Gingerbread Houses

In a standing mixer whip the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Make sure to scrap the bowl down every 30 seconds to properly cream the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and stir until combined.
Add the molasses and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
Turn the standing mixer on the slowest speed and slowly pour in the dry ingredients.
Stir until the dough all comes together.
Place the dough on a parchment paper and cover with plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is your desired thickness. I like to roll it out to 1/4th inch.
Place the flattened dough on a cookie sheet, still wrapped between parchment paper and plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
After the dough has chilled, remove from the fridge and preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Cut the dough into house shapes, this will be enough dough for 2 large houses.
Place the dough on a light metal cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes - you want to bake until the cookies are hard to build a house.
Remove from the oven. While the cookies are still hot from the oven, I like to recut the cookie shapes with the cookie cutters. This will make your cookies the perfect shape so the house puzzle will build correctly.
After you cut the cookies for the second time, let them set on the hot cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Then remove the cookies and let them finish cooling off of the pan.
Assemble the houses with royal frosting and decorate with candies

Gingerbread Houses

Ingredients

Instructions