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.

Fusion Pizza

I'm not trying to be trendy. This pizza developed from a love of buffalo chicken and a need for lower calorie pizza crust.

My daughter shared with me this great recipe for Buffalo Chicken:

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken

3 lbs frozen (or fresh) chicken breasts
1 bottle Franks buffalo sauce
1 packet of ranch seasoning (Hidden Valley)

Throw it all in the crockpot on low for 6-7 hours. Then shred the chicken, then cook for another hour in the crockpot to soak up juices. Then eat and enjoy!!

It is so good! I've used up to double the amount of chicken called for with excellent results. Also, I don't have a crockpot, so I put everything in a Dutch oven, put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and then turn down the heat to the lowest setting, cook it for 3 or so hours, shred the chicken, and then return it to the oven for another hour. So easy!

I'm sure you can imagine lots of ways to use it. Quesadillas come to mind. But my favorite way to use it is on pizza.

You can use regular pizza dough. If you want to lighten things up, try using flour tortillas. These days I use the flour of hard white wheat for tortillas.

I discovered I can bake my tortillas on my pizza stone!

Here I'm using my new pizza peel to set the tortilla onto my new pizza stone. (Go here and scroll down to see my old pizza stone.)

The baked tortilla is ready to come out. I find this an easier way to bake them than on top of the stove, pizza or not. Either way is pretty easy, though!

And, yes, I've already managed to stain my pizza stone. The tortilla is so thin that the toppings weigh it down too much to slide off of the peel. That's how I learned to use parchment paper under the tortillas. By the way, you can put toppings on tortillas unbaked or baked. Since I wasn't making pizza with all of the tortillas, I just found it easier to pre-bake the tortillas today. Then I put the leftover ones in a gallon-size ziploc bag and put them in the refrigerator for another day.

Now for the pizza topping:

Mix together 2 parts ranch dressing and 1 part Frank's Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce. I use light ranch dressing, or part fat-free. Some people use blue cheese dressing. Spread it thinly on the tortilla (or pizza dough).

Layer Crockpot Buffalo Chicken on top.

Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese, and perhaps a bit of shredded Parmesan cheese, on top.

Variations: Before adding the cheese, top with some cooked broccoli and/or sautéed onions and peppers.

 Baked to perfection!

 It's ready to be eaten!