Cookie House on a Cup (no Gingerbread!)

If you like the idea of a gingerbread house but you don’t really like the taste of gingerbread, then you’ve come to the right place! Today I'll teach you how to make a chocolate dough and turn it into tiny houses you can place over your hot cups of milk!

• 1 egg
• 50 gr bitter cocoa
• 450 gr of white flour (if you don't want to use cocoa, use 500 gr instead)
• 250 gr of butter
• a pinch of salt
• 150 gr of powdered sugar
• a tablespoon of vanilla essence

For the glaze:

• 250 powdered sugar
• a few drops of lemon
• 1 egg white

For the decorations (optional but suggested!):

• M&Ms or smarties
• sprinkles
• chocolate chips

Pour flour, cocoa and powdered sugar in a large bowl, mixing everything together. Then add the salt and mix again. Then, pour the egg and a spoonful of vanilla essence. Cut the butter in thin leaves and add it to the bowl, then start mixing again. You can use a planetary mixer or knead by hand.

At the end, you should get something like the last picture. The dough forms very rapidly and has a very nice smell.

Wrap the dough in cellophane and let it rest for one hour and a half in the fridge.

Take the dough out of the fridge and lay it between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Press it using a rolling pin until it is of uniform thickness (about 4-5 mm). You will get something that looks like the fourth photo.

Using the template shown in the last picture of this step, start cutting the dough (you will need two of each piece to make one cookie house), then lay it onto a pan.

Turn on the oven on 170°C and place the pan in the fridge until the oven is hot, then bake the cookies for no more than 10 minutes! Be careful not to burn them!

Whip the egg white (not too much) in a large bowl. When it starts to become foamy, add the powdered sugar bit by bit, while continuing to whip. Add a few drops of lemon.

When you achieve a good consistency, the glaze is ready. Put it in a sac à poche (with a small tip) before it hardens!

Pick the roof pieces and start decorating them in couples. Feel free to improvise and be creative!!!

You can use the glaze as a decoration or as a glue for sprinkles or M&Ms, as shown in the pictures.

It is time to decorate the walls and faces of the tiny houses! Try drawing a few windows like I did, or outline the faces.

Put quite a bit of glaze on both sides of one face piece. Take a side piece and place it against the face piece. Repeat the same with another face and another side, until you complete the four walls.

To add the roof, don't forget to first put some glaze on the top side of the house! You may keep decorating the faces and roof until you're satisfied. For example, you can easily create the effect of snow that is falling from the roof!

The tiny cookie houses are done! Make as many as you want and try to decorate them in different ways. I can assure you it is a lot of fun!!!

I hope you liked this little project, thank you for you attention :)

Bye!!