I love parchment paper!

I have to tell you, I wasn't sold on this so-called miracle baking tool. I mean, come on- greasing cookie sheets isn't THAT hard, how could parchment paper be any better?!? But I kept seeing it pop up on TV cooking shows, and the lure was seductive. Then my own (gasp!) mother bought a roll and started raving about it. What could I do? A couple of weeks before Halloween my local grocery store had a buy one get one offer (gotta love the BOGO!) and I sighed and gave in. And then they sat in my pantry. And sat. And sat.

I love baking, but I have a life too, so it wasn't until the kids begged for Christmas cookies that I decided to try it. First off, the gingerbread cookie recipe put out by America's Test Kitchen is totally awesome, even if it is a little more complex than I expected. But the directions called for parchment paper, no substitutions allowed. And so I used it. And I was amazed. For those of you who bake, you know how hard it can be with some recipes to get the flour/fat combination just right. Too much fat and you end up with flat way-too-crunchy cookies. Too little fat and the flour takes over, making the cookies too dry and crumbly. I always thought the recipe was to blame. Now I know the greasing of the pan shares the blame. Perfect gingerbread cookies- moist but cakey, not too dry, not too crisp. I was so impressed with my efforts that I made sugar cookies- traditionally a bad recipe for me because they always end up with too much fat. These didn't. They were wonderful. I love this stuff!

Later, I made brownies and corn bread with parchment paper instead of greasing the pan. Granted, it's a pain to get the paper to fit around the corners (I used kitchen shears and made a cut in the corners so I could fold one side over the other) but once you do that the baked good comes out great. I used more than was necessary to cover the pan so I had some sticking out of either side of the pan- which I found out was useful because I was able to grab the parchment paper and lift the whole panful out onto a cutting board and slice it without having to work that awkward corner angle with my knife.

So if you do any baking get some parchment paper. Give in, drink the kool-aid, and get some. You won't be sorry.