In Praise of Parchment Paper for Baking

I never used parchment paper until recently. I first used it when baking pizza, to facilitate sliding the pizza onto the baking stone in the oven.

Even more recently, I found that lining the baking pan with parchment paper made it easier to slide cinnamon rolls out of the pan and into a box or onto a plate.

I resisted using parchment paper when baking cookies, because I've been baking cookies forever. Why should I change what works?

Except every once in a while it isn't working. Sometimes, when using butter instead of shortening--I'm trying to lessen my use of shortening--the cookies stick to the pan. Especially if I use flour ground from soft white whole-wheat or from oat groats.

The other day I wanted to bake some cookies to take to an event. I had some flour in the refrigerator that I had ground a few days previously. It was mostly from soft white whole-wheat, but I had mistakenly ground some oat groats into it, which is why I hadn't used it.

But this flour would be perfect for Oatmeal Raisin cookies. That's what I baked.

I lined the baking pans with parchment paper.

The cookies came off the paper perfectly!

By the way, here's the cookie recipe:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Cream together:

1 C butter, softened

1 C brown sugar

1 C granulated sugar

Add and beat together:

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Dissolve

1 tsp. baking soda

in 1/3 C hot water;

Add to mixture.

Stir together, then add to above:

2½ C (10.7 oz.) flour (flour ground from oat groats, soft white wheat, hard white wheat, hard red wheat, or any combination)

3 C oatmeal (old-fashioned rolled oats)

½ tsp. salt

2 – 3 C raisins

optional:

1 – 2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 – 2 C chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans

Drop onto baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes.