HOME TOUR

A cookie blog hop to start off the holiday season! And I’m excited to share this Sheet Pan Gingerbread House Cookie with you all. We’ve been in jetlag mode as we recover from a whirlwind trip to California for Thanksgiving and a kid-free trip for Matt and I to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to celebrate his 40th birthday. We got in bed at 2 am on Saturday morning, woke up as early as we all could and immediately drove up to the White Mountains in NH to cut down our wild tree.

As much as I love the Christmas season, it can feel a bit overwhelming too. I know my kiddos love having gingerbread houses around and we will probably do some more in the coming weeks but to surprise them I made this delightful Sheet Pan Gingerbread House Cookie. Which takes a bit of the strain off of trying to get pieces glued together and standing upright. I used my molasses gingerbread cookie recipe which spread more than I would have liked but I also didn’t have time to chill the batter and baked them much too long. Yours truly was trying to photograph the Christmas house for a home tour. A classic example of too many balls in the air.

So I’ll link the recipe, which in my humble opinion just tastes better than the gingerbread you use for constructing houses, but I’ll give you some tips to do things differently.

MOLASSES GINGERBREAD RECIPE

1 C Sugar (I do 1/2 C Granulated Sugar + 1/2 C Brown Sugar)

1/2 C Salted Butter, room temperature (1 stick)

1/8 C Walnut oil (I bake with walnut oil but be mindful of food allergies with this one)

~1/8 C Briar Rabbit Blackstrap Molasses (I use the same 1/4 measuring cup as the oil so the molasses slides out easily and measure somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4C molasses)

1 Egg

2 C  White Whole Wheat Flour)

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Ginger

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cloves

1/2 tsp Salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. First combine dry ingredients: flours, spices, salt and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

Next, blend butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Don’t skimp on this, beating it adequately does make a difference. Add your oil and egg, mix until combine then add in the molasses. I really like the Briar Rabbit Brand. It just tastes better to me so if you see that one, try it.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix just until combine. Combine into a ball.

Here the instructions will differ from the original blog post on the Molasses Ginger Cookies because you’re using the entire batch of dough to make a single gingerbread house on a sheet pan. You want to chill the dough for half an hour to start. Wrap the ball of cookie dough, flattening slightly, in parchment paper and put in the freezer. This will help with the spreading when you bake it. Once chilled, you’ll want to take a sheet pan size of parchment paper and roll the dough out on it to about 1/4″. Once you cut your house shape, put the sheet pan in the freezer and chill another 30 minutes. You want it completely chilled before going into your hot oven.

The design of the house is relatively straight forward, made with simple cuts using a paring knife. You don’t want to score the design with so much pressure that you cut into the parchment sheet. Just enough to cut away the dough making a house shape, basically a square with a triangle on top. I went ahead and cut window holes, added the panes out of small strips of dough and added scallops to the eaves. Look how cute it looked BEFORE it went into the oven:

These all baked away and I had to recut the shapes after I pulled it hot from the oven. I didn’t chill my dough and baked it much too long. You can see it was tiny bit burnt and crispy. Here’s the sad AFTER:

But don’t let that discourage you. Mine looked awful and I almost dumped it in the trash and called Janine to say this blog hop is NOT going to happen for me. But with a little icing, sprinkle of powdered sugar and hope and it got much cuter. You only want to bake your sheet pan gingerbread house for 12-15 minutes. It should be set but not done. You can see how mine is very overdone. Notice the difference in the picture below of how the trees in front are a lighter color than the actual house. Those I pulled out when they were still gooey and let them harden on the pan like I should have done for the whole house.

FOR THE ICING

I used 1 C of powdered sugar, some egg white (use meringue powder if you’re worried about raw egg) and some water to thin. I used a piping bag but a ziplock with the end snipped works fine. Just start adding that gingerbread house detail.

You really can’t go wrong just outlining the house in icing, I added the scallop border on the roof and flourish designs on the front. And when you’re all done, sprinkle powered sugar over for the finishing touch.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this easier idea for a gingerbread house. Pro tip, set an alarm so you don’t over bake it! Make sure to pop over and get some holiday cookie inspiration from my friends!