, I will share mine from an old Newfoundland recipe.

This recipe is very old.

You can also use store bought gingerbread dough.

Decorate the cookies with royal icing from a piping bag. You can use a ready made piping bag or a DIY piping bag using a freezer bag.

How To Make Gingerbread House Cookies

Here are the ingredients that I used to make the gingerbread cookie dough. It is made from a very old Newfoundland recipe without butter.

These cookies are known to taste even better when they are a couple of days old.

I added the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, which are commonly found spices in gingerbread recipes. I also substituted lemon extract for vanilla extract.

Gingerbread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 tsp ginger

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs well beaten

• 1 cup molasses

• 4 cups sifted flour

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Make The Dough

• In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients except for the flour, including the brown sugar, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.

• Add the eggs, vanilla, and molasses, and mix well until smooth.

• Cover and let rise for two hours.

• Then add the flour, and mix flour with the other ingredients to make a soft dough.

Roll The Dough

• Roll out on a floured flat surface, or between two sheets of parchment paper using a rolling pin, ensuring an even thickness.

• This is a somewhat stiff dough, although rolls out quite well.

• Roll the dough nice and thin, about 1/4 inch for crispier cookies.

Cut Out The Cookies

• To cut out these little cookies there is no need for a gingerbread house template. They can be cut free hand.

• Alternatively, you can use a gingerbread house cookie cutter if you have one.

• If cutting free hand, cut the cookies into simple little house shapes using a sharp knife or pizza cutter.

• It is not difficult to make the shape of a house.

• Cut shapes of varying sizes and widths. Include little chimneys on a few.

• Make the houses narrow and tall, and vary the shapes for a better aesthetic. Mix smaller with larger houses for an interesting look.

• Any leftover dough from the edges of your cuttings can be used to make other shapes for your village, like trees or other structures.

• Gather up the extra dough, sprinkle with flour, and roll dough again. Cut into shapes.

• Bake cookies at 350°F on a greased or parchment covered cookie sheet for 10 to 12 minutes.

• This recipe made enough gingerbread dough for twenty four small houses, three trees, and two codfish.

• Store in an airtight container until ready to decorate.

How Do You Cut Gingerbread Without A Cookie Cutter?

Gingerbread can be cut with any sharp tool, such as a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. The irregularity of the lines adds to the uniqueness of each little house. Sketching out some simple designs to guide you before you start cutting can help with the shape and design.

Royal Icing For Gingerbread House Cookies

Royal icing is perfect for this project, and you can apply the icing with the piping bag to make an outline on your gingerbread house cookies.

The key is to get the icing to a consistency that will not spread, and will lay on the cookie much the same as it came out of the piping bag.

Royal icing is a beautiful smooth icing that flows well, and is not too thick or difficult to work with when making your cookie designs.

It’s important to have a very small tip to squeeze the icing onto the cookies for a finer design. Mine wasn’t quite small enough, although I still like how they turned out.

Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 egg white

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• water – a small amount at room temperature, adding just enough to make the icing a nice consistency for piping.

Directions

Mix The Icing

• In a medium bowl, place 2 cups of powered or icing sugar.

• Add the egg white to the icing sugar and whisk.

• Start adding the water in small amounts, whisking well to work the water in.

• Make sure to get all of the sugar from the edges of the bowl as you continue to stir.

• You can add more icing sugar if the mixture becomes too watery, or more water if it becomes too thick.

Pipe The Icing

• Put the icing into a piping bag and using a small tip squeeze it onto the cookies, outlining the front door, windows, icicles, and decorations on the little houses.

• This procedure definitely takes some practice and can be a little bit messy, although each imperfect line adds character to your village.

• If you don’t have a piping bag you can use a plastic baggie with a tiny hole cut in one corner, and fill with the icing.

• Using your own style, decorate your gingerbread house cookies. Your cookies will be totally unique.

How To Build A Village With Gingerbread House Cookies

The best way to build a gingerbread village with gingerbread house cookies is to attach them horizontally onto a base, such as a cake.

Make little row houses all around the base, and then add them to another level at the top of the base.

Just about any base will do, and it doesn’t even have to be edible.

However I love the idea of building the village on a tall multilayer gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting, so that is what I used.

Attach The Cookies

Adhere the cookies with a small dollop of frosting, placing them all around the cake.

Then put a second level of cookies standing up together, on the top layer of the cake. Secure with frosting and toothpicks or skewers as needed, and if using toothpicks or skewers be sure to remove them before eating.

Top off with a dusting of snow (icing sugar), and some sugared walkways for a sweet finishing touch.

These gingerbread house cookies were fun to bake and decorate, and even more fun to build as a village surrounding and topping the gingerbread cake.

I can definitely see this becoming a holiday tradition.

Since these cookies were made from gingerbread from a Newfoundland recipe, I thought it fitting to make gingerbread row houses similar to those where my mom grew up on Queen’s Road in St. John’s Newfoundland.

This is also why there just had to be little gingerbread codfish.

Here is a family painting of these colourful attached row houses.

Try your hand at making these cookies, and impress family and friends with your architectural flair.

Have you ever made gingerbread cookies, or built a gingerbread village? Be sure to leave a comment below to share your experience.

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