Make a Homemade Gingerbread House for Christmas This Year

Do you want to make your own gingerbread house for Christmas this year?  If so, here are the steps to follow. 

First, find a Christmas house pattern and trace it out on parchment paper.  Use this to cut your pieces.

Next, you need to gather your ingredients.  For this Christmas treat, you will need one and a half cups of whipping cream, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, two and a half cups of brown sugar, two tablespoons of baking soda, a tablespoon of ground ginger, two teaspoons of ground cinnamon, one and a third cups of molasses and nine cups of all purpose flour.

Whip the vanilla and cream together until peaks form.  In another bowl, add your brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.  Add the molasses and whipped cream; mix well.  Now, add the flour to the mixture, while the mixer is running.

Flour a pastry board and roll out a portion of the dough you have made.  Make it thin, but thick enough that it does not tear when picking it up.  You now need to drape it over a rolling pin or another object and put it on your baking sheet.  This should be a twelve by fifteen rimless baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

You now need to roll the dough until it is an even thickness.  Bake two sheets of dough at the same time (based on your Christmas gingerbread house pattern).  Each sheet should bake at two hundred and seventy five degrees, though thicker pieces (eighth inch thick) should bake at three hundred degrees. 

Thicker Christmas gingerbread house pieces should bake for about two hours; thinner ones for an hour.

Remove from the oven and cool.  Next, follow your guide and use icing to secure each piece of your Christmas gingerbread house.  Let you little ones decorate it, and be sure to take a photo before you all tuck into your Christmas gingerbread house… it won’t last long!