How to Make a Gluten-Free Gingerbread House (step-by-step)


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Elizabeth Barbone

December 18, 2012

Elizabeth Carroll shared her family's tradition for making a gingerbread house. Sounds fun, doesn't it? And we all need a little fun and love right now.

If you have children, this project is wonderful. If you don't have children, this project is wonderful. There's just one thing to remember.

It takes time.

And that's a good thing! The time it takes to make the dough, assemble the house, and decorate means lots of talking and laughing.

On, and there's one other thing to remember.

Don't stress about it.

No matter what it looks like, your gingerbread house will be perfect. Why? Because it's yours. It doesn't need to be blog-worthy or magazine-worthy or anything else. So what if the roof dips a little? If the candy looks gaudy. It's a gingerbread house. It's should be fun. Remember that.

And...remember to laugh and eat candy while you put it together. It's good for the soul, I promise.

Ready to make a gluten-free gingerbread house?

Here's how it's done:

You'll need:

gingerbread dough
pizza cutter
parchment paper
rimmed baking sheet
gingerbread house template (see link at the bottom of the page)
rolling pin
cake cardboard
royal icing
piping bag
pasty tip (half-inch round)
candy, if desired

If you are using my recipe, divide the one of the dough round in half. Center the dough on a piece of parchment paper.

Lightly dust the dough with white rice flour.

Cover the dough with parchment paper and roll dough out to 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch thickness.

Remove the top piece of parchment.

Use a ruler and pizza wheel to trim the edges of the dough.

Lightly dust the dough with white rice flour. (This prevents the paper template from sticking to the dough.) Place the template on the dough. Cut.

Pull excess dough away.

For this piece (I'm working with the roof pieces here.), there was excess dough between the two roof pieces. You want to remove this extra dough.

Roll the dough away, if needed.

Quickly slide the parchment, with the gingerbread pieces, onto a baking sheet. By sliding the parchment onto the baking sheet, you won't disturb the cut outs, ensuring they are the correct shape for assembling your house later on in the process.

Repeat. Here are the sides of the house.

And the front.

Use a small knife to cut any windows or doors.

Remove all templates.

For my house, I wanted the back windowless. This is just a preference. So for this piece, I used the same template I used for the front of the house but I didn't cut in windows or a door.

Bake gingerbread pieces. Allow to cool completely.

Place royal icing in a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip.

Decide where you want to place the house on the cardboard. Lay the back and one side of the gingerbread on the cardboard (face down).

Pipe royal icing along the cardboard below the gingerbread pieces. This ribbon of royal icing helps hold the house up.

Repeat under the side wall.

Pipe a ribbon of icing along the edge of the gingerbread back wall.

Stand the gingerbread pieces up (centering them in the royal icing you pipped on the cardboard). Hold the back and side wall together for a minute.

Repeat for the side wall. Pipe another ribbon of icing on the cardboard and one on the side of the back wall.

Stand up side wall. Hold for a moment.

Center the front of the house. (Again, the gingerbread piece should be face down.)

Pipe icing on the cardboard and along the edges of the wall. Stand up front wall.

Inspect the house. See this space? We need to fix this.

Use your piping bag to squeeze icing into any space between the gingerbread pieces.

Allow icing to dry for an hour or so.

Pipe icing along the edge of the side walls.

Pipe icing along the top of the roof piece.

Position roof. Hold in place for a moment.

Allow the house to dry.

Now you have a blank canvas. Have fun creating your house. There's no wrong way to do it.

Enjoy.

Links you'll need

Gluten-Free Gingerbread House Recipe

Template (I used. Link goes to a PDF. Template appears on the last pages.)

Other templates

Royal Icing

PS Like this FREE step-by-step? I'd love if it you joined GlutenFreeBaking.com as a member or purchased my cookbooks. Your support keeps the site going! Thank you.