My daughter LOVES decorating a gingerbread house every December. It has become a holiday tradition. I think she eats more candy and frosting than she puts on the house. However, we roll with it anyway. The result is a sugar overloaded “masterpiece” that serves as a centerpiece on our table for the two weeks leading up to Christmas. While you eat dinner, all you smell is sugar.
In the spirit of trying to create new Halloween traditions and memories during the pandemic, I decided to take a stab at Halloween houses.
Now, the thing you must understand is that when it comes to Christmas gingerbread houses, I go all in on convenience. I find the supermarket selling PRE-ASSEMBLED houses (psst, it’s usually Whole Foods), because I am NOT an architect. Royal icing and I are not simpatico. So I always manage to find a house that we just slap some frosting and goodies on and call it a centerpiece.
When I embarked on this Halloween project, I knew that the chances of finding a pre-assembled Halloween house were slim to none. And yes, I looked anyway. I could find pre-baked Halloween cookie decorating kits no problem. However, the house was a strike out. Even pre-made royal icing was a strike out.
Deciding to forge ahead on new traditions, I went ahead knowing I was going to have to bake the house (no issue there) and ASSEMBLE the house. Ugh. Did I mention royal icing and I never get along?!
For the cookie structure, I decided to forego gingerbread and go with a shortbread instead. In my research, I found a blog post on Better Homes and Gardens where they added sprinkles to shortbread and I thought that was really cute. So I added black and orange sprinkles. However, after mixing the dough I decided would be too light in color to be “spooky,” so I needed to tone it down. The problem was, if I went with a food coloring, you likely wouldn’t see the sprinkle effect. After some quick thought, I went with my go-to favorite “secret” ingredient, hot chocolate mix.
Ok. I am going to state the obvious and just get it out there. I am NOT a decorator. Not even close. My 9-year-old has more skills when it comes to holiday houses. I, on the other hand, would qualify for one of those sarcastic “nailed it” mimes where the Pinterest photo and the actual results aren’t even close. My only saving grace is that haunted houses are meant to look dilapidated and scary. Mine checked at least checked one of those boxes.
While I look at my house and cringe–in fact I almost didn’t post this recipe, it is so bad–I decided it was the memory I made with my kid that really counts. We had fun rolling out the dough, cutting the houses out, baking and decorating. Sure, my house wasn’t winning any decorating awards, but that was not what this experience was about. It was about celebrating Halloween with my daughter and doing something she loved. As we decorated our houses, we talked. We giggled. We had fun. And that makes this project a blue-ribbon winner, any day of the week…
Spooky Shortbread Cookie House
Course: CookiesDifficulty: Easy, Intermediate10
minutes30
minutes30
minutes1
hour10
minutesIngredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs hot chocolate mix
2 cups + 2 tbs all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Halloween sprinkles
Royal icing, candy and sprinkles for assembly and decorating
Directions
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and light in color.
- Add in milk and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- With the mixer on low, add hot chocolate and mix until combined. Then add flour one 1/4 cup at a time, making sure each previous scoop incorporated completely. Try not to overwork the dough by mixing longer than needed to incorporate flour. Stir in the sprinkles with the mixer.
- Split dough into balls. Flatten each ball to a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour, or until firm.
- About 30 minutes into the chill, preheat oven so that it reaches 325F on an oven thermometer.
- Once dough has chilled, place one disc on a piece of parchment paper. Lightly dust with flour and roll to a thickness of 1/8″ to 1/4″. Repeat with second disc.
- Using a cookie cutter set or template, cut the necessary pieces for your house. Remove excess dough and transfer cut pieces on parchment paper to a baking sheet.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your dough. Allow cookies to cool on pan 3-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. If needed, trim away any scraggly edges while cookies are still warm.
- Once cool, use royal icing as glue to assemble your house. Once icing has set, continue decorating your house using the icing to glue on candies, fondant or other desired decorations.
Notes
- Pre-made pouches of cookie icing work great for decorating. They can be purchased at any supermarket or big box store. If going this route, I strongly recommend doing any detail decorations BEFORE assembly since the icing comes out wet and takes about 4 hours to harden. Over night is even better. Additional decorations–like candy–can be added after assembly.
- If you use 4″ cookie cutters, this recipe yields two houses. The recipe can be doubled if you prefer a larger house size.
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