Comments on: Fancy silpat, traditional parchment paper, or plain baking sheet? We experiment with cookies

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 20:25:33 +0000

Being snowed in again, I decided to make cookies. I am not really a baker, but what else am I doing today~ I was curious about this myself and this was the perfect information. I used a Silpat, and for the record- they are super easy to clean~

By: LL

LL — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 22:25:07 +0000

This was exactly the information I was looking for! I recently moved to east of nowhere, and to get parchment I'd have to drive 30+ miles. My roll ran out and I was wondering what affect it would have on my recipes. I'll set oven timer for a few minutes less and watch the browning times. Washing a cookie pan isn't that big of a deal although the easy clean up with parchment is nice.

By: Joni

Joni — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 23:27:27 +0000

I'm a parchment girl. Can't bake without it anymore. :-)

By: soozie

soozie — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:41:16 +0000

I also prefer parchment paper. When baking is completed, it goes directly into my composter, along with egg shells, etc....

By: katiek

katiek — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 01:55:37 +0000

I hear you about the consumable parchment paper. But I wonder how much soap / water is used in the washing of more dishes?

By: Mandisa

Mandisa — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 22:27:28 +0000

Silicone doesn't seem to give the same carmelization as metal/parchment. For some things (pastry/tart shells) that's okay, for others (cookies), it's a deal-breaker.

Parchment can handle 2-3 trips into the oven, depending on the butter content of your dough/batter - I find it's ideal for cookies, since you're doing multiple back-to-back batches anyway. I'll use a bit to line the bottoms of cake pans for layer cake as well, since it ensures easy bottom removal (as opposed to sheet cake, when I just serve directly from the cake pan).

Also, parchment also is sometimes a better alternative to aluminum foil in certain cases (frozen-to-oven commercial foods, fish, and other foods that are metal-reactive), so I like to have it around.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 19:07:57 +0000

I still go for Silpat, it's very easy to clean and saves money from wasteful parchment paper that is typically used once and rarely recycled. :)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:38:37 +0000

I like it! I usually use an ungreased cookie sheet on a top rack to keep them a little further away from the heating element so that they cook a little more evenly.

By: Laura Dobrzynski

Laura Dobrzynski — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:17:34 +0000

Interesting. I always use parchment paper when making cookies, but I do it to decrease clean-up (even "nonstick" baking sheets always seem to cement cookies onto them). I had never considered whether it had a measurable effect on how brown the cookies got on the bottom. Good post!