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The Jade Leaf Matcha Gingerbread House

Jules Reyes

We partnered with the lovely Amanda Vuu who brought our vision of the matcha-iest Matcha Gingerbread House to life in this amazing recipe. Those who step foot through this tiny door will never want to leave this matcha bedazzled house adorned with a matcha kit kat brick roof, pocky icicles, a sour apple jolly rancher stained window, matcha mochi bushes, matcha pirouette cookie  logs, a matcha wafer pathway, Japanese cookie gravel, surrounded by fluffy coconut snow.

Meet the new Jade Leaf Matcha Headquarters... jk jk :)

Roll your sleeves up and build this magnificent Matcha Gingerbread House with Amanda's instructions and recipe below!

 

 

THE JADE LEAF MATCHA GINGERBREAD HOUSE 

  • Makes 1 matcha gingerbread house, 8 mini people and 10 little trees
  • Prep time: 3 hours
  • Cook time: 65 minutes

 

Ingredients

For the gingerbread house:

  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • ¾ cup butter
  • 4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp saigon cinnamon
  • 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground allspice
  • 3 tbsp Jade Leaf Culinary Matcha

 

For the gingerbread mortar:

  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tbsp meringue powder
  • 6 tbsp water

 

For the decorations:

  • Matcha Kit Kats (roof shingles)
  • White chocolate Kit Kats + Wilton leaf sprinkles (window boxes)
  • Matcha Pocky (icicles)
  • Hokkaido matcha hard candies (roof decoration)
  • Japanese Milk Cookie Balls (cookie gravel)
  • Mini matcha mochi balls (bushes)
  • Matcha cookie wafers (pathways)
  • Matcha pirouette cookies (logs)
  • Green apple hard candy (stained glass windows)
  • Unsweetened coconut flake snow
  • Gummy wreath

 

You’ll Need:

  • Small saucepan
  • Wooden spoon
  • Medium mixing bowl
  • Measuring spoons and cups
  • 3-4 baking sheets
  • Parchment paper
  • Rolling pin
  • Gingerbread house templates cut out of thin cardboard
  • Pizza cutter
  • Stand mixer with paddle attachment
  • Rubber spatula
  • 10” and 18” piping bag
  • Piping tips (Ateco 802, Wilton 3, Wilton 16)
  • Plastic wrap
  • Cans

 

Instructions

  1. Preheat an oven to 350 F.  Combine the corn syrup, white sugar and butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Stir occasionally and heat until all the butter has melted.  
  2. In the meantime, combine the rest of the gingerbread house ingredients together in a medium-mixing bowl, making sure to sift the matcha into the ingredients first before whisking it all together.
  3. Pour in the butter-sugar mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon until all the flour is worked in.  The key to success here is to work as quickly as possible while the dough is still warm.
  4. Remove ⅓ of the matcha gingerbread dough from the bowl and place onto a piece of parchment paper.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough to ¼” thickness.  Dust the top with the smallest bit of flour just so the template will not stick (if it does stick it will stretch the dough and alter the shape).
  5. Place two templates (see below) on top of the dough about 1 ½” a part and cut them out using a pizza cutter.  You should be able to fit one Front/Back and one Side template onto the first third of the dough rolled out.  Remove the scrap pieces and set aside in the bowl with the remaining dough to keep it warm.  Without moving the cut gingerbread pieces, slide the parchment paper with cut pieces adhered to it onto a baking sheet.  If you would like to add windows or doors, now is the time to do so.  Cut out the shapes of the windows and doors, but do not remove the dough to make holes.  The key here is to score the dough and remove the dough after baking to make the most even window shapes.  Bake for 13 minutes.
  6. Repeat with the remaining dough, dividing it in half, and cut another Front/Back and Side pieces.  The last piece of dough will fit two roof shapes.  Have these cut and ready to go on parchment paper.
  7. When the first batch of gingerbread house pieces are removed from the oven, allow it to cool for 1-2 minutes.  Then use a paring knife to cut along the score lines for the windows and doors.  Remove the dough.  Allow the pieces to cool completely.  Repeat baking off the remaining pieces.
  8. There will be some dough remaining after all the house pieces are cut.  Roll this out and cut out gingerbread people and trees using 1 ½” sized cutters.

 

Assembly

  1. Once all the pieces have cooled completely, crush the green apple hard candy into very fine pieces.  Fill the windows with the candy and bake at 350 F for 4 minutes or until the crushed candy has melted.  Allow to cool again until hardened before assembling the house.
  2. While the pieces are cooling, whip the gingerbread mortar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until it loses shine, about 7-10 minutes.  Divide the mortar into three sections, by placing some icing onto a piece of plastic wrap.  Roll the plastic wrap around the icing and twist the ends.  This will keep the icing soft and piping bags clean.  When you are ready to use the icing, cut off one of the twisted ends and place it cut side down into a piping bag fitted with the appropriate piping tip.
  3. If you want the sturdiest possible gingerbread house, use a pocket plane to file the edges straight.  You can skip this step just use more mortar.  Using a large piping bag fitted with an Ateco 802 tip, pipe mortar on the bottom and side of the first Side piece.  Attach it to one Front/Back piece.  Set two cans on either side of the side piece to hold it up while the mortar dries.  Repeat by attaching the remaining sides.
  4. Pipe around the top edges and adhere the roof pieces.
  5. Ta da!  The entire house is assembled and ready to be decorated any way you would like using the mortar as glue for the candies. Round matcha candies for the roof, Pocky icicles, wafer sidewalks, mochi bushes, coconut snow...the possibilities are endless.  The smaller round piping tips are used to add finer details and to attach the candies. The larger round piping tip was best used to attach candies to the roof.