7 Reasons to Use Parchment Paper for Baking

There are plenty of good reasons to use parchment paper in baking, especially when you're making cookies, brownies, and bars, or anything sticky.

Jump to:

• Parchment Paper Makes Cleanup Easier
• Parchment Paper Keeps Baked Goods From Sticking
• You Can Use Parchment Paper as a Sling
• Parchment Paper Helps Protect Your Baking Pans
• You Can Reuse Parchment Paper
• Does Parchment Paper Keep Cookies From Spreading?
• Does Parchment Paper Help Cookies Bake More Evenly?
• Parchment Paper vs. Aluminum Foil for Baking
• When Should You Use Parchment Paper?
• Comments

Why Use Parchment Paper for Baking?

If you bake often and you’re not using parchment paper, you’re making your life harder than it needs to be.

Parchment paper keeps rolled out cookie dough from sticking to countertops and keeps baked goods from sticking, makes cleanup easier and can help you get brownies, bars and cookies out of the pan without destroying them in the process.

And if you’re a lazy baker like I am, parchment paper means not having to scrub nearly as many baking sheets and pans.

Here are the biggest reasons I keep parchment paper in my kitchen.

Parchment Paper Makes Cleanup Easier

This may be my favorite reason to use parchment paper.

Instead of putting cookie dough, melted chocolate, caramel or whatever other gooey wonderfulness you’re baking directly onto your pan, you’ve got a layer of parchment between the food and the baking sheet.

This is especially helpful if you're making Magic Bars or Peanut Butter Cup Bars.

When you’re finished baking, remove the parchment and you’re left with a pan that usually needs very little cleanup.

This is especially helpful when you’re baking cookies with chocolate, candy pieces like toffee or other add-ins that can melt onto a baking sheet.

Parchment Paper Keeps Baked Goods From Sticking

Parchment paper is essential for rolling cut-out cookie dough, even a non-stick cut-out cookie dough recipe. Lay your dough on one piece of parchment, large enough to roll out the dough and cut into shapes. Lay another piece of parchment on top and roll away.

Parchment paper has a nonstick surface, which makes it especially useful for cookies and sticky desserts.

I almost always line my baking sheets with parchment before baking cookies. Italian Butter Cookies are the one exception because they don't turn out unless you pipe them directly onto an unlined, un-greased sheet pan.

Parchment is also helpful for brownies, cookie bars, gooey butter cake and other desserts that you eventually need to remove from the pan.

You don’t want to spend an hour making a dessert only to leave half of it attached to the pan.

You Can Use Parchment Paper as a Sling

This is one of my favorite parchment paper tricks.

When you’re making brownies, cookie bars, gooey butter cake bars or similar desserts, leave enough parchment hanging over two sides of the pan to create handles.

Once your dessert has cooled enough, grab those parchment edges and lift the whole thing out of the pan.

Move it to a cutting board or other sturdy surface and slice it there.

It’s much easier to cut neat squares when you aren’t trying to maneuver a knife around the sides of a baking pan.

Make a parchment sling for cookies

I occasionally use parchment to move a dozen cookies from a baking sheet to a nearby cooling rack.

Grab each side of the parchment and carefully slide or lift the parchment and cookies onto the rack.

Important: I’m talking about moving them a few inches or maybe a foot. Don’t pick up a parchment sling full of hot cookies and parade it across your kitchen.

And don’t try this with extremely soft or delicate cookies.

Sometimes a spatula really is the right tool for the job.

Parchment Paper Helps Protect Your Baking Pans

Good baking sheets aren’t cheap.

Parchment creates a barrier between your food and the surface of the pan, helping protect it from baked-on sugar, chocolate, grease and other messes.

Once a baking sheet develops badly burned or damaged areas, those spots can affect how food bakes on that pan.

I’d rather sacrifice a sheet of parchment than one of my good baking sheets.

You Can Reuse Parchment Paper

You do not necessarily need a brand-new sheet of parchment for every batch of cookies.

If the parchment is still clean and intact after your first batch, use it again.

When I’m baking multiple batches of cookies, I’ll often use the same sheets several times.

I use the parchment repeatedly then when it starts to brown, I turn it over and use the other side.

Replace parchment if it’s badly browned, brittle, greasy, torn or covered with burned bits from whatever you just baked.

Does Parchment Paper Keep Cookies From Spreading?

You may have heard that parchment paper can help prevent cookies from spreading because the dough has something to “grab onto” as it bakes.

I’ve seen this advice more than once, but I’m not entirely convinced.

This deserves an actual baking experiment: same cookie dough, same baking sheet, same oven and same baking time, with one batch baked directly on the pan and another baked on parchment.

Until then, I’m putting this one firmly in the maybe category.

If your cookies are spreading too much, I would look at the usual suspects first, including butter temperature, dough temperature, ingredient measurements and the recipe itself.

Does Parchment Paper Help Cookies Bake More Evenly?

You’ll also hear that parchment paper helps cookies bake more evenly.

Again, I’d like to test this side by side before making that promise.

There are too many variables involved in cookie baking, from the material and color of your baking sheet to your oven temperature and the temperature of the dough.

What I can tell you is that parchment gives you a consistent baking surface from batch to batch, keeps cookies from sticking and makes cleanup significantly easier.

Those reasons alone are enough for me.

Parchment Paper vs. Aluminum Foil for Baking

If you have an old family cookbook, you may notice that many vintage recipes tell you to line baking pans with aluminum foil.

You’ll even see foil recommended in older baking cookbooks.

Parchment eventually became much more readily available to home bakers, and for most of my everyday baking, that’s what I reach for.

Parchment is nonstick, easy to work with and particularly useful when I know I’ll want to lift a finished dessert out of its pan.

When Should You Use Parchment Paper?

I especially recommend reaching for parchment paper when you’re making:

• Cookies
• Candy
• Brittle or bark, especially reader favorite Pecan Pie Bark
• Brownies
• Cookie bars
• Gooey butter cake
• Key lime bars
• Desserts containing chocolate or candy pieces that may melt
• Anything sticky that you’ll eventually need to lift out of a pan

You certainly don’t need parchment paper for every single thing you bake.

But for cookies, bars and sticky desserts, it’s one of those inexpensive kitchen supplies that can save you time, protect your pans and make the finished dessert easier to handle.

Maybe you're wondering if you can use cheap Dollar store parchment paper? Sometimes.

If this was helpful, check out more Baking Tips.