Tip for Baking LOTS of Gingerbread House Pieces at a Time

Baking a bunch of gingerbread houses this Christmas season?  Use this technique to bake more pieces more quickly, waste less dough, and still end up with perfectly baked, perfectly shaped gingerbread pieces.

I cannot believe it took me so many years to figure this one out.  I'm baking oodles of gingerbread houses again this year.  For both of my daugters' classes, girl scout troop, friends, neighbors, etc.  About 100 this year by the time I'm done.

I've extolled the virtues of A-frame gingerbread houses before, especially when baking for a crowd.  

But when baking, I always cut out each piece individually.

Years, I tell you.  Decades, even.  I'd cut each piece individually.  I'd trim each piece individually when they came out of the oven.   And then just last year, it dawned on me:

Bake it as a slab!  

Cut the individual triangles after it bakes!  (While it's still soft and hot, of course.)  Less time, less waste, and I can fit five or six triangle pieces and three side pieces on one cookie sheet!  I feel awfully silly that this didn't occur to me sooner.  May my DOH! moment save you decades of work.  So you can get to the fun part that much more quickly.

Learn even more about making gingerbread houses with my new e-book, Gingerbread for Beginners: