Gingerbread House recipe

This tastes fab, so I'm sharing it. We've made two small houses and loads of extra biccies with this lot and I'll pop the link for a house template on when I get back to my normal PC.

450g runny honey
4 eggs
350g caster sugar
1 kg plain flour
zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
100g ground almonds
100g ground hazlenuts
8 tsp ground mixed spice
Pinch of salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat the runny honey gently. Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy, add the honey and then combine the wet mixture with the remaining dry ingredients. Fold them gently with a wooden spoon and knead into a soft dough. Wrap in clingfilm and leave for 24 hours in the fridge (but it will keep in there for up to 4 weeks).



Gently knead to soften and then roll out onto a lightly floured surface until about 5mm thick. Use the template to cut out the different house sections. Place them on greaseproof paper rubbed with a trace of oil/margarine. Bake for about 10 mins at 180 deg. C/Gas 4, until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack. It will cool to a crip biscuit (and taste very good).


We used royal icing to stick the house together. The children enjoyed using a piping bag, but got a bit frustrated when it took time for all the bits to stick together. We found doing it in small stages was best, otherwise walls may collapse and the roof slide! Giving the icing time to dry a little and actually harden before adding the roof made it alot easier, and we also found using small cocktail sticks cut to the right height and covered with foil to prop up the roof as it dried was a good idea.


Once that's all done and completely dry, use royal icing or similar to put snow on the roof and to stick on all the different sweets, hundreds and thousands or chocolate that you can find.


Apparently, the house will keep for months, but surely temptation will win and you'll eat it pretty quickly!

Katie's house is on the left, Ben's on the right.