Lebkuchenhaus – Gingerbread House

Ingredients:

Dough: (Day 1)

500 g flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground ginger

125 g butter

125 g sugar (white or castor)

4 tbsp. golden syrup

(small amount of milk)

Icing: (Day 2)

1 egg white

100 g icing sugar

lollies/chocolate for decorations

Equipment:

Mixing bowl

Flour sifter or sieve

Measuring scales

Teaspoon

Tablespoon

Small saucepan

Rolling pin and board

Knife

Template and/or biscuit cutters

2 Oven trays

Egg beater

Piping bag

Sewing pins

Day 1:

  1. Sift flour with baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger into mixing bowl.
  2. Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup together in saucepan.
  3. Pour mixture onto dry ingredients.
  4. Mix well. Use some milk if the mixture is too dry.
  5. Let the dough cool down.
  6. Roll out the dough (just less than 1cm thick) and cut out the shapes for the house/biscuits.
  7. Place on greased trays.
  8. Bake in moderate oven (200ºC) for 10-15 minutes until golden-brown.
  9. Store in a cool, dry place.

Day 2:

  1. Beat the egg white until stiff.
  2. Add the sugar gradually, while continuing to beat the mixture.
  3. Put icing sugar on the edges of the gingerbread and pin the pieces together. (Don’t push the pins right in.)
  4. Decorate the house with remaining icing and lollies/chocolate.
  5. Allow to dry (takes a few hours).

Remove the pins.