Bert Swope
Parchment paper is a versatile kitchen item, useful in various capacities. It is grease-proof, nonstick and heatproof.
As well as baking, this tool has other handy uses in the kitchen; such as creating a sling for lifting cake from its pan for easier slicing.
Lining Baking Sheets and Pans
One of the best kitchen hacks every cook should know is how to line baking sheets and pans with parchment paper. This easy kitchen item is essential when baking or roasting veggies and proteins as it prevents your food from sticking to the pans or being damaged by heat. You can buy parchment paper either in rolls or flat sheets that easily store away in your kitchen and won’t curl (pro tip: keep a stack on top of your refrigerator). Plus, different shades reflect whether its bleached or unbleached while being coated with silicone so it’s grease, moisture and heat resistance properties are also features of its construction!
Contrary to aluminum foil, which may leach chemicals into your food (and has even been linked with breast cancer), parchment is completely safe and compostable. Furthermore, its flexible nature enables it to fit tightly around pans, as well as being cut easily with scissors to create custom linings for oddly-shaped cake or loaf pans.
Your parchment can help level out a baking sheet’s surface, absorbing excess oil or butter and eliminating hot spots so your cookies bake evenly. Its versatility extends beyond baking: use it to keep foods cold in the fridge and use it when steaming vegetables!
One major advantage of parchment paper is that it’s more cost-effective and cost-efficient than purchasing silicone baking mats, which are pricey and one-use only. Its versatile sheets allow you to tailor them specifically to your needs while even being reused multiple times!
Parchment is much simpler to work with than wax paper, which can easily melt at high temperatures and burn food. By lining oven-safe pans with parchment, food won’t stick or burn while also making removal of baked goods easier when they’re finished baking.
To line a pan, cut a piece of parchment that’s slightly larger than its bottom surface and lay your pan on it to trace around with a pencil – this will enable you to cut an evenly circular piece to fit perfectly inside the bottom of your pan.
Line the Sides of a Springform Pan
Parchment paper is an indispensable kitchen tool, and one of its primary uses in baking and cooking is as an anti-stick barrier between your food and its baking dish, protecting it from burning while simultaneously making removal much simpler. It makes this task less daunting!
Pastry chefs and baking enthusiasts who make cheesecake as a hobby often use parchment paper to line their springform pans, which helps prevent cheesecake from sticking to the bottom of the pan and allows it to come out easily when serving time arrives.
To line a springform pan with parchment paper, ripping a sheet slightly larger than your pan’s interior and folding it in half side-to-side and top-bottom to form a triangle shape. Press down onto the bottom of your springform pan leaving an inch or so of overhang on both sides if necessary; cooking spray might also come in handy here if necessary.
In an emergency, you can also use other materials in its place, like tin foil or silicone baking mat, but these won’t give the same nonstickiness results.
Lining the sides of your springform pan with parchment paper has several additional benefits. It allows your cake or cheesecake to retain its shape during baking, and allows you to test for doneness without having to remove the entire cake from its pan. Even without one, this method works just as effectively if used instead by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake – once removed cleanly from its core it indicates readiness.
Parchment paper can also be used to line piping bags. To do so, cut out a rectangle the same size as your inside diameter piping tip and roll up into a tube shape before taping along its seam. Once assembled, use it to pipe frosting, icing, or chocolate onto desserts!
Use as a Cooking Tray
Pliable parchment paper makes a versatile kitchen tool, used to line baking sheets and pans to prevent baked goods from sticking or over-browning, but its versatile nature also makes it useful in other cooking and baking tasks. As well as being used as an easy lining material, parchment can also be used to wrap food without sticking, sift dry ingredients evenly, or serve as the basis of “en papillote” style fish dishes.
Parchment paper may be best known for use with sweet treats like cookies, cakes, and breads; however, its versatility makes it just as useful in savory cuisine. Parchment can prevent dishes from sticking while keeping poaching liquid from evaporating and simplify meal prep and cleanup – sometimes even replacing plastic wrap in certain situations; just be sure that it has a high heat-resistance rating and chlorine free properties!
Instead of plastic wrap, parchment paper can be safely used in the oven as an effective alternative to tin foil, which has the potential to release harmful toxins into food when exposed to acidic foods and over-heated meats and leach aluminum that has been linked with breast cancer. Parchment paper, on the other hand, is safe for use in any size or shape, baking pan or cooking dish, and is easy to cut to fit it snugly around them.
Steaming vegetables on parchment paper is also an easy and delicious way to steam vegetables with tough skins, such as mushrooms. Simply lay out your ingredients on a sheet, fold up its edges to form a pouch shape and put in boiling water – the resultant steamed veggies taste delicious while the parchment makes cleanup and preparation simpler!
Parchment paper can also be used to fashion an inexpensive piping bag for decorating desserts and other foods with icing. While creating the tube of piping may feel similar to making paper airplanes, once complete it allows you to add cheerful rings of frosting or swirls of icing onto cakes or cookies – plus, you can reuse the parchment again and again!
Line the Tops of Cabinets and Refrigerators
Experienced bakers or cooks know the value of parchment paper when it comes to baking cakes or cookies – it has a nonstick surface that keeps foods from sticking, and its heat resistance makes baking and cooking tasks more efficient. Consider including some in your supplies today!
Use parchment paper to line cabinets and refrigerators, helping prevent food from spoiling while making cleaning your kitchen easy. Simply cut a piece to size before smoothing it over the surface of the cabinet or fridge. Home Depot advises adding pieces of parchment to kitchen tools and gadgets to protect them from rusting or absorbing bad smells.
Another effective kitchen hack uses parchment paper to make DIY placemats for your table. Simply unfold and arrange one long sheet across your table for an affordable, eco-friendly placemat that guests can draw on! This idea is especially appealing for families with young children; this activity provides something fun while waiting for dinner to arrive!
Though silicone baking mats have gained in popularity recently, parchment paper remains an effective choice for certain baking and cooking tasks that silicone mats cannot accomplish – for instance steaming or funneling ingredients can only be achieved using parchment paper, while silicone mats do not.
When Should You Use Parchment Paper
In general, parchment paper can be used for all sorts of cooking and baking tasks in both an oven and grill; however it should be avoided for tasks that involve high temperatures as it might burn or melt under it. Parchment paper also works when frozen to protect individual cooled items from moisture, such as caramels or marshmallow cereal treats, while protecting food transported from the kitchen to the dining room – such as tuna sandwiches!
