Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Use HEAVY DUTY STAND MIXER and paddle. In mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. Add chilled butter (cut into 12 pieces), molasses and milk, and mix until dough comes together. Divide dough and roll to 1/8 to ¼ inch thick between two layers of parchment paper. Freeze for 15 minutes.
   

2. Print out and cut out the following template:

3. House Front and Back

4. House Roof

   
   

5. House Sides
   

6. Remove top sheet of parchment from frozen dough and cut out one house piece at a time. Spray paper template with non-stick oil before placing on cookie dough. Cut around template, then remove paper pattern. Leave the cut out cookie on parchment and pull away excess dough. Trim excess paper around cookie to about 1-inch, then transfer parchment and cookie to baking sheet. Multiple pieces can fit on one baking sheet.
   

7. Bake cookies twice to dry enough for building a house. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Then turn off oven leaving cookies inside with door shut. Leave them to cool completely in the heat of the oven (3 to 4 hours). When cool, remove cookies from oven, preheat oven again to 350°, then bake for an another 10 minutes. Turn off oven with cookies inside with door shut, leave until cool. Cookies need to be very dry to hold up when building a Gingerbread House.
   

8. Construct the house using Pamela's Royal Icing.
   

TO MAKE THE ICING:

1. With electric mixer, mix all ingredients until smooth and sharp peaks appear. Mixture should be thin enough to be pressed through a pastry bag with a writing tip. Add more water or food coloring, if necessary. Keep in mind that food coloring adds liquid to the recipe. You can separate out small amounts of icing for different colors. You may need to make a double recipe depending on the amount of frosting you need.
   

2. Decorate with candies stuck into the icing.