So I had this idea. Make a Sugar Cookie House. And it turned out fairly darn well I must admit. You see our kids love decorating and building gingerbread houses. Generally this is an activity the cousins like to get together and do which makes it even more fun.
Store Bought Kits
We have almost always gone with the store bought kits as an excuse to shove as much candy in ones mouth as physically possible. But the so called gingerbread and frosting is never, ever eaten, in fact the brave of the brave who venture an attempt at a bite of ‘cookie’ never go back for a second. And once (only once) I made the mistake of licking the frosting from one of my fingers. Seriously gross. This all seems like a waste to me though. I want a truly edible cookie house (also of course world peace). And I already knew that sugar cookies were a kid favourite in our house….
Sugar Cookie House Idea
So my idea was why not try making a gingerbread house from scratch, but from a sugar cookie recipe (one of my kids does not care for gingerbread at the best of times) and make my own frosting (store bought frosting is not my jam). It helps that I had been gifted a set of ginger bread cookie cutters from my mother-in-law and had been itching to try them out and I was on vacation, so why not?! Enter the creation of the sugar cookie house.
Sugar Cookie House Success
Every inch of the two houses disappeared and was eaten when I made it from my usual sugar cookie dough recipe instead of gingerbread (though a few prob would have just preferred homemade gingerbread…but I will save attempting homemade gingerbread for next time).
Here’s What I learned:
Royal Icing
Home made royal icing makes terrific glue. It’s a pleasure to use, it’s both spreadable and great in a piping bag and sets up quickly enough to work as glue, but not so quickly that it’s frustrating.
Cut Out AFTER Baking
The trick is whether ginger bread or sugar cookie dough to roll it into one full (even) sheet in a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake the entire sheet like one big cookie. When it comes out of the oven, IMMEDIATELY use the cookie cutters (or template and knife) to then cut into the shapes while the dough is hot. This way you get perfect corners and sides and everything is square and lines up (I did a side by side comparison of cutting before and after baking – and there was a huge difference)! I have a specific rolling pin that allowed me to roll the dough right into the pan, but flip the cookie sheet over and use parchment paper and bake on the wrong side, in order to use a regular rolling pin. You want the dough about a 1/4 inch thick.
Decorate Your Sugar Cookie House Before Assembly
Decorate the panels (sides, front, roof etc.) with frosting and candy (and allow to harden) BEFORE you assemble the sugar cookie house. This way you can work on a flat surface (and with royal icing, 10 minutes in the fridge or 20 on the counter generally hardens the icing).
Basic Royal Icing Recipe:
2 Egg Whites
2 Cups Icing Sugar
In a stand mixture combine the egg whites and powdered sugar. Mix on medium-high to high for seven minutes until thick and shiny and the desired consistency.
If you are not comfortable using raw egg whites, then substitute 1 1/2 tablespoons meringue powder and 6 tablespoons water instead.
Keep covered when not using.
Sugar Cookie Dough (enough for two standard gingerbread style houses):
1 1/2 Cups Room Temperature Butter
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
3/4 teaspoon Almond Extract (optional – but yummy)
1 1/2 Eggs (this is achieved by beating 2 eggs together in a measuring cup, and using 3/4 of the mixture)
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoon Salt
4 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a stand mixture cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the vanilla, almond extract and beaten egg and beat until combined.
Combine the flour, salt and baking powder and then mix in a cup at a time.
Once combined, knead the dough with your hands a few times to incorporate everything together until smooth.
Split the dough in half and roll out directly onto the parchment lined baking sheets to about a 1/4 inch thickness.
We did side by side comparisons of doing them both ways, cutting from the raw dough or baking as a sheet first. And if you don’t have a rolling pin that fits in the cookie sheet like I do. Flip the cookie sheet over (still use the parchment) and bake on the bottom side of the cookie sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until browned on the edges.
Remove from the oven and IMMEDIATELY use cookie cutters (or template and knife) and cut out your house panels.
Allow to cool.
Make Royal Icing.
Colour royal icing to desired hues. I was going for a white (snow covered) theme and left it as is.
Place your royal icing in piping bag, without a tip or with a tip depending on wether using the frosting as glue or to decorate.
Decorate each panel and roof.
Bring on the sprinkles, sparkles and candy.
Allow to harden (about 20 minutes).
Choose a solid base. A bamboo cutting board worked nicely. Alternately tinfoil wrapped cardboard would work as well.
Assembly is a two person job, if your sanity is to stay intact.
Use a generous bead of royal icing piped along all joints and attach one at a time. Making sure each join is hard before moving onto the next.
Allow extra time to pass and all the house sides to have completely hardened, before “glueing” the roof in place with icing. The roof will need to be held in place until set. This requires a little patience. So having a friend or family member willing to feed you candy while you wait helps.
Need some more ginger bread inspiration?! Check out our Gingerbread Row Houses
Are degrees in Celsius or Fahrenheit? Also, what are “standard gingerbread house measurments”?
The degrees are in Fahrenheit and I am not sure if there is such a thing as standard gingerbread house measurements really 😊
I see the dates here are from 2020. I live in Houston Tx now…lived also in Charleston SC for 6 years BUT I’m FROM Los Angeles and made real GINGERbread houses for years and sold them all the time. When I moved to Charleston I baked and started putting the houses together and they kept falling apart. I finally discovred it wasn’t my recipe it was the HUMIDITY which is the same here in Houston. I have been searching for a COOKIE recipe to make them here so hopefully this will work for me..looks like you had a great time…concerned about why the one person had so much trouble…if she used extra flour I’ll bet she lives in a high humidity area which of course would make the cookie taste bad with all that flour…I’ve been making houses since the 1980’s and have 2 house cutter sets from Wilton…if any of you read this, if you can find one of Wilton’s Christmas recipe book issues, it’s very old though, they have fireplaces, houses, cookie trees and even a sleigh which I used to make in LA…and hope now, if this recipe work for me, I’ll make them all out of your cookie recipe.
THANKS MUCH!
Do I need to put dough in the fridge before baking? If so, for how long should it be?
No, I never do. You can if you want to for 30 min, but it’s definitely not necessary.
yeees!! Finally found a recipe for a cookie house that is not gingerbread! I will definitely try this! For how long can we display the house before eating so that is still enjoyable?
I would say up to a week. Ours have never lasted longer than that. Obviously if left open to the air the cookies get harder as they dry out, but no one seems to mind with all the icing and candy 😊
Dec 2020, I tried this and it was mostly successful and yummy. My additions are as follows:
– don’t underbake the cookies. My trays took well over 10 minutes to bake. If they’re under baked, they will crumble upon assembly.
-I also had enough for only one house, not 2. I don’t have the cookie cutter things though.
-to clarify the instructions, the recommendation is to cut the houses out immediately after baking and not into the raw dough.
-cool the cookie on the baking tray and recut again with a knife before trying to remove the pieces.
– for the icing, desired consistency would be the consistency of molasses or even thicker. It will look fluffy like frosting too. If the icing is too thin/runny like water, the icing will not act like glue and will be a messy pool at the bottom of the house. You may need to beat longer, like 14 minutes, or you may need to add more powdered sugar if it’s not thick enough. If you want to create an icicle effect, thin the icing down with water and apply.
– I used several large mason jars and glasses to help with assembly. I leaned each edge on a mason jar and one inside. They provided enough stability in the pieces to allow for one person to assemble and to do the icing all at once instead of 20 minutes per edge with 2 people.
I like the mason jar idea – I will try that next time. Sometimes it’s best to score the shapes before baking and then cut immediately after. And I agree making sure the cuts are clean after cooling is not a bad idea either 😊
Re did this recipe over three times because I thought maybe I had done something wrong. The recipe is bad, the sugar cookie dough was horrible to work with, it made barely one house, and tasted bad. I followed every word and it was horrrrribley dry so I tried many methods to moisten it and all the attempts, original and modified had failed.
I am sorry to hear it frustrated you. This is definitely our go to sugar cookie recipe. We have made and loved it countless times over the years and we find it delicious. But all purpose flour can definitely vary and even the weather can make a difference in a dough coming out dry. Sometimes kneading the dough for longer by hand or holding back some of the flour can help.
My son and I were just talking about whether it would be possible to make our own sugar cookie houses instead of gingerbread. We always buy those kits too but they are rather gross.
The kits are really fun, but homemade tastes so much better. And for us sugar cookies always get happily eaten, where as only a couple in our household enjoy gingerbread 😊
Any tips on modifications to make the cookies chocolate for Halloween? Also, I would love to find a cookie cutter set like this!!
I have not tried a chocolate sugar cookie house – but it sounds terrific – and now I want to. I am not sure if it would work the same, but it’s worth playing around with. This cookie cutter set is the Ricardo 3D House Cookie Cutter Set and I believe it came from Safeway. But similar ones are available online at amazon or Walmart I believe.
I used chocolate graham crackers for Halloween and that worked great
I have since come up with a delicious chocolate sugar cookie recipe and posted it here😊
http://www.prettypetunias.com/little-mini-chocolate-gingerbread-houses/
I tried it! And it worked wonderfully 😊
https://www.prettypetunias.com/chocolate-and-peanut-butter-cookie-house/