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This from-scratch Gingerbread House Recipe is decorated with a fun assortment of nuts and made with the best gingerbread cookie dough ever! Complete with a printable template to build the house, it’s a classic holiday activity and makes for a beautiful centerpiece.
Why You’ll Love This Gingerbread House
- Made with the BEST gingerbread. The actual gingerbread in this gingerbread house is unbeatable. Inspired by my classic Gingerbread Cookies, it’s the perfect combination of chewy and crunchy and has the best blend of spices, molasses, and brown sugar. Sugar and spice and everything nice!
- Totally doable. Sure, assembling a gingerbread house will take you some time and energy. It’s an edible piece of architecture, after all. But this gingerbread house is relatively easy to put together and the recipe for the dough uses a super simple mixing method. This is the perfect recipe for any skill level.
- Fun and creative. I love how interactive this gingerbread house recipe is. It’s so fun to build the house and then decorate it however you’d like. I used a variety of nuts to create a rustic look, but there’s a ton of room for experimentation! Check out the section below titled “Decorating Ideas” for inspiration.
Is it Hard to Make a Gingerbread House From Scratch?
It’s actually surprisingly easy! It’ll take you some time, but the dough is made with a super simple mixing method, and I made this handy template to help you cut out the shapes. All that’s left to do is stick it all together with royal icing (the perfect glue for the job) and decorate as you please. Anyone can do it!
Ingredient Notes
Here’s what you’ll need to make this festive edible centerpiece. Don’t forget to scroll to the recipe card below for a printable ingredient list.
For the gingerbread
- Salted butter – Allow the butter to come to room temperature before mixing it with the other ingredients. Otherwise, you’ll end up with lumpy dough. I like using salted butter, but unsalted butter will also work. Just remember to add a pinch of salt to the dough when you’re mixing it all together.
- Light brown sugar – Dark brown sugar will also work here. It’ll yield a deeper, more molasses-y flavor.
- Molasses – You can use light molasses for a sweeter, more mild flavor or dark molasses for a more bitter, intense gingerbread.
- Spices – Ground cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
- Baking soda – You need a little baking soda in there to give the gingerbread the perfect rise.
- All-purpose flour
- Water
Assembly and decoration
- House Template – Print out the template and use it to cut the walls, roof, door, etc. from the gingerbread dough.
- Nuts to decorate – Sliced almonds, chopped macadamia nuts, shelled pistachios, cashew halves, pecan halves, and finely diced walnuts.
- Royal Icing – You’ll use royal icing to put the house together and “glue” decorations to it. It works like a charm and dries fast! Make your own or grab some from the store.
- Brown icing gel – To camouflage the royal icing “glue” with the gingerbread. You can leave it out if you’d prefer white icing.
- Sugar ice cream cones – To make Christmas trees!
How to Make a Gingerbread House
Here’s a quick look at how to make this gingerbread house from scratch. For more detailed instructions, scroll to the recipe card below.
- Make the gingerbread dough. Mix together the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda. Add the flour and water and mix until a firm dough forms.
- Chill. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes or until firm.
- Prep. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll. Let the dough come to room temperature, and then roll it out to ~1/8-1/4 inch thick on the prepared baking sheet.
- Cut. Print out this gingerbread house pattern and cut out the shapes. Place the shapes on top of the dough and cut the dough to fit the pattern.
- Bake. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Perfect. Remove from the oven and place the paper patterns back over the cookies. Trim the cookies to fit the shapes (they will have spread a bit in the oven).
- Cool. Allow cookies to cool completely.
- Make the icing. Make my famous royal icing and color it with brown icing gel, if you’d like.
- Assemble. Use the royal gel icing to “glue” the house together. Start with the door section and then build the main house. Let the main house dry for 5-10 minutes before adding the roof. Glue the door section to the main house and let everything dry for another 10 minutes before gluing the house to a cardboard cake circle. You’ll find more detailed assembly instructions in the recipe card below.
- Decorate. Use the various nuts to make a shingled roof, window and door outlines, flower decorations, and wreaths. See the section below titled “Decorating Ideas” for more details.
- Landscape. Use more nuts to make a sidewalk leading to the house and “snow” surrounding it. Use royal icing to glue crushed pistachios to the sugar cones to make trees. Again, see the section below titled “Decorating Ideas” for more details.
- Dry. Allow the entire house to dry, then display in your home.
Decorating Ideas
I wanted to decorate this gingerbread house using all nuts. So, I used sliced almonds to create a “tiled” roof, almond slivers to outline doors and windows, pistachios to make green wreaths and flowers, and cashew halves as garlands. I also used pecans to make a path leading up the house and chopped walnuts for “snow” around it. Check out the recipe card below for more details. So many nuts!
You don’t have to stick with my nutty (haha) theme, though! Here are some other fun decoration ideas for you:
- Colorful candies. Make a gum-drop roof and use various other colored candies to decorate. Green and red M&Ms would be fun! So would candy canes.
- Festive sprinkles. Pick up some red, green, and white sprinkles to scatter wherever you please. Edible glitter is another great way to go.
- Marshmallows. You could make a snowman out of marshmallows! Or glue (with royal icing) mini marshmallows to sugar cones to make snow-covered trees.
- Icing. Feel free to use royal icing instead of nuts to outline your windows and doors and draw on wreaths.
Regardless of how you choose to decorate your gingerbread house, royal icing is the perfect thing to use to glue fun additions to the house and surrounding “yard.” So make plenty of it! You can color it with gel food coloring if you’d like.
How Long Will a Gingerbread House Last?
Your gingerbread house will stay edible for about a week. Then, it will start to go stale. Don’t worry about that too much, though. If you don’t plan on eating it, you can leave it up all season long as a fun, festive decoration. You can even wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap and store it in the freezer for next year!
Can I Eat It?
Of course! So long as you eat it within one week! It will start to go stale after that point.
Nutty Gingerbread House
- Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Nutty Gingerbread House is made from scratch and decorated with a fun assortment of nuts! It’s a fun holiday activity to do with friends and family and makes a beautiful centerpiece! I’ve even got a template for you to work with!
Ingredients
GINGERBREAD HOUSE
- 1 cup salted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 4 tbsp water
- House Template
NUTTY DECOR
- Diamond of California sliced almonds
- Diamond of California chopped macadamias
- Diamond of California slivered almonds
- Diamond of California shelled pistachios
- Diamond of California cashew halves
- Diamond of California pecan halves
- Diamond of California finely diced walnuts
ADDITIONAL
- Royal Icing
- Brown icing gel, optional
- 2 sugar ice cream cones
Instructions
- In a large mixer bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda together until smooth.
- Add the flour and water and blend until it makes a firm dough.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes or until firm.
- When ready to bake the cookies, bring the cookie dough back to room temperature so it’s easier to work with. Print out the gingerbread house pattern and cut out the shapes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Roll the cookie dough out onto a large cookie sheet lined with either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.
- Place the patterns onto the cookie dough and cut out the shapes. I like to use a clean pizza cutter to get clean edges. You’ll likely need to do this 2 or 3 times to get all the shapes completed.
- Once the pieces are cut, leave them in place. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned on the edge and seem firm.
- Remove cookies from the oven and place the paper patterns back over the cookies. Use the pizza cutter to trim the cookie edges to make sure they’re sharp. Be careful – the cookies are hot!
- Allow cookies to cool completely.
- Make the royal icing according to the directions. Color the icing with the brown icing gel, if you’d like the icing to blend in with the house a little more.
- To put the house together, start with the front door section. Attach the two side pieces to the front and hold in place for 30 seconds or so until they stick together. Attach the two roof pieces, then set aside to dry.
- To put together the main house, attach the sides to one of the front/back pieces and hold in place for about 30 seconds or so until they stick together. Attach the other front/back piece and set aside to dry 5-10 minutes.
- Once the main part of the house feels firm, attach the two roof pieces.
- Attach the front door section, then set house aside to firm for about 10 minutes.
- When firm, attach the bottom of the house to a cardboard cake circle, or something similar where the house will stay attached.
- To make the roof, add one row of almond slices at a time. Pipe lines of icing horizontally as you go and attach almonds starting at the bottom of the roof and work your way to the top. Complete the full roof of the house and the roof over the door. Attach chopped macadamia nuts to the center of the main roof to cover where the gingerbread pieces join.
- Use slivered almonds to create the window and door outlines. You may need to break some pieces to get some that are the same size.
- Use shelled pistachios to create the little flower decorations above the front and back windows. Make a “wreath” out of pistachios for the side of the house.
- Use the cashew halves to create “garland” along the side of the house, between the windows and “wreaths”.
- Use pecan halves to create the sidewalk in front of the house, then use the finely diced walnuts to create the “snow” around the house. I added my finely diced walnuts to a food processor to make them even finer, but you could just leave them as is.
- To make the trees, crush up some of the shelled pistachios. Add a layer of icing to the sugar cones, working one at a time, then sprinkle them with the chopped pistachios. Place the trees beside the house.
- Allow the entire house to dry, then display in your home.
This is by far the best gingerbread house recipe I’ve ever made. It’s very flavorful and is very pretty. The only thing is that I wouldn’t put the dough into the fridge. I put it into the fridge and It stiffened the dough so much that I had the put the dough back into the mixer and add more water. Other than that though, I think this is yet another one of your superb recipes.
I’m so glad you enjoyed!
Can I use the same recipe and instead cut out gingerbread man?
You could use this recipe for gingerbread men, but they are fairly firm cookies so it depends on the texture you want to have.
This is so gorgeous! I love making gingerbread houses around the holidays!
So much patience with all those flaked almonds! Bueatiful recipe just like all your recipes!
This is beautiful! Even the kiddos in our family would love to help decorate it! And I know I will be pleased that they will have less sugar! 😉
What! this is so beautiful Lindsay! I love it! I would never want to eat it 🙂
Thanks Karen! 🙂
Oh my goodness, you are so creative. That is super pretty!!
Thanks so much Joanna!
This is so beautiful! It looks delicious, too! You are such a great baker and artist!
Thank you Dee! 🙂