Parchment paper is an extremely simple tool to use when working in the kitchen, but for someone new to baking, or just parchment in general, it can take some getting used to. We’ve come up with a few helpful tips and tricks if you are new to baking with parchment, or if you just want to optimize your parchment paper use.
Parchment Paper for Baking
There is no “up” side to parchment. Both sides of the paper are treated with the same coating to prevent burning and help you achieve an easy, clean baking experience. This means you don’t have to fret over which side touches the sheet. Just pull your sheet, line your pan, and bake away!
You don’t want your parchment sheets to flow over the edges of your pan. When the paper touches the heated sides or coils of your oven is when you may encounter burning. To avoid this, it is best to get pre-cut sheets. Zenlogy unbleached parchment paper sheets are not only pre-cut for convenience, but they are perfectly sized to fit just inside your baking sheet without any curving of the paper. If you don’t have pre-cut sheets on hand, make sure that you trim your parchment sheets down to fit within the pan if necessary.
Baking your parchment at a heat higher than is recommended by the manufacturer of your parchment paper is a bad idea. 450٥ is the maximum suggested temperature to bake using your Zenlogy parchment sheets, but other brands max temp will vary, and it is best to follow any posted suggestions to avoid burning your paper or your goods.
Parchment paper can be frozen, which is great if you want to prep your baked goods one day and bake them the next. Simply line your sheet pans with parchment, place your baked goods in rows exactly as they will be when placed into the oven for baking, lay another sheet of parchment paper on top of said goods to keep them protected, and place your next baking pan lined with parchment on top of that. Repeat as necessary. When it comes time to thaw your sheets, you can do so by leaving them in the fridge overnight, or letting them thaw at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
Pre-lining multiple trays at a time like @thefrostedcookiebakeshop did also allows for quick turnaround when baking large batches of baked goods. It has been stated by many customers that Zenlogy parchment paper sheets can be used for multiple bakes, which also lends itself to a quicker output of batches. This way you can bake, remove, and reload more goods on the tray without much waste. Simply throw away your sheets when you are done!
Pre-cut parchment paper sheets will save you lots of time in the long run. I have seen countless tutorials on Pinterest showing you how to fold your parchment sheets and cut them in order to make a round pan liner for cake or pie pans. This is great in a bind, but save yourself the hassle and get pre-cut sheets. You will thank yourself later.
Parchment Paper for Decorating
Parchment paper is fantastic not only for baking and cooking, but also for your cake and cookie decorating needs! You can set your cookies or cakes on parchment to prevent getting icing and sprinkles all over your work space and easily lift it and make sure everything makes it successfully into your trash can, and not all around you kitchen!
Parchment can also be used for creating small icing transfers, as @mikandcookiesco has done here. It's an excellent way to make a large amount of transfers at one time. Once they've hardened and dried, you can easily pop them off the parchment paper and apply them to your cookies.
Zenlogy parchment paper is perfectly sized to fit not only your standard baking trays and cake and pie trays. We offer 6”, 8”, 9”, and 10” parchment rounds for your cake pans.
Our parchment paper sheets come in 9x13” (quarter sheet), 12x16” (half sheet), 18x26” (full/commercial sheet), and we now offer 10x15” sheets for Jelly Roll Pans.
Parchment paper is awesome. We really are big fans. Once you see how easy it is to use and how quickly you can prep, bake, and clean your space, you will never grease a pan again.
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