I love making edible crafts at the holidays. Do you?
Even though my kids are “too old” for such things, they still indulge me and will make gluten free gingerbread houses and gluten free resurrection rolls, gluten free Easter Basket Cupcakes, gluten free Lamb Cake and other such holiday edibles with me (or at least happily eat them), and I actually don’t think they mind so much in the end.
That’s why I thought these gluten free Easter Graham Cracker Houses would be another fun project to spring on them!
Whether it’s because these homemade gluten free graham crackers are so irresistibly yummy or because Peeps were involved, this new edible gluten free craft was another hit. {The gluten free jelly beans probably didn’t hurt, either.}
I’m not going to dwell on the importance of sugary bribes — I choose to believe I was making memories that they would look back on fondly, if not just thinking that their mom was goofy. At least they went along with it, and the next generation was into it too — this cute little A-frame made its way to my mother’s apartment and made her day too.
That’s what it’s all about, right? Have fun making the craft, make some memories, share the treat, and make someone happy. I’d say these gluten free graham cracker houses check off all the boxes.
Mind you, I’m no accomplished graham cracker architect. If this project wasn’t easy, it wouldn’t have happened.
I do make a pretty cool gluten free Gingerbread House, but that’s with a template or a house cutting set. Come to think of it, Peeps would look pretty good in a gingerbread mansion too. But these tiny houses are just the right size for a little Peep family.
Just make my from-scratch recipe or use my gfJules Gluten Free Graham Cracker/Gingerbread Mix (even easier!) and cut a bunch of graham crackers of the same size. You can see from my photos that my houses were pretty tall. No need to do that if you want to conserve dough or choose to make a smaller Peeps “coop”.
It doesn’t matter exactly what the size is, you just need 2 of thee same size for the long sides/walls, and 3 of another size for the back and roof. (This wood handled scraper with measurements really comes in handy here!)
The three smaller ones need to be the same length as the walls so the roof will be long enough. Their width should be approximately half the length of the walls; the width will dictate the angle of the peak on the roof, all of which can be adjusted to fit when you apply the icing.
Thankfully, it’s a pretty forgiving process with a lot of wiggle room.
You can even leave the back wall off if you prefer (more of a rustic concept!), or you can get fancy and cut a triangle to fit against the roof to close it off.
Whether a lean-to or a full A-frame — it truly doesn’t matter! Your Peeps will look adorable under any gluten free graham cracker roof!
The “mortar” for these gluten free Easter graham cracker houses is a simple royal icing mixture — this one is even vegan! I use a powdered chickpea meringue powder made by Vor Foods.
The recipe is super simple: 1 1/2 Tbs. powdered meringue + 2 cups powdered confectioner’s sugar + 2-3 Tbs. warm water (or follow my other recipe for icing in the recipe card below).
It doesn’t have to be fancy — just cut the corner out of a sandwich bag if you don’t have piping bags — and squeeze out enough icing to cover the edges so you can press and hold until they set. I actually put a can in between my walls to hold them up so I could walk away — LOL!
Hey, it worked!
It comes together one way or another — no one really needs to know how you got it to stand up!
If you need ideas for gluten free candy to decorate your gluten free Easter Graham Cracker House, check out my recipe for Gluten Free Easter Basket Cupcakes detailing all your gluten free Easter candy choices!
To make the “grass,” place shredded coconut in a bowl or plastic bag with a squirt of green food coloring and stir it up! How easy is that?
Have fun graham cracker house building! I can’t wait to see how yours turn out — share your pictures in the comments below!
And for even more gluten free Easter recipes, check out my Gluten Free Easter Recipe Roundup!
Gluten Free Easter Graham Cracker Houses
These adorable Peep houses are fun to make, cute to look at and delicious to eat!
Ingredients
Mix
- 1 gfJules Graham Cracker/Gingersnap Mix + follow directions to make dough
OR From-Scratch Recipe
- 3/4 cup shortening (e.g Spectrum Organic Palm Oil Shortening or coconut oil
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 cup brown sugar or coconut palm sugar
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups gfJules All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- 1 cup white rice flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat or brown rice flour
- dash of salt
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 3 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
Follow package directions for gfJules Gluten Free Graham Cracker/Gingerbread Mix.
OR
Beat together the first four ingredients listed above in one large bowl, and mix all of the remaining dry ingredients in another bowl. Slowly stir the dry mixture into the first bowl, adding water as necessary to create a consistency such that you could make a ball with the dough.
The dough should not be crumbly; add more water if needed.
Cover and refrigerate dough until cold if very sticky; otherwise, prepare a clean counter or pastry mat for rolling by liberally dusting with with gfJules All Purpose Flour. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 325º F for static ovens, 300º F for convection.
Roll one half of the dough to 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick (see pictures of the thickness of my graham crackers for reference). Do not roll the dough too thin, or the sides of the house might break.
For each house, you'll need two side walls/pieces; two roof pieces + one back wall of the same height as the walls, if closing the back of the house; and one triangle to connect the back wall to the roof (optional). See photos above the recipe card. Each pair must be identical and the roof pieces must be as long as the walls.
Cut with a pastry cutter, pizza cutter or butter knife. A dough chopper/scraper with measurements is helpful for this project.
Place cut pieces onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and prick with a fork like a graham cracker (this will prevent bubbles rising in the dough). Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned, but not getting hard.
Remove to fully cool on wire racks.
Make 1 recipe of White Frosting or Royal Icing (whisk 2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar together with either: 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar and 1 egg white OR with 1 1/2 Tbs. vegan meringue powder + 2 1/2 Tbs. warm water). Add more water if necessary for the icing to be workable. Fill a piping bag or sandwich bag with a corner cut out and apply icing to “glue” the house pieces together, and to adhere any candies or edible decorations to the house.
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