Gingerbread / Lebkuchen, as it is called traditionally in Germany, is one of the favourites among the masses and qualifies for the most common sight caught in the Christmas markets here! Gingerbread House, though originated in Europe as a tradition involving the winter festivities, in the present days, it is quite popular world-wide.
End of November starts the winter festivities! Chill weather, colourful, flavourful magical Christmas markets and at home, the kids demand 2 things – Lebkuchen and Kinderpunsch!
You might have already learnt about the Kinderpunsch in my earlier posts. If not, please refer here!
Lebkuchen / Gingerbread is a unique cookie with spices infused and the taste enhanced by the molasses.
Here, you will find a very simple, yet tasty recipe of the gingerbread cookies and the step-by-step procedure to build the gingerbread house! In place of molasses, here we have used the maple syrup.
The steps are simple and easy, tried and tested many a times, and each time, done by the kids themselves.
Attached, you will find the measurements of the parts of the gingerbread house. You may mark, take the cutouts and use them while following the procedure.
All the measurements above are in inches.
Ingredients:
For the gingerbread house / cookies:
Flour: 2 cups
Brown Sugar: 0.75 cup
Gingerbread spices: 4 tbsp.
Cocoa powder: 2 tsp.
Maple Syrup: 2 tbsp.
Oil: 5 tbsp.
Milk: 0.25 cup
Baking powder 1.5 tsp
For lemon glaze / glue:
Powdered sugar: 1 cup
Lemon juice: 2 tbsp.
Gingerbread spices:
Nutmeg powder: 0.5 tsp
Star anise powder: 1 tsp.
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp.
Coriander powder: 1 tsp.
Dry Ginger powder: 1 tsp.
Cloves powder: 1 tbsp.
Cinnamon powder: 4 tbsp.
Orange peel / Lemon Peel: Little (Optional)
Method:
Measurements:
- With a paper, scale and pen, create cutouts for the house shapes with the measurement as provided / mentioned above and keep aside
Gingerbread dough:
- In a bowl add milk, maple syrup, oil and sugar. Combine well
- Now, to the above add the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, gingerbread spices, cocoa powder. Combine well until you obtain a rollable cookie dough (if required, you may add a little milk in case the dough crumbles)
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 180 deg. C
- On a dusted board roll out the dough into about 0.25-inch-thick sheet.
- Using the above created cutouts, mark the dough sheet using a pizza cutter / knife and create the various parts of the house as shown. We would need 1 base, 2 side pieces, 2 roof pieces, 2 pieces for the front and back. Once done, place the cut pieces in a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven at 180 deg. C for 8 minutes
Sugar Glaze :
- As the cookies are being baked, you can ready the glue! Prepare the glue / sugar glaze by bringing together the ingredients mentioned under “sugar glaze”.
- You may transfer the same in a small piping bag (you may create your own with a polythene bag)
Gingerbread House:
- Once the cookies are baked, transfer them to the cooling rack and let them cool for about 10-15 minutes
- If you want to decorate the house in detail, I recommend doing the decoration of individual parts and let them dry completely and finally assemble them. I, here, am showing a very simple and basic one as these were done by the kids!
- So, first, take the base piece and the front piece. By adding sufficient glue, join them together. Hold them for 5-10 minutes until they are firm (it would be a fun group activity)
- Next, glue in the side parts and hold them for another 5-10 minutes
- Further, glue in the back piece and hold them firm for 5-10 minutes. Once the base part is done, let it sit for 15-20 minutes before you add the roof
- Meanwhile, you can decorate the roof. You can get as creative as you wish! Our daughter loves to include more and more of smarties!
- Now its time for the final inclusion: Glue in the roof and hold it firm for at least 15 minutes!
At home this is one of the favourite activities for the kids around this season – bake cookies and listen to music!
- Our daughter wanted one more inclusion! The snow effect! She wanted to sieve (shower) in the powdered sugar to bring in the effect of snow over the house, to make it more realistic! And I absolutely loved the idea! You may skip it if you don’t wish!
Tada! The gingerbread house is ready! Relish this vegelicious Gingerbread house with your friends and family!
With the remaining dough, you can bake cookies, with the shapes of your choice!
Gingerbread House Stories:
Come winter, with the chill weather outside, the kids prefer to have play dates at home! And every season, our daughter would love to bake gingerbread house with one or the other friend of hers! They enjoy baking, decorating together. The kids store it safely in a box for a few days, before finally making up their mind to cut and relish the same. We have a great time together baking, building and decorating the gingerbread house. From the gingerbread spices to the glue used to bind the gingerbread house together, everything is homemade! Our little one loves these cookies even more. If the stock lasts, we pack one or two in his snack box, but that doesn’t stop him from adding few more to it! Homemade food always comes with one secret ingredient – Love!
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