Gingerbread house

Here we are, tomorrow is December ! It’s time to enjoy logs, nougats, chocolates, shortbread, hot drinks and other Christmas delicacies J To start this advent calendar, I unveil my gingerbread house made last week (while I was waiting for the results of my CAP Pâtisserie, with this kind of "cake" you have your hands and mind busy ;)). Last year I had made a small gingerbread village with mini houses, this year it's the opposite, I've made a big house (30cm high) decorated of course with royal icing but also with candy windows. I give you below the gingerbread recipe as well as all the necessary measures to facilitate the assembly of your house.

Prep time : a few hours + a lot of patience for assembly, crystallization and decoration ! Plan several hours spread over a minimum of 2 days
For a large house of 30cm height :

Gingerbread :

1,4kg flour

2 large eggs (about 120g)

500g honey

240g brown sugar

200g butter

8g baking powder

170g milk

15g gingerbread spices

1 pinch of salt

A packet of hard candy in the color of your choice

Melt the honey with the butter and brown sugar over low heat.

Mix the eggs with the sifted milk, flour, baking powder, salt and spices.

Then add the butter-sugar-honey mixture and mix until a homogeneous ball is obtained.

Film the dough and place it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Spread the dough on about 1cm thick and detail the different elements:

- 2 walls front and back : 30x22cm rectangles. Then cut so as to have a triangle from 18cm high. In one of the two rectangles cut a rounded imprint for the door (9cm high), a round window of 5cm diameter and two windows of 5x3,5cm. If you wish to put light in your house, make a hole in the back wall to pass the wire. Thickness about 1 small cm.

- 2 side walls : rectangles of 18x30cm in which you cut 3 windows of 8x5cm. Thickness of about 1 small cm.

- 2 elements of the roof : rectangles of 35x19cm in which you cut round windows of 4cm diameter. I made these elements a little thinner than the others.

With the scraps of dough, I made a door and different elements for a chimney.

Put the elements in the freezer for 30 minutes before putting them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 180°C. During this time, mix the candies to get powder.

Take the gingerbread out of the oven and fill the holes for the windows with candy powder.

Return to the oven for about 3 minutes (the candy powder should be completely melted). Then let it cool completely before removing the elements from the baking paper.

Royal icing :

45g egg whites

15g lemon juice

330g powdered sugar

The quantity is to be adjusted according to the way you intend to decorate your house.

Mix the ingredients, adjusting the amount of sugar to get the right texture if necessary.

Decorate the different walls with a piping bag and glue them together with royal icing.

Start with the 4 walls, be generous with the royal icing and let it harden for several hours. I put a small tree in my house at this time and I put my electric garland through the trapdoor behind to arrange the lights.

Then add the roof, wait again for several hours and finish decorating the house (I added at that time my chimney and the door). Allow to harden for several hours. That's it, your house is finished !