How to Make a GFCF Gingerbread House

If you have food allergies (or have kids who have them), the holiday season with all the treats and sweets can be frustrating. Fun traditions involving foods, including gingerbread house making and building, seem like something that you need to avoid. While you can't buy the ready-made gingerbread house kits, you can build your own - all GFCF. A gingerbread house that leaves out the allergies but keeps the taste - helping to keep traditions going, despite food allergies.

Section 1: Make and Bake the Gingerbread

Ingredients:
1 cup GFCF margarine
1 egg (or egg replacement)
1 1/2 c white sugar
1 cup mixed tapioca and arrowroot starch
2 1/4 c bean flour
1/3 c molasses
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
Powdered sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

3. Mix all the ingredients together until they form a ball of dough.

4. Spread a small amount of powdered sugar onto a flat surface.

5. Divide dough into workable sections (such as into 1/4ths) and using a roller or your hands, flatten it on top of the powdered sugar.

6. Using a template (such as this one from AllRecipes), trace and cut out the pieces of the house.

7. Place the pieces on the parchment-papered pan.

8. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes.

Section 2: Make the Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 c GFCF margarine
1/2 c shortening (solid)
4 c confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk substitute

Instructions:

1. Mix shortening and margarine, cream together.

2. Add in sugar, vanilla and milk substitute.

3. Continue mixing on medium speed until creamy (2-3 min).

Section 3: Make the House

Ingredients:
Gingerbread house pieces
Frosting
GFCF candies (list of GFCF candy examples from GFCFdiet.com)
Plate for gingerbread house to stay on

Instructions:

1. Using the template as a guide, assemble the house.

2. Snip off the corner of a Ziplock bag and fill it with frosting.

3. Apply frosting to the plate where the gingerbread house will be (under walls).

4. When putting up walls, squirt frosting between them to hold them together.

5. Frost the tops of the walls to get the roof on.

6. Frost wherever you want candy in order to make it stick to the house.