Build gingerbread house yourself: no stencil needed, just three hearts

Make the dough as in our honey gingerbread recipe: warm the honey and sugar and let them cool, dissolve Baking salt and Potash separately in milk, knead with flour, Gingerbread spice and egg, and let it rest at room temperature for at least 24 hours, or better, two to four days. There you will find every step with pictures: Honey gingerbread for cutting out

Knead the rested dough briefly, by hand in portions or in the machine. This makes it soft again so it can be rolled out cleanly.

Roll the dough evenly to 5 mm between the rolling guides. Even thickness is especially important here: otherwise the house will lean. Cut out three hearts with the heart cake ring (14 cm). Two will be the walls, the third the roof.

For the base, use a round cake ring measuring 22 cm. It is wider than the heart, so the little house stands securely and has room all around for decorations. A rectangle or a freeform shape cut with a knife works just as well.

Cut out the windows with a small round cookie cutter and cut the door out with a knife, only on the two wall hearts. Be sure to do this before baking, as baked gingerbread breaks! Cut the third heart exactly in half: these are your two roof surfaces.

Place all the pieces on a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush them with a little whole milk. From the dough scraps, cut out some extra cookies straight away, for example small fir trees.

Bake the pieces for 8 minutes at 190 °C convection heat. Do not let them get too dark, or they will break when you assemble them.

Briefly boil 30 g gum arabic with 100 g water and brush the still warm pieces with it. This gives a shine and protects them.

Leave all pieces to cool completely lying flat. When warm they warp, and walls that are bent will not stand up to form a house.

For gluing, mix the egg white icing noticeably firmer than for decorating: it must stay in the cornet. Divide it among several bowls, colour it with Gel color and fill each colour into its own cornet.

Place the two wall hearts on the base: at the top they touch, at the bottom they stand slightly apart like a tent. Pipe a bead of Royal icing along the bottom and hold the walls together for 30 to 60 seconds until the icing sets.

Pipe a bead of icing onto the sloping edges of the walls, lay the two halves of the heart over them and hold them briefly in place.

Let the basic frame dry for one to two hours, or better overnight. Anything that wobbles now will wobble even more under the decorations.

Pipe white dots along the roof edges, one next to the other. This creates the typical snow edge.

Trace the windows and door in white, paint a small Christmas tree on the wall and scatter hearts, little stars and dots. There is no wrong way here!

Place almonds on the roof like roof tiles, stick a small gingerbread heart on the peak and sprinkle sprinkle decor over it as you like. Royal icing is firm after half an hour, and fully set after four to six hours.

Your gingerbread house is finished! How will you decorate yours?