Wednesday Baking-Some rockin’ cookie sheets

I promise I will post an actual recipe one of these Wednesdays…but for today, I wanted to talk about baking sheets.

I’ve had baking sheets my whole married life, but until the last few years, I’ve never had one I really liked. I’ve had ones like this:

with a stupid non-stick finish that burns the bottom of my bread, rolls, and cookies. This one is also fairly flimsy and warp-prone, as you can see.

I also dislike this one:

While it doesn’t have the dreaded dark finish, it’s an air-bake cookie sheet(the insulated sort). This leaves the bottoms of my baked good in a sickly, pale, not-baked-quite-enough state, which drives me nuts.

Thankfully, Cook’s Illustrated came to the rescue(I know…you probably wish I would shut up about Cook’s, but honestly, they do rock. You really should read their magazines or join their website. On second thought, you could probably just keep reading here and get the same effect, considering how often I blab on about them). They rated baking sheets a while back, and a little-known, hardly marketed cookie sheet came out on top.

May I present to you the Vollrath baking sheet(doesn’t that name just sound sturdy??)

These baking sheets are seriously awesome. There’s no insulation, no dark finish, and they are so thick and heavy, I can’t imagine I will ever be able to warp them. They’re downright indestructible, and I don’t anticipate ever having to buy another baking sheet.

When I bake with these sheets, the bottoms of my cookies, rolls, and loaves are all perfectly done…not too light, and not too dark.

The one downside is that each sheet will set you back about $25. This isn’t cheap(you can get other cookie sheets for $10-$15), but I think that these are worth it. If you take a look back at my flimsy cookie sheet, you can see that it’s not meant to last a lifetime. I fully expect my Vollrath cookie sheets to outlive me, though, so I think that in the long run, they’re a more frugal purchase(it’s better to spend $25 one time than $15 multiple times). In addition, I’m not going to have to throw away a bunch of old, worn-out cookie sheets, so I think this is a greener option.

Of course, these will make your baking efforts more enjoyable too. It’s not exactly fun to make a dough, knead it, let it rise, punch it down, shape it, and let it rise only to have your baking sheet burn the bottom beyond recognition.

Save your pennies, and do your baking self a favor by buying a couple of these. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

You can get these on Amazon individually for $24.95, or you can get 2 from Chef’s Resource for $46 Right now, Chef’s Resource is offering free shipping on orders over $49, so if you can manage to find a little inexpensive item to include in your order(just enough to bump you up over $49), you wouldn’t have to pay for shipping!

(just so you know, these baking sheets are made of aluminum. If this unnerves you, you could always put parchment paper down before you bake with them.)