The British Royal Family always whips out the classic festive food this holiday season, and this year the royal kitchens have revealed their recipe for the “perfect” gingerbread house.
The Buckingham Palace chefs shared a step-by-step guide on how to bake and decorate the gingerbread house from scratch. The recipe is included in videos posted to the Royal Family’s official Twitter and Instagram. The video created by the chefs features guidance on how to decorate the house, with a time-lapse showing the delicate piping techniques used. The recipe even includes a diagram with the exact measurements to help bakers build the gingerbread house.
Gingerbread Dough
Ingredients
- 1000g – Plain Strong Flour
- 14g – Bicarbonate of Soda
- 28g – Ground Ginger
- 14g – Ground Cinnamon
- 355g – Butter, unsalted
- 500g – Light Brown Sugar
- 140g – Egg
- 175g – Golden Syrup
Method
1. Mix flour, bicarbonate and spices together.
2. Add the cold diced butter and continue mixing until crumb stage is reached.
3. Add sugar and briefly combine.
4. Then add eggs and syrup and mix until dough is formed.
5. Divide into 2 blocks, knead together by hand and flatten.
6. Wrap and chill for a few hours before rolling to approx. 5mm thickness for the house parts and approx. 3mm for smaller decorative parts.
7. Cut gingerbread house shapes using the Gingerbread House template.
8. Place on baking trays and chill again before baking.
9. For windows, crush boiled sweets into the spaces you have cut.
Baking
- Preheat oven to 329F or 165c
- 18+ min for house pieces
- 12+ min for smaller pieces
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1500g – Icing Sugar
- 200g – Egg White
- 50g – Lemon Juice
Method
1. Sieve the icing sugar and combine with egg white and lemon juice by hand first. before placing into the mixer.
2. Paddle together at low speed for about 2min, then scrape sides and paddle well.
3. Continue mixing at low speed for approx. another 5min, until a creamy hard peak consistency is reached.
4. For piping, decoration works loosen icing with some water.
5. To assemble the gingerbread house use hard peak icing.