Christmas is such a busy time of the year, my recipes are scattered across old notebooks, cloud archives, and stained index cards that are tucked into cookbooks that only I can find. What a mess! But Christmas Gingerbread still happens year after year, regardless of the chaos. I make cookies and gingerbread houses with this recipe and have used it for over 30 years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do…it has served me well.
Christmas Gingerbread is an annual tradition!
If you want to make Christmas Gingerbread cookies, then try making one batch and see how you like it. Although I say that this recipe makes twelve portions, it really depends how big your cookies cutters are. I like making gingerbread people, bears, hearts and stars, but I also have a set of animal cracker sized cookie cutters. I can make hundreds of tiny cookies with just one batch of dough!
Christmas Snow Icing is essential also
Of course, if you want to ice your Christmas Gingerbread cookies, you will need a recipe for Christmas Snow Icing, which is a simple royal icing that I use annually as well. Nothing fancy, but it is the essential recipe for assembling your gingerbread house or decorating your cookies. Once the Christmas Snow Icing is made, you will need to adjust the amount of water needed depending on the task at hand: thicker icing for putting together walls and roofs, or thinner icing for piping delicate decorations on your cookies and houses. It will take you several years to master the correct texture, and for me that is an annual challenge!
Making a gingerbread house does take skill, and the process is too long for me to explain in this simple recipe for Christmas Gingerbread. Nonetheless, it all starts with this recipe, so its good to know where I can find it next year!
This is the most clever gingerbread house I think I have seen.
thank you so much Chris!!
MG