No Bake Gingerbread House
Approximate Time: 1 to 1 1/2 hours
Make Royal Icing by beating together 3 egg whites until foamy. Add 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar. Add one whole box of powdered sugar and beat until stiff. Place icing in a pastry bag or a plastic baggie with the end cut off. Use the icing to "glue" the carton to a square of cardboard for the base. Glue graham crackers to the prepared carton. Continue placing crackers on all sides. Place a thick "bead" of icing where the roof tops meet.
Decorate house by pushing small candies, pretzels, cookies, etc. into wet icing. Spread icing all around the "yard" of the house and use gum drops for bushes, pretzels for fences and anything else you can think of. Just be creative and have fun. When finished, use a sifter to dust the entire house and yard with powered sugar to resemble snow. Let the houses dry until icing is hard. Enjoy!
By Momof1 from Wilkesboro, NC
I need a good recipe for ginger bread for a gingerbread house. A nice hard gingerbread, not soft and thick.
Thanks in advance.
Valery from Cranford, NJ
By silverilex
02/02/2006
I used this recipe this past Christmas and it worked great and smelled fantastic all the way through the holidays. This isn't traditional gingerbread, but it's great to use. You don't have to refrigerate it for too long, it rolls out thin, and bakes into sturdy cookies to make the walls and roof.
Also, I'm putting in a recipe for 'icing glue' that I found on the web. It sets fast and is hard as concrete. We made 8 houses and none of them crumbled or fell apart.
Ingredients
Instructions
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Cream brown sugar and butter together in a large bowl. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Add the dry ingredients gradually and mix until combined.
Divide the dough in two halves. Flatten each half and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two baking sheets. Lightly flour a work surface and your rolling pin. Roll out each dough piece until very thin. Cut cookies with a cookie cutter, roll out remaining dough and cut again. Repeat with the second dough piece.
Put cookies on the baking sheets and bake until the edges start to darken, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool.
Decorate any way you like.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to foam. Add the cream of tartar and beat until the whites are stiff but not dry. gradually beat in the icing sugar, beating for about 5 minutes until it reaches spreading consistency. Keep it covered and refrigerate until needed. Dries very fast.
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Making a Gingerbread House