Mini gingerbread houses aren’t as hard to make as you may think. We took a leap of faith and attempted this home renovation project in honor of Gingerbread House Day on December 12. Having been through home renovation process several times, I can’t lie and have to admit I was a bit dubious. I figured mini gingerbread houses would equal mega work. But come to find out, I was pleasantly surprised. We walk you through the construction project step by step.
MINI GINGERBREAD MUG TOPPER COOKIE RECIPE
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup fancy molasses
1 large egg yolk
Sift the first eight ingredients into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and molasses until fluffy and light. Beat in egg yolk. Stir in the dry ingredients until mixed well.
PRO TIP: I divided the dough into two sections, rolling out each section between two pieces of parchment paper. Then, I placed the two pieces of dough in the freezer for an hour. This made it easier to cut the cookies.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the top sheet of parchment and cut dough with a mini-gingerbread house cutter set. This cookie cutter set is simply essential for this project:
Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. The dough will puff up in the oven, but will cool to the desired thickness. Cool on a wire rack. (Recipe courtesy: Iamfoodgblog.com)
THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT:
To assemble, I started with the front of the house and attached the sides. Frosting was my friend, think of it as sparkle. After piecing together all of the sides, I let them “cure” over night to become as solid as possible.
Like any home improvement project, there was a learning curve. Also, there was some clean-up involved. I found Q-tips and water, or wet paper towels, made removing stray icing pretty easy.
A tip I ran across was to decorate the roofs prior to putting them on the house bases. That proved to be really smart, as it eliminated any chance of unwanted drips.
Cut gumdrops made cute chimneys. Starlight mints and other candies can also be used as decorations.
The end result is perfect to sit on the side of these red cocoa mugs.
The mini houses are truly a great addition to any holiday celebration.
In particular, I think these mini gingerbread houses would be great for a girls’ night in and are part of our Hallmark Movie Night plans! How cute is the vintage truck in the background!
Leave a Reply