How to Make a Salted-Caramel Gingerbread House

Finally, a gingerbread house you'll actually want to eat. From the shutters to the shingles, this sweet-and-salty house was designed with flavor in mind. Learn how to make it with this step-by-step guide from Food Network Kitchen.

Photography by Armando Moutela

A classic gingerbread dough has flour, brown sugar, molasses and plenty of ground ginger. You can use your own, or try our recipe that you can make up to 3 days in advance and refrigerate (or freeze for up to 1 month).

Make templates for the walls and roof out of stiff paper — a manila folder works well. For the wall panels, cut a rectangle that measures 4 by 7 inches. For the front and back panels of the house (with a peaked roof), cut a template that is 6 inches wide at the base, 4 inches to the roofline and 4 1/2 inches slanted to a peak. The template for the roof panels should measure 4 1/2 by 8 inches.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll each out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. (Keep the other pieces refrigerated.) Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Using the templates, cut the dough with a pizza wheel so you have 2 side panels, 2 roof panels and 2 front/back panels. (You can reroll the scraps to make cookies.) Chill the dough on the baking sheets for 15 minutes.

To decorate a 6-by-7-inch gingerbread house, you will need caramel, French toast cereal, fig bars, pecan halves, caramel-coated mini pretzels, caramel-flavored jelly beans and more and more festive, edible accents of your choosing.

Use a piping bag fitted with the small tip to pipe a pea-size dot of royal icing on the back of a peppermint candy and attach it to the top center of one of the side panels. Pipe icing on the back of 4 fig bar pieces and attach them to the panels as windows shutters.

Using the piping bag fitted with the small tip, pipe a double line of icing across the front panel where the roof starts to incline; press on the French toast cereal. Pipe a small dot of icing on the back of a red sprinkle-coated gummy candy and attach it to the front panel just above the line of cereal. To make a flower, pipe a small dot of icing on the cut sides of 8 of the toasted marshmallow jelly bean pieces and attach them in a ring around the gummy. Pipe icing to draw a door; attach a caramel jellybean with a dot of icing to make a door knob.

Pipe icing on the back of the gummy gingerbread people and place 1 on either side of the door.

Wait to make the caramel until you are ready to assemble the house and have all your supplies close at hand. Once the caramel is cooked, you'll need to work quickly before it hardens.

Carefully place the saucepan of hot caramel by your work surface. You will use it like glue to attach the panels together. Start by dipping the bottom of the front panel in the caramel. Place the panel on the foil-wrapped base. Use the silicone brush to brush the inside of the panel along the base with more caramel to reinforce the connection. Gently position a can in front of the panel to prop it up. Then brush more caramel up the edge of the panel so you can attach the sides of the house.

Repeat the same dipping and brushing method to attach the side and back pieces, using the hot caramel as glue: Dip a side panel in the caramel and place it perpendicular to the front panel, forming a corner. Brush the inside of the panel along the base with more caramel to reinforce it. Prop up the side piece with a can. Repeat with the other side panel and the back.

Sprinkle the seams of the house with sea salt.