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Make sure Odin visits your home this Yule season by making a Viking longship or house out of gingerbread. This fragrant recipe is harder and more sturdy than regular gingerbread cookies. I wouldn’t recommend you use this recipe for cookies. Instead use this one. I’ve used this recipe for other gingerbread creations like shops, churches, or greenhouses.
Making the House
The house is pretty straight forward. Not too difficult. Just cut out the shapes from my templates (see below) and bake! I included the recipe for icing glue below as well. I left the back open so you can make your own scene inside. I went traditional longhouse with a firepit in the middle and seating on each side. The seat blankets and pillows are made from simple marshmallow fondant.
A perfect place to put your boots up and enjoy a nice mead in front of a cozy fire. The fire is just a simple battery operated candle, orange from Halloween. A white one would work as well. Surrounding the light, I added some melted Jolly Ranchers to make the flames. To melt the candies just crush them in a bag and pop in the oven for a few minutes on 350 F. Smooth any bubbles with a tooth pick. Let harden and break into pieces.
Making the Longship
The boat shape wasn’t too hard when I realized I could just bake the 2 pieces in a bread pan to get the boat curve. You can see this in the video below.
Now this is where it gets a little difficult… The hardest part for me was the mast, I’m definitely no shipwright, so getting it to stand up while the chocolate solidifies was tricky. If you have a more engineer type brain, you might have better luck. Maybe build a base to slide the mast into, I used fondant to hold it with a few sticks. Then I covered it in chocolate and put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
I also reinforced the dragon head and the tail with chocolate. The shields were fun to make, come up with your own designs or Christmas themed art. I put a silver dragee in the middle. The water is the marshmallow fondant with some white icing for waves.
The sail was marshmallow fondant as well. To make the stripes—roll cylinders of alternating colors and place them together. Fuse together with force and flatten with a rolling pin. Cut out shape. I “glued” it with chocolate on the mast before putting it on the boat. So it could dry lying flat without gravity making it fall. I also added a tiny shelf halfway down to rest the bottom on to get that curved sail look.
Templates
Just a warning—I’m no professional template maker, but these should get the job done for the basics. After baking you may need to trim some edges. I used a serrated knife for big cuts and a cheese grater for smoothing out edges.
Construction Gingerbread
Ingredients
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 cup butter softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp finely ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups unsulfured molasses
- 6 cups flour
Instructions
- Sift flour, spices, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter in mixer with paddle attachment. Add sugar and mix till fluffy. Mix in eggs and molasses.
- Slowly add flour mixture on slow speed until combined. Divide dough into 3 balls and wrap each in plastic. Chill at least 1 hour before rolling out and cutting shapes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line cookie sheets with parchment.
- On a floured surface roll out dough to ⅛ an inch in thickness. Cut shapes out, combine similar sized pieces onto cookie sheets for even baking.
- Chill for 15 minutes before baking. This helps prevent spreading.
- Bake 15 minutes. If adding sugar glass, bake 11 minutes, add candy melt 4 minutes. Smaller items may be done after 11 minutes.
- Cool completely before moving.
Royal Icing (glue)
Ingredients
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder
- 2-4 tbsp water
- Color if using
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together on low till combined.
- If you frosting is too dry add water a tsp at a time or if too dry add more sugar.
- Place a damp towel over bowl when not using so icing doesn’t dry out.
