There are many varieties of gingerbread houses. These can range from small huts to luxurious mansions and castles. Today, gingerbread houses for cups are becoming more and more popular. This very compact, but tasty and fragrant gift for St. Nicholas Day, New Year and Christmas will not leave anyone indifferent. After all, the main thing is to give a person an emotion, to ignite a spark of happiness in him.

You can make a gingerbread house for a cup at home. It would be great if children also participate in the process of making and decorating. The famous pastry chef from Chernigov Elena Siebert(Elena previously shared with “FACTS”).

— During Christmas, the air of European cities is literally saturated with gingerbread aroma, says Elena Siebert. — Particularly popular are houses decorated with protein icing and small multi-colored candies and chocolate balls. Gingerbread houses became famous and popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century thanks to the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about brother and sister Hansel and Gretel, who discovered a gingerbread house in the forest. German bakers used this story to make miniature gingerbread houses with edible icing snow on the roofs. And today, in different cities of Europe, every year confectioners build entire cities from such houses, hold competitions for the best decoration and place baked figurines of presidents and kings in them. The houses are not only beautiful, but also aromatic - the dough is made with the addition of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, nutmeg, coriander, and anise. These spices highlight the spirit of Christmas. By the way, in the old days in Europe it was believed that gingerbread helped against many diseases; they were even sold in pharmacies.

- Interesting.

— In Stockholm, before the New Year holidays, the Center for Architecture and Design annually hosts a “delicious exhibition” of gingerbread houses based on the fantasies of local chefs. After Christmas, all the splendor is solemnly eaten - don’t let the goodness go to waste!

— You create magnificent gingerbread houses with furniture inside. And this year, your collection also includes small houses for cups.

— They even have an attic where you can hide a gingerbread with a secret (prediction or wish). This miniature is liked by both adults and children. You don’t even need to decorate it - just glue the gingerbread cookies together using glaze (1 egg white and 180 g of fine powdered sugar.). You can use the same glaze to draw snowflakes or snow on the roof or windows. To enjoy these gingerbread cookies, you need to imagine yourself as a child. In childhood everything is simple, everything good brings pleasure...

— How to create a gingerbread house at home?

- Cakes for the walls and roof are baked, decorations are prepared - candies, chocolates and icing - and you can start assembling! For a cup house you need to bake 6 parts: 2 facades, 2 roofs and 2 side parts of the house. The dough recipe for 5 houses is as follows (you can make gingerbread cookies from the remaining dough):

Gingerbread house dough recipe

1 cup sugar, 120 g soft butter, 3 tbsp. spoons of honey, 1 large egg (or 2 small ones), half a teaspoon each of soda and ground ginger, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon each of citric acid, ground cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, 3-3.5 cups of flour. For brown color - 2 tbsp. spoons of cocoa.

Beat soft butter and sugar with a mixer at high speed, add honey and continue beating until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add eggs and mix again. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, salt, soda, citric acid, cocoa and spices. Add the dry mixture to the egg mixture in several additions. First you can mix with a mixer, then by hand, placing the dough on the countertop. Wrap the finished dough in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. You can do it all night. Roll out the chilled dough (on a mat or parchment paper), cut out the pieces and bake for 8-12 minutes at 180 degrees.

— What subtleties need to be taken into account?

- To make the house nice and smooth, roll out the dough thinly!

— How to store such a house and deliver it safe and sound to the person for whom the gift is intended?

— The shelf life depends on the type of gingerbread dough. On average - from 3 to 6 months. By the way, this could be the dough of your favorite cookies. It is best to transport houses in a cardboard box. It is important to choose it correctly. The product must not be smaller than the box. If you don’t throw the bag with such a box, everything will arrive intact!

— Which cup is suitable for the house?

— It is advisable that it not have thick edges, because we need to “put” a house on it. The cup can be either tea or coffee.

— Is it possible to decorate a Christmas tree with such gingerbread houses?

- Certainly. You can make holes in the dough with a straw, and then, when the cookies are ready, tie the fortunes rolled up into a tube. You can make holes in the top of the gingerbread cookies and hang them on the Christmas tree, first decorating them with icing.

— What are you working on today?

— Over a chocolate Christmas cupcake. A Christmas cake soaked in alcohol can be stored for two months. It contains a lot of nuts and various dried fruits. You can take it on a long journey or send it to relatives.

— What inspires you to create?

— Films, fairy tales, architectural objects. For example, I am now making gingerbread houses - prototypes of buildings in different countries.

— What would you wish for the readers of FACTS on the eve of the holidays?

- May your wishes come true and your adventures be only fun!

Previously, the famous Chernigov confectioner Valentina Verevkina. According to her, you can bake it now, since the finished cake must mature for at least three weeks.

On New Year's holidays, and just on winter days, you want home comfort, warmth and a little fairy tale. A small gingerbread house is a delicious delicacy that can be used to decorate and surprise kids, as well as give a little coziness, a sense of childhood and miracles.

To create a festive atmosphere, you can buy a toy like this, make simple children’s crafts, decorate the house, and also create a magical mood by creating an unobtrusively pleasant smell of baking.

Residents of Ancient Rome prepared houses from butter dough, and then placed them at the altar for several days, as it was believed that the house was visited by the gods. Afterwards, the houses were given to children to feast on, which symbolized “unity with the gods.”

In the 19th century, after the publication of the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm, gingerbread houses began to be very popular at Christmas markets in Germany, all sorts of sales exhibitions and competitions were organized for the best production of a gingerbread house, which you can admire and then eat.

Gingerbread house. Ingredients:

• flour - 450 g
• butter - 100 g
• brown sugar - 150 g
• ground ginger - 1 teaspoon
• honey - 180 g
• ground cinnamon - 2 teaspoons
• eggs - 1 pc.
• cardamom - 1 teaspoon
• egg whites - 3 pcs.
• sour cream - 100 g
• powdered sugar - 120 g
• confectionery topping (coconut flakes, etc.) - 10 g

Gingerbread house. Preparation:

1. Place honey, brown sugar, soft butter in a saucepan and place over low heat. Stir the mixture occasionally until it becomes liquid.

2. Sift flour into a large bowl, add spices, egg, sour cream. Mix all the ingredients well and gradually pour the sweet cream mixture from the saucepan into the flour. Using a mixer, knead the dough, then put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. Initially, make a pattern of a house from paper: the front part of the house with a doorway (the width of the doorway is 0.9 or 1.25 cm), two walls, a roof. A house with a 0.9 cm doorway fits well on regular cups, while houses with a 1.25 cm doorway are used to decorate a large cup.

4. Roll out the finished dough to about 0.3 cm thick. Using a pattern, cut out the parts of the house. It is better to cut at an angle of 45° - this will make it easier to assemble the house in the future.

5. Preheat the oven well to 190-200°C and bake curly gingerbread cookies for 15 minutes. If the shape of the house turns out to be uneven, then while the gingerbread cookies are hot, you can correct the contours.

6. Take the whites (pre-separate them from the yolks) and beat them into a dense white mass. Then continue beating the whites, adding a little powdered sugar. You should get a dense sweet mass.

7. Glue the blanks for the house with protein and sugar mixture.

8. To decorate the roof of the house, lightly brush the cake with sweet egg whites and decorate it with sprinkles. Let the decoration dry thoroughly.

Prepared by Oksana Chudan

The New Year is coming soon and we are all looking forward to this holiday, we really want to touch the magic! In order to create a magical holiday environment for kids, I suggest you get a little creative and have some fun in the kitchen. I assure you, the result will bring you a lot of pleasure. Everyone knows the gingerbread house from the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm; every child probably wants to get their own, so why refuse?

It has already become a tradition in my family to bake gingerbread houses for the New Year. Previously, I baked them big and all the children wanted one, then I decided to make them small so that each child would get their own house, and it turned out that this was the best option. Gingerbread houses can be placed in a beautiful box; this will be a wonderful souvenir that will keep the warmth of your hands.

The process of baking and assembly is simply addictive, and in my soul I hear the waltz of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker.” The aromas of cinnamon spread throughout the house and suddenly your neighbors start running in, some for sugar, and some just because. They get involved in the process, and then we drink tea together and realize that the holiday is already here! So let's get started.

Let's prepare templates for the houses. It’s impossible to give clear dimensions here, but be guided by the diameter of the mugs you will use. You will need 2 parts each for the ends, walls and roof. My dimensions: end of the house width 4.5 cm by 3.5 height + roof height 2 cm. Door opening 1.5 cm. Wall of the house 3.5 by 3.5 cm. Roof length 5.5 by 3.5 cm.

Dear friends, I want to show you how to bake gingerbread houses at home, not just one, but three. They are all very small in size, making them easy to put on a cup or mug.

For such houses, you can use any gingerbread dough that you are used to working with; I will not repeat my recipe again, but I suggest you take a look. It is this dough that I like for its speed and ease of preparation. From the specified amount of products in that recipe, about 10 pieces will come out.

I sprinkle some of the details on top, which I have already shown how you can make it yourself at home, using dry and gel food coloring.

The recipe for gingerbread houses is quite simple, and making it yourself will definitely not be difficult.

I prepare gingerbread icing from powdered sugar and egg white. But you can also make it with albumin, that is, from dry protein. And some people use quail egg whites or even ready-made glaze.

I’ll show you in detail how to paint gingerbread cookies with icing, or rather every detail, and then put them together to make a beautiful product.

If anyone else doesn’t know how to store gingerbread cookies with icing or such houses, then I can say that their storage is no different. You can admire them for several months, but to do this, they must be packaged so as not to dry out and absorb moisture.

The recipe for these gingerbread houses is presented for you in a master class with detailed photos and a pattern on which all the sizes are marked, according to which it will not be difficult for you to draw the same stencils.

Ingredients:

• Gingerbread dough
• Powdered sugar – 160 g
• Egg white – 1 pc.
• Lemon juice – 0.5 tsp
• Food coloring red
• Colored sugar – 3 colors
• Confectionery powder stars – 6 pcs.

How to make a gingerbread house at home

Since I already have the dough ready and have been in the refrigerator for a couple of days, I’m starting to prepare the pattern. The roof detail is 4.5 by 3.5 cm. The wall with the door is 4 by 2.5 cm + another 1.5 cm for the upper part above the door, and the side wall of the house is 3 by 2.5 cm.

Now I cut out all the details and you can start rolling out the dough. I roll it about another 5 cm thick, on a silicone mat sprinkled with flour. To ensure that the thickness of the entire dough is the same, I place books or planks of the same thickness on both sides of it.

I place a piece of paper on the dough and carefully cut it out with a knife or other special device. Next, I transfer them to a baking sheet with parchment or foil. Just remember to leave a distance between them, at least a little, so that they don’t stick together when baking. I bake them in a preheated oven at 190 degrees for 5 minutes.

To make a recipe for gingerbread glaze at home, just mix the powder, egg white and citric acid, and then just beat it all with a mixer, at low speed, for 2 - 3 minutes. The consistency turned out to be even a little thick, so I diluted it with more water, but only a few drops.

For one house, you need all the parts in 2 pieces, so I immediately sort them so that I can paint them by color later.

Additionally, I also need colored sugar and star-shaped confectionery sprinkles.

Here I use only white icing, and quite a bit of red, for this I paint a small part of it with gel dye. I transfer it into bags of appropriate sizes.

First I do the roof of the first house. To do this, I fill one half of the roof with white glaze, and paint red stripes on top of it. Then, using a toothpick, I carefully draw streaks, first in one direction, then in the other. I do the same with my other half.

To make the front part, I paint only the outline with white icing. I pour colored sugar into a bowl, and then sprinkle the drawn outline with this sugar. Also above the door, I squeeze out a dot of icing and attach a star to it. I do the same with the opposite side.

And on the side parts I also draw an outline, and in the middle there is a window. I also sprinkle this part with sugar. I leave them to dry for a couple of hours.

For the second house I do everything the same, but the difference is in the roof and colors. I fill the roof with an even layer of glaze and immediately sprinkle it with red sugar. Use colors at your discretion.

For the third house I made a green roof, and the side walls were also completely filled and sprinkled with yellow.

When they are all dry, I assemble each house slowly, one at a time. First, I glue the walls together with the remaining glaze, then let them dry for 10 minutes.

Next I glue the roof, also on the glaze. First you need to hold it with your hands so that it does not move, but this will take no more than 2 minutes.

I leave the houses to dry thoroughly, which takes about 3-4 hours.

Only after this, I decorate the side and top joints with the remaining glaze so that these places look neater. These are the small products we got, so now you know how to make a gingerbread house so that it’s both quick and beautiful.

Since you already know how to bake gingerbread houses at home, I advise you to do this with your children, they will be delighted with this idea. Enjoy your meal!

Baking gingerbread houses is a great New Year's activity for both children and adults. And our version of this magical holiday treat also has practical value!

What do you need:
500 g flour
200 g honey
120 g fine sugar
120 g butter “Prostokvashino” 82%
1 large egg
1 tsp. soda
1 tbsp. l. ground cinnamon, cardamom and ginger powder
0.3 tsp each ground cloves and nutmeg
pinch of sea salt
transparent cellophane
beautiful ribbons

For the glaze:
40 ml milk “Prostokvashino” 3.2%
1 protein
400-500 g powdered sugar
food colorings

What to do:

1. Sift flour and soda. In a saucepan, heat the honey with sugar and all the spices - just until the mixture becomes liquid and the sugar dissolves.

2. Cut the butter into small cubes. Beat the egg and salt a little.

3. Mix the flour mixture with the honey mixture, then add the butter, stir until smooth.

4. Add the egg and knead again until smooth. You should have a smooth dough. Roll it into a ball, wrap it in film and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

5. While the dough is in the refrigerator, draw “patterns” on thick paper (cardboard) - templates for the house. There should be three of them:
1) longitudinal side wall 5x3 cm
2) back/front wall 3x3 cm with a slot in the bottom center 1x1 cm
3) roof slope 5x2.5 cm
If you wish, you can make another pipe - these are 4 identical pieces 1.5x1 cm

6. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Cut a small portion of the dough and roll it out between 2 sheets of parchment to a thickness of 3 mm.

7. Remove the top sheet of parchment. Using patterns and a sharp thin knife, cut out the required number of parts for the house from the dough, remove the dough between the patterns and roll it - after cooling, you can make more patterns from it.

8. Place the paper with the patterns on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 4-5 minutes, do not dry out!

9. When all the patterns are ready and cooled, start assembling the houses. You will use glaze as “cement”. For the glaze, mix the egg white and half the powdered sugar. Place the resulting mixture into a pastry bag with the thinnest round tip and glue the parts of the houses together. Let the glaze harden.

10. From the remaining powdered sugar and milk, adding coloring, make more glaze - and use a pastry bag to decorate the houses with it.

11. Pack each completely frozen house in cellophane, tie with a ribbon, and store in a dry, dark, cool place.

12. Done!

It is most convenient to cut using templates not with a kitchen knife, but with a breadboard knife. It doesn't tear the paper and is thin enough for dough.