I have to admit something. Even though I love baking and I have this food blog, baking layered cakes, piping holiday cookies and so on is not my forte. I am not very detail-oriented (and I don’t have a lot of patience either), so I try to stay away from delicate, detailed baking. Every year this time of year I come up with easy and simple holiday treats to make with the kids to avoid failure and misery. In the past I have made gingerbread men with red pants on (so I only had to dip the legs in icing) for example. And for this year I have come up with.. gingerbread houses in a glass jar; A GINGERBREAD VILLAGE SNOW GLOBE!
No icing needed; the gingerbread cookies are dusted with confectioner’s sugar to create a snow effect. No gluing the sides of the gingerbread house together; you just stick the individual houses in the ‘snow’.
This gingerbread village is a great Christmas present or awesome to put on your own Christmas table. You can even turn it into a sort of advent calendar and countdown to Christmas by letting your kids/yourself eat a cookie a day until the globe is empty and it is Christmas. My kids are so stoked about this idea and so am I actually.
How to make a gingerbread village snow globe?
Make the dough
I use my Speculaas recipe and replace speculaas spice for gingerbread spice (but if you have your own gingerbread house/cookie recipe by all means..). This speculaas recipe is a super simple and easy cookie recipe. It is as simple as mixing all dry ingredients together and all wet ingredients. Then you combine the 2 mixes together into a somewhat sticky dough ball.
For easier handling, I usually let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to harden a bit before rolling it out.
The cooled dough should be rolled out thin. I go for more or less 1/3-1/2 of an inch. I usually roll out the dough on parchment paper or a (silicon) baking mat. This way I don’t have to transfer the houses I have carved out to a baking tin afterwards, so less chance of them breaking.
Cut out the houses
I measured the height of my glass jar (the snow globe) and measured that out on a piece of paper. Then I placed the paper on the dough to mark off the maximum height of the gingerbread houses. I also drew a thin line on the bottom of the dough. That part will disappear in the ‘snow’ and not be visible:
I drew several vertical lines to mark the different houses. I had the kids draw examples of houses on paper first to practice. It was a lot of fun coming up with windows, doors, different roof designs and texture for the walls.
I used a sharp knife wherever the dough had to be cut and separated and a plastic knife from a kid’s cutlery set for the decoration.
Bake the cookies
Once all the houses were carved and cut, it was time to bake them. Since the dough is rolled out thin, they only have to bake for 8-10 minutes.
Decorate the houses
Like I said, no icing needed! We dusted the houses with powdered sugar to give them a ‘snow look’. You simply rub some powdered sugar on the cookies and in all crevasses like this:
Assembly of the gingerbread village snow globe
I filled up the glass jar with 2 inches of mostly oat flour and just a thin layer of powdered sugar on top, but you can use just (powdered) sugar or (oat) flour as long as it is white so it resembles snow. How much you fill it up depends a bit on the shape of the glass jar as well. Just keep in mind that the more you fill it up the smaller your houses need to be. Having said that, you need enough for your gingerbread houses to not fall over.
Now build your village by placing several houses (and trees and a street light) in the glass jar. What would be very cute as well is place tiny little lights in the jar (which I didn’t have).
Put the lit on the jar and your gingerbread village snow globe is ready!
Isn’t this the cutest thing? My kids are so thrilled about it. I hope you and your kids will love to make this gingerbread village as well. It is
easy to make – eye catching – festive – a great craft project with/for kids – and super delicious
This gingerbread village snow globe is one of my favorite ‘holiday baking with kids’ activities. We also love making pepernoten together and speculaas (both Dutch spiced holiday cookies) and this speculaas banana bread is great to make with kids as well over the holidays. All these recipes are made with my 3 favorite holiday spice mixes.
Gingerbread village snow globe
Ingredients
Gingerbread houses:
- 1 batch speculaas cookie dough* (see Notes for recipe link)(or use your own gingerbread house/cookie recipe and make sure to have enough dough to make 4-6 houses)
- ¼ cup confectioner's sugar (for dusting the cookies) or keep it healthier and use powdered Xylitol)
Snow on the ground:
- 1-2 cups oat flour (or use other type of white flour or just only use powdered sugar)
- ¼ cup confectioner's sugar (or only use (oat) flour)
Instructions
Make and roll out the dough
- Make the dough following the instructions*. Let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to stiffen up enough for you to be able to easily roll out the dough to ⅓-½ inch thickness. Do so between parchment paper or on a (silicon) baking mat so you don't have to transfer the individual gingerbread houses later.
Carve out the gingerbread houses
- Preheat the oven to 175C/350F while you are carving out the houses.
- Measure the height of your glass jar (the snow globe). Now measure that out on a piece of paper. Then place the paper on the dough to mark off the maximum height of the gingerbread houses and draw a thin line on the bottom part of the dough. That will be the part that disappears in the 'snow' and not be visible.
- Draw several vertical lines to mark the different houses. You can draw examples of houses on paper first to practice. Use a sharp knife wherever the dough has to be cut and separated and a plastic dull knife for the decoration.
Bake the cookies
- Once all the houses are carved and cut out, it is time to bake them. Since the dough is rolled out thin, they only have to bake for 8-10 minutes.
Decorate the cookies
- The houses are dusted with powdered sugar or Xylitol. To give the cookies a 'snowed upon' look powdered sugar is rubbed on the cookies until all crevasses are filled white.
Building the snow globe
- Fill up the glass jar with 2 inches of mostly oat flour and just a thin layer of powdered sugar, but you can use just (powdered) sugar or (oat) flour as long as it is white so it resembles snow. How much you fill up your glass jar depends a bit on the shape of it as well. Just keep in mind that the more you fill it up the smaller your houses need to be. Having said that, you need enough for your gingerbread houses to not fall over.
- Now build your village by placing several houses (and trees and a street light or whatever else you came up with… a snow man?) in the glass jar.
- Close the jar by putting the lit on it and your gingerbread village snow globe is ready!
Notes
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