A fresh, warm batch of homemade cookies or cookie bars is a perfect little treat to offer family and friends. But it's no fun when you spend time and money making sugar cookies or whoopie pies only to have them spread into one giant cookie or, perhaps worse, get stuck to the pan.
Thanks to our Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen's years of practice in the cookie-making department, we've got some easy tips you should always follow. We'll help you determine whether you need to bake your cookies on a greased or ungreased cookie sheet and share how to let them cool long enough so they won't break. Then, come Christmastime, you'll have dozens of chocolate chip cookies, layer bars, and more flying off the pans.
1. Follow Your Recipe
Cookie and bar recipes are generally more forgiving than cakes, but all baking is based on chemistry. Making substitutions that aren't noted in your recipe (or not using proper amounts of ingredients) could lead to your cookies spreading too much or a hard, crumbly texture. Here are some common issues that could lead to undesirable cookies if the recipe isn't followed exactly:
Bars and cookies on a baking sheet can become too tender to remove if you use too little flour or too much sugar.
Use the exact type of fat (butter, oil, or shortening) called for in the recipe. Don't substitute shortening for butter or butter for shortening. It changes the consistency of the cookie or bar and yields unpredictable results. You can substitute high-fat (at least 100 calories per tablespoon) stick margarine for butter, but never use low-fat margarine, as it can make cookies and bars flat and harder to remove from the pan.
Unless specified, use large eggs for baking, so your cookies and bars keep their structure.
Some recipes call for ungreased pans or cookie sheets because there's enough fat in the crust or batter to keep the cookies or bars from sticking. If you grease the cookie sheet when the recipe calls for an ungreased sheet, your cookies could spread too much (we're looking at you, chocolate chip cookies) and turn out thin or flat. If the recipe calls for a greased pan or sheet, our Test Kitchen recommends using shortening, which spreads less than butter because it melts at a higher temperature. Here's how:
Apply a little bit of shortening to a paper towel or piece of waxed paper. (You can also use a pastry brush to spread softened shortening.)
Spread the shortening in a thin coating over the bottom and sides of the pan.
Coat the crevices where the sides meet the bottom of the pan.
3. Line Your Pan or Cookie Sheet
Whether your recipe calls for a greased pan or not, you can line your pan or cookie sheet with foil, parchment paper, or a silicone baking mat. Foil or parchment paper will enable you to lift the whole batch of bars from the pan at once when it's time to cut them. To make a foil liner:
Tear off a piece of foil that is larger than the pan (allow for overhang on either end) and shape over the outside of the pan, folding foil at the corners
Gently lift the foil off the pan and turn the pan over. Fit shaped foil in the pan, leaving the overhang to use as "handles" to lift the recipe out of the pan. If the recipe calls for a greased pan, be sure to grease the foil just like you would the pan.
How to Choose the Best Cookie Sheets for Baking Cookies
3. Give Your Cookies Time to Cool
Carefully follow the cooling directions in the recipe. Bars often cool in the pan on a wire rack. Some cookies need to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before you move them with a spatula to a cooling rack. With enough cooling time, both cookies and bars will firm up nicely.
4. Cut the Bars and Remove Cookies from Sheet
If you grease your pan, you can cut your cooled bars into squares or diamonds. Then use a thin metal spatula to loosen bars around the edges of the pan. Use a spatula to gently lift the bars from the pan. If you used a foil liner, use the overhang to lift the bars (foil and all) from the pan; cut the bars into squares or diamonds. Gently lift each bar from the foil, pulling down on the foil as necessary to remove it from the bottom of the bars.
Once you remove the cookies, let the cookie sheet cool and use a spatula to remove any crumbs. Or rinse the cooled cookie sheet with cool water and dry thoroughly. Once the cookie sheet is cool, clean, and dry, you can use it for another batch. You want to make sure it's cool before putting the dough on for another batch so the cookies won't spread before getting a chance to bake.
Get a head start on your holiday baking plans by making some freezer-friendly cookies. Or try making copycat Girl Scout cookies to hold you over until next season.
Lightly spray cookie sheets with a no-stick cooking spray. After you are finished baking, make sure sheets are washed well – any cooking spray left on the sheet may discolor it. Lining cookie sheets with parchment paper prevents both sticking and spreading.
Lightly spray cookie sheets with a no-stick cooking spray. After you are finished baking, make sure sheets are washed well – any cooking spray left on the sheet may discolor it. Lining cookie sheets with parchment paper prevents both sticking and spreading.
Of course, the best way to prevent sticking on any pan is to use a silicone mat or a sheet of parchment paper. Silicone mats help evenly distribute the heat, allowing a better, even bake, especially on cookies sensitive to heat, like sugar cookies.
Before greasing your pan, check to see if the recipe calls for a specific type of grease. There are several different types of grease that are suitable for greasing cookware, including shortening, nonstick cooking spray, olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, bacon fat, and butter.
Line your pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet for quick and effortless removal. IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE WAX PAPER TO LINE YOUR BAKING SHEET. Wax paper melts and burns in the oven and will almost assuredly stick to your cookies.
A basic saying to guide your use of papers in the kitchen: "Sweet treats need parchment sheets; grill or broil, go with foil," says Weaver. Foil conducts and distributes heat, making it able to withstand high temperatures from baking, broiling, roasting, or grilling. For anything above 400 degrees, use foil.
To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough. Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.
Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly. Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown.
Line the bottom of your pan with nonstick parchment, then coat the pan's sides with nonstick pan spray. Some people espouse coating the bottom of the pan with spray before adding the parchment, then spraying the parchment as well; if you lean toward a “belt and suspenders” approach, feel free to do this.
Yes, you can use parchment paper instead of shortening when baking cookies. Simply tear off a piece of parchment paper to fit on the baking surface of the baking sheet. Place cookies on the parchment paper and bake as directed.
When preparing for baking, grease cookie sheet or baking pan only if recipe directs. To grease, use a paper towel to apply a thin layer of shortening or lightly spray with no-stick cooking spray.
Chefs love to make savory dishes with butter, but at home, you may want to stick to oil when preparing your pan for sautéeing and cooking. Butter can easily brown and even burn if you're cooking at high heat, which may be the case when searing a piece of meat, sautéeing vegetables, or cooking down leafy greens.
If you need to create a non-stick surface for cookies or cakes, try preparing the old-fashioned way, by greasing and flouring the pan. You can use unsalted butter, which will add a slight richness to the batter along with a golden brown colour, or for something more neutral, try shortening instead.
"When ingredients are heated, especially chocolate, jelly and sugar, they can become sticky and hard, making them likely to adhere to the paper. This is fairly unavoidable, since these ingredients are in most pastries," states Richards.
There are additional reasons to switch from greasing your cookie sheet to using parchment. It turns out MOST cookies turn out far more reliably when baked on parchment and without grease on the pan.
Add a very light dusting of flour or brush a very light coating of oil on the parchment paper. Warm, wet dough can be solved by placing your dough in the refrigerator until easier to handle before kneading. Before flipping the proofed dough onto the parchment baking sling, lightly sprinkle flour on the parchment paper.
If you need to create a non-stick surface for cookies or cakes, try preparing the old-fashioned way, by greasing and flouring the pan. You can use unsalted butter, which will add a slight richness to the batter along with a golden brown colour, or for something more neutral, try shortening instead.
Introduction: My name is Gregorio Kreiger, I am a tender, brainy, enthusiastic, combative, agreeable, gentle, gentle person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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