Alrighty, bakers, lets play some jeopardy. I’m gonna pretending I’m Alex. I do welcome all of our participation.
Q: When you are about to bake your pies, cookies, muffin, etc. what do you use to keep the batter from sticking to the cookie sheet? Is it:
a) Parchment paper?
b) Wax paper
What is you guys answer?
Uhm….. and Yes! that is right. A is the right answer.
Let me give you a little bit of explanation.
What is parchment paper?
Parchment paper for baking is just a good heat resistant paper (way way wayyyyy better than our normal everyday printing paper), and it was made by using silicone in a complicated process (anyone who is a chemist please help me out)
In anyways parchment paper is used widely to bake. Yep! just to bake.
Parchment paper help you eliminate the time and the messiness of having to grease your baking sheet everytime you bake. Imagine you have to bake cookies for your extended family, or your baby son or daughter needs some cookies for school fundraising. Then how do we speed the baking process up?
Washing and re-greasing the baking sheets isn’t the best idea, so consider parchment paper.
Parchment paper will help you stop the greasing and the sticking of the dough… Batches after batches, you just need to wipe off the excessive grease if nexxessary, get rid of the old parchment paper, and apply the new one.
Scroll of parchment paper
One note however, don’t let parchment paper hanging from the baking sheet, it would burn and create smoke. Potential fire hazard. So please use parchment paper to cover the baking sheet, but don’t try to over-covering your baking sheet and left it hanging in your oven.
Parchment paper can sustain up to 420F ( or 210C)
Parchment paper is used for baking only, don’t broil things with it. It would burn.
How about waxed paper?
Waxed paper is just.. paper that is coated with wax… Waxed paper is actually tissue paper which is coated on both sides with a paraffin wax. Waxed paper does eliminate moisture and grease, but you have to be really careful using waxed paper as a baking medium. Kudos for Thomas Edison who invented the waxed paper.
Waxed paper can be used for baking in just 1 condition: the batter completely covers the waxed paper. If you fail to do that, it would smoke up the place ( just like burning candles), thus is another smoke and fire hazard.
Waxed paper can be used in microwaves because it can resist more heat than the plastic wrap, and it can be used for storage. It helps keep the moisture away.
Scroll of waxed paper
So, moral story? there is none. It’s just one reminder, parchment paper is more pratical to use than waxed paper, so please dont be confused about these 2 anymore when you decide to bake. I prefer parchment paper, no need for excessive grease, and it is fast to clean up.
