Tips and Tools Tuesday: Parchment Paper

I don't know about you but when I was growing up when making cookies or really, any baked treats, when it came time to actually put the item in the oven we'd have to spray the cookie sheet. Cooking spray is pretty awful, it's pretty impossible to spray just the pan and when you're done baking you have to scrub the pan, trying to get the baked cooking spray off. Where there isn't a cookie, the spray bakes onto the pan and it's this horrible tacky yellow gunk that is near impossible to remove. When I would read through the baking instructions of a recipe and the phrase "grease and flour" appeared I pretty much knew that there was a 50% chance my beautiful baked item wasn't going to come out of the pan.

Muffin cups are pretty magical, aren't they? They keep the cupcake from sticking to the pan and it makes clean up a breeze. Parchment paper is pretty much the same idea but has so many uses that you'll never bake without it again. I never considered using parchment paper until I started my first bakery job in a grocery store bakery. They used parchment under EVERYTHING. Bread, cookies.. if it went in the oven it was pretty likely that there was parchment paper under it. When I switched jobs to a small commercial bakery I learned the they had even more uses for parchment paper.

Parchment paper is great for cookies because you'll never have to worry about cookies sticking to the pan. Just place a piece of parchment paper on the pan, place the dough on the paper and bake like normal. Your cookies turn out exactly the same but once they're cooled you can just lift them off without struggling with a spatula. And yes, there are nonstick pans these days but you still have to spend time cleaning them and hoping that you don't scratch the nonstick coating off. All the oil and butter from the cookies ends up on the parchment paper which you just throw away or recycle. Magic! To be fair, there are some cookies that still might stick (like macaroons) but spraying the parchment paper resolves that problem and it still helps you with cleanup. I like to stack cookies but some cookies have sticky bottoms (like oatmeal raisin) which makes stacking a headache. I cut up the parchment that I actually baked the cookies on and place a square between the cookies.

Even more impressive is using parchment paper under your cakes. Baking a cake can be a frustrating thing because sometimes you spend all the time and energy to bake a beautiful cake only to have the darn thing stick in the pan and sometimes even crumble or break as you try to unpan it. A trick I learned in the bakery; cut the parchment paper in a circle so that it fully covers the bottom of the cake pan but still lays flat. Bake your cake as normal and let it cool in the actual cake pan. Cover the top with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Because your cake is chilled it will be firm and more durable. To remove your cake the next day, tap the edge of the cake pan on the counter at a 45 degree angle. Rotate the pan and continue tapping. Eventually your cake will fall out, entact and beautiful. If the cake won't budge, try tapping harder or if all else fails, run a knife or spatula around the edge. Simply peel the paper off the bottom and you're done!

You can also make your own piping bag for decorating cakes with parchment. I've always used plastic bags but at the bakery I worked at we used melted chocolate to decorate with so I had to learn how to use parchment. Using parchment paper to decorate with is cheaper than buying a plastic bag and I always have parchment paper around but rarely remember to buy plastic piping bags. Plus, I like to save the plastic bags for when I'm using decorating tips. Here's a great video that shows how to fold a piping bag.

Parchment paper is avialable at pretty much any grocery store but it's sold on a roll, like foil. The paper will have a curl to it and I don't want to fight with the paper when I'm trying to scoop cookies. I prefer to buy parchment paper that is packaged flat. At gygi they have parchment paper in a 1/2 sheet size and a 1/4 sheet, it's up by the register. If you have the costco mentality and like buying in bulk to save, Standard Resturant supply has a great price.