Taffiny Elrod

Dec 7, 2021 · min read

Holiday Recipe Challenge: Chef Taffiny Elrod’s Gingerbread House

Holiday Recipe Challenge: Chef Taffiny Elrod's Eggnog Gingerbread House

A real gingerbread house that tastes great, smells like Christmas at Grandma's house, and holds together beautifully. All without flour, sugar, or gluten!When I realized this dough would hold up to building a gingerbread house, I was so excited. It works beautifully, tastes like a good old-fashioned gingerbread, and will make your kitchen smell magical.

Pin Recipe

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 20

Assembly time 1

Total Time 2

Course Dessert

Servings gingerbread house and decorations

Calories 2595.7kcal

Equipment

Electric mixer
Cookie cutters or patterns to cut out the shapes for the house and any decorations
Rolling Pin
Cookie sheets
Cardboard or cake board for the base of the house
Parchment paper
Piping bag

Ingredients

The Gingerbread House

4servingsGingerbread Keto Chowor Eggnog Keto Chow
1/4cupcoconut flour
2tbspground ginger
1 1/2tbspground cinnamon
1tbspground cloves
2tspcocoa powderfor color
1tspbaking powder
1cupunsalted butter(two sticks of butter), softened
1cupbrown erythritol blend
2large egg(s)
2tspvanilla extract

Royal Icing for Assembly

1cuppowdered erythritolsifted
1egg whites
1/2tspwaterplus more as needed
1/4tspcream of tartar
food coloring if desiredif desired

Instructions

Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F.
Line cookie sheets with lightly oiled tin foil or parchment paper
Whisk together the Keto Chow, coconut flour, spices, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy.
Beat in the sweetener.
When the sweetener is completely mixed with the butter, add the egg and the vanilla extract.
Beat the mixture until the eggs are completely mixed with the butter and sweetener. The mixture will look grainy and separated.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl and blend. When that is fully combined, add the rest of the dry ingredients.
Beat on low speed until it is completely combined and creates a stiff dough. It should start to come together into a ball.
To make cut-out cookies, chill the dough for approximately 15 minutes. Then, working with 1/3 of the dough at a time, roll it out between two sheets of oiled parchment paper to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut it into pieces for your house.
For my house, I cut two end panels with door and window openings, two side panels, and two roof panels, plus gingerbread people, a snowman, and various shapes to decorate the house.
Place the cut pieces on the prepared cookie sheets and bake for about 20 minutes until the pieces start to look brown and feel firm to the touch. They will still be slightly soft to the touch in the center but will firm up as they cool.
Continue until you have made all the pieces you need. You can reroll the dough more than once. If it gets too soft, just return it to the fridge for a few minutes.
Allow the baked cookies to cool completely before assembling the house.

Icing and Assembly

To make the royal icing, beat together erythritol, egg white, 1/2 tsp water, and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar in the work bowl of an electric mixer. If the icing is too thick, add more water 1/2 tsp at a time, blending after each addition until it is pipeable but still quite thick. It should be quite stiff. If you add too much water, you can add more erythritol a teaspoon at a time, but try to stay as close as possible to the original recipe so it will dry and hold together.
To assemble your gingerbread house, first check the edges of your wall and roof pieces and be sure they are straight and even. If they aren't, you can even them by filing them with a micro plane zester of a small knife until they all match up to each other and are flat.
Cut a small hole into the tip of a disposable icing bag or fit an icing bag with a small round tip. Fill the bag about 1/3 full with icing.
Starting with the back wall of your house, pipe a generous line of icing along the bottom edge of the wall and place it on your cardboard or cake board. You can use a can or jar to prop it up while you pipe icing along the edge and the bottom of one of the side walls and connect it with the back wall. Continue building the walls of the house like this until you have all four in place.
Allow the icing on the walls to set and dry for at least half an hour until they are sturdy enough to hold the roof pieces. Then pipe icing onto the roof pieces where they will connect with the walls and where they meet at the peak.
Refrigerate your remaining icing tightly covered while you wait for the house to set.
When the house is set, decorate however you wish. Color the icing with different colors, decorate with sugar-free chocolates, sprinkles, and candies. Use your favorite molds to make chocolate shapes. Let your imagination and creativity run wild and have fun.
Once the house has dried and everything is set, store in a cool, dry place, loosely covered with plastic wrap so it doesn't get dusty when it isn't on display.
If properly stored, it should be edible for up to a week. If you don't want to eat it, it should be in good condition for display for up to a month.

Notes

KETO CHOW NOTES: Eggnog gingerbread house: Would make approx 30 medium sized cookies.

Keyword Chef Taffiny Elrod, Eggnog, Gingerbread

Be sure to check out Taffiny’s Keto Royal Icing Recipe

Photos bySarah DeYoung Photography

Nutrition Facts

Gingerbread House

Serving Size

36 g

Amount per Serving

Calories

2595.7

% Daily Value*

Fat

206.69

318

Saturated Fat

123.65

773

Trans Fat

7.46

Polyunsaturated Fat

9.24

Monounsaturated Fat

59.35

Cholesterol

1073.17

358

Sodium

4146.23

180

Potassium

7602.22

217

Carbohydrates

651.74

217

Fiber

48.41

202

Sugar

12.61

Sugar Alcohol

576.32

Net Carbs

27.01

Protein

133.18

266

Vitamin A

10473.58

209

Vitamin C

480.53

582

Calcium

3554.01

355

Iron

18.68

104

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Taffiny Elrod

Keto Chef

Taffy Elrod is a chef, cooking instructor, and recipe developer with a passion for making good food accessible to everyone. Born into a family of artists and cooks, she learned early on that food was a powerful medium for creation and change. She has been creating Keto Chow recipes since 2018 and also shares her favorite tips and tricks with Keto Chow blog readers to make their keto cooking and baking more successful and enjoyable. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband Pizza Man, and their rescue cat Kit-Kat.