Old Fashioned Gingerbread House Recipe German

Take a tour around the world with this beautiful German Gingerbread House, or Lebkuchenhaus. This traditional gingerbread house template makes a flick-perfect holiday decoration and a sweet treat!

Gingerbread House (Lebkuchenhaus)

Materials:

Stable surface or tray for assembling gingerbread firm
Baking supplies (saucepan, mixing bowl, wooden spoon, spatula, etc.)
Pastry bag or ziplock pocketbook
Printable Gingerbread Business firm Template
Pair of scissors
Lightweight cardboard or cardstock for tracing stencils
Paring pocketknife or pizza cutter

Recipe Ingredients:

Gingerbread dough ingredients:

1 1/iv cups packed brownish sugar
iii/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1/two cup (i stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
one tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon coarse table salt
1 1/4 cups milk
ane tablespoon baking pulverization
half-dozen 1/two cups all-purpose flour

Royal icing ingrdients:

ii cup of powdered sugar, sifted
1 large egg white

Caramel "mortar" ingredients:

1 1/ii cups of granulated saccharide
a modest squeeze of lemon juice

Instructions:

Baking and Shaping the Gingerbread:

Combine brown sugar, molasses, butter, spices, and salt in a medium saucepan over depression rut, stirring with a wooden spoon, until saccharide is dissolved, nigh x minutes. Stir in the milk and remove the mixture from the estrus.
Pour the mixture into a big mixing basin and add the baking pulverization and flour. With an electric mixer, and beginning on low speed and increasing to medium, beat until well combined. Divide dough in fifty-fifty fourths and shape into disks. Wrap in plastic, and air-condition overnight. Dough can be frozen upwardly to 1 calendar month and thaw in the refrigerator before using.
When you lot are gear up to bake the gingerbread, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and curlicue out each dough deejay on a lightly floured surface. The dough will be somewhat tough then you will really have to work to make it thin. Keep rolling in a back and forth motion, turning the disk of dough and flouring the pin and surface in between. Roll until the dough is well-nigh i/8 of an inch thick. If the dough becomes warm from treatment place information technology back into the refrigerator before cutting the stencils to absurd the dough.
Using the template, which you can download here, trace the shapes and cut the stencils out of lightweight cardboard or cardstock. Lay the stencil on top of the rolled out dough and cut the dough with a paring knife or pizza cutter. Place the dough on a parchment lined blistering canvass and bake for most 15 minutes or until browned, rotating the sheet halfway. Let it absurd completely.

Decorating Your Gingerbread Firm:

Beat the egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Add in the sugar and keep to beat until white and glossy.
To decorate your gingerbread, scoop the icing into a pastry bag with a small tip or a large ziplock bag. If using a ziplock bag, push all the icing to one corner and snip the corner at a diagonal creating a very small hole.
Start decorating by creating fish-scale U's on the two roofs. Trace the edges of the windows and doors with icing and add any additional details you lot'd like. We've added dots in addition to the lines, but this is the fun part of gingerbread houses, and then utilize your imagination!
The icing should dry very hard; wait until it has completely dried before assembling the house.

Assembling the House with Caramel "Mortar":

The caramel acts as the glue that holds your house together. When yous are fix to assemble the house, offset making the caramel. Because this cools quickly and hardens you can't make this ahead of fourth dimension.
Put the sugar in a bucket and cook over high estrus, stir the mixture until it starts caramelize and turn a deep amber about 10 minutes. Remove off the heat and brainstorm to utilise immediately.
Dip each adjoining side of the walls of the house in caramel and hold together for a few seconds. The caramel will harden, holding the pieces together. In one case all iv walls are held together. you tin can attach the roof by using a spoon or small castor to trace the V-shape and attach the roof pieces.
Assemble the chimney together and brush the bottom with caramel and adhere to i side of the roof.

Calculation the Finishing Touches:

Now that your house is assembled you tin put on the finishing touches that truly transform this gingerbread firm into a winter wonderland. On a prissy serving tray that yous will be using to display the business firm, sift a thin layer of powdered carbohydrate to comprehend then it looks like a pristine layer of fresh snow. Place the business firm on summit of this layer. Add a few pine cones for trees and a couple of cinnamon sticks for wood logs. Dust another fine layer of powdered sugar over everything.
To make the icicles, carefully and lightly squeeze a small drip of icing property the tip close to the roof. As you get it to your desired length, castor the tip onto the edge of the roof and the icing will stick to and hang from the roof.
Utilize a q-tip or your pinky finger to make niggling footprints in the "snow." Add whatever other touches you'd like and you accept a beautiful and charming masterpiece!