I’ve been wanting to make these sweet little gingerbread house mug hugger cookies for a while, so a Christmas cookie exchange was the perfect opportunity. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to find 12 more Christmas cookie recipes from my talented blogging friends!
Treat yourself to a slow morning with a good book, a latté, and a yummy mini gingerbread house “mug hugger” cookie on the side! These look so sweet, but they are also really tasty!
I also like to use them as Christmas décor around the house. I love all things mini during the holidays and tiny house villages are so fun to create!
How to Make Gingerbread House Mug Hugger Cookies
I had actually never made gingerbread before so I wanted to find a simple recipe. I made this recipe based on Mima Sinclair’s Gingerbread Wonderland and it was surprisingly easy!
Gingerbread House Mug Hugger Cookie Recipe
Gingerbread House Mug Hugger Cookies
Make these cute little mini gingerbread houses with a simple and traditional recipe!
Ingredients
Gingerbread
- 1 C Shortening
- 1 C Sugar
- 1/2 C Cooking Molasses
- 2 Tbsp Water
- 3 Cups Flour
- 4 tsp Ginger
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Royal Icing
- 2 Egg Whites
- 2 C Confectioners Sugar
Instructions
Gingerbread
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat shortening and sugar 2 mins or until fluffy.
- Add molasses and water and beat until combined.
- Sift together flour, ginger, salt, and baking soda.
- Add flour mixture to shortening mixture until combined and crumbly.
- Press mixture together to make dough.
- Roll out dough to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
- Chill dough for at least 30 mins
- Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and remove the surrounding dough.
- Re-roll leftover dough and repeat until all the dough is used.
- Bake on parchment paper lined cookie sheets for 10 mins. Let cool.
Royal Icing
- Combine egg whites and confectioners sugar until stiff peaks form.
- Add water to achieve the desired consistency.
- Add to piping bag to frost cookies.
Notes
If you are making gingerbread for houses make sure you bake until crispy and slightly browned on the edges (10-12 minutes).
Royal icing is stiff and makes excellent "glue" for your mini gingerbread houses. If it is too hard add a little bit of water until you achieve a workable consistency. You can also heat it up in a bowl of hot water to soften it for use.
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Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 120
Mini Gingerbread House Step by Step Instructions
First gather all your ingredients. I’m famous for starting recipes and then realizing I have no eggs lol!!
Combine wet ingredients as per the printable recipe listed above. I just used a hand mixer, but you could use your stand mixer too!
Then add the dry ingredients and the mixture will turn crumbly, but should stick together easily when pressed.
Press the mixture together to form a soft dough. It will be a little sticky.
Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of parchment paper 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.
Then cut out your shapes using a paring knife or cookie cutter set. The cookie cutter set I have has 3 shapes… 1 front/back shape, 1 roof shape, 1 side shape. You need 2 of each shape to make a house.
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Peel back the extra dough surrounding your shapes and reform to roll out again and use to make more cookies.
Bake your shapes in the oven on a sheet of parchment paper at 350 degrees until the edges turn brown and the cookies are nice and crispy. You want them to be harder than the average cookie so that they are easy to build with. Then let cool completely.
I forgot to snap a picture of this part, but we actually just put ours outdoors for a few minutes! When it’s below freezing they cool very quickly lol!
While the cookies are cooling make your icing. Add to a piping bag and use a fine tip to apply icing to “glue” your cooled cookie pieces together. Royal icing is sticky so it will hold well, but it also dries quickly so work fast!
I definitely need more practice working with icing, but the good news is that if I can do it anyone can lol!! The houses stuck together pretty easily and seemed to be quite sturdy when they were finished. The icing was very stiff and hardened quickly so we had to warm it up several times and wash out the metal tip on the piping bag. Next time around I will try adding a bit of water to the icing to make it a little less hard!
The mini gingerbread house mug hugger cookies weren’t perfectly iced or decorated, but I think it actually just makes them look more rustic and charming!
These mini gingerbread house mug hugger cookies make the cutest and coziest winter addition to your drinks or décor. They would also be adorable packaged up in a little gift box as a holiday present, party favour or hostess gift!
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For more Christmas cookies check out these yummy recipes from 12 more talented bloggers!
Gingerbread House Mug Toppers // Modern Glam
Christmas Linzer Cookies (Gluten Free ) // Satori Design For Living
Mini Gingerbread House Mug Hugger Cookies // The Ginger Home
Linzer Cookie Recipe // Jennifer Maune
Norwegian Krumkake Cookies // Finding Lovely
Christmas Cookie Wreath // My 100 Year Old Home
Gluten/Dairy Free Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe // Zevy Joy
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe // Happy Happy Nester
Swirly Chocolate Meringue with Cream // Lemon Grove Lane
Light and Fluffy Sand Dollar Cinnamon Cookies // Twelve on Main
Christmas Star Brownies // Maison De Cinq
Molasses Gingersnaps // My Sweet Savannah
Candy Cane Frosted Swirl Cookies // Tatertots & Jello
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More Christmas and Holiday Inspiration:
So adorable, Amanda! And I totally agree with the mini Christmas decor- precious! Enjoy your day 🙂
yes! all things mini are the best lol!
Such cute little houses! I pinned them to my cookie exchange board. Thanks Amanda!
xoxo
Thanks friend! So fun to make!
I so love this cookie recipe! It’s so so cute.