The 10 Best Parchment Papers
This wiki has been updated 26 times since it was first published in May of 2018. While it's most frequently used for baking, parchment paper is an extremely versatile tool to have around in the kitchen. It's also excellent for rolling out cookies and pie crusts, packaging homemade baked goods to give away as gifts, and even wrapping up foods before freezing them. Our selection includes bleached and unbleached options, as well as a few that are precut for your convenience. When users buy our independently chosen editorial selections, we may earn commissions to help fund the Wiki.
1. King Arthur Flour Heavy Duty
2. Reynolds Cookie Sheets
3. Kirkland Signature Clear
Editor's Notes
May 05, 2020:
The inexperienced baker might think that with the advent of baking mats parchment paper would become obsolete, but they have plenty of benefits over their silicone brethren. Many parchment papers can be reused, although not as much, and are ideal for myriad home baking projects since you can trim them to fit your baking sheets, cake pans, and ramekins. And unlike silicone mats, parchment is the best thing to use for cooking en papillote or rolling up logs of cookie dough or compound butter to freeze. They're also indispensable for any recipe that requires a cartouche.
Today's update saw us remove The Smart Baker Sheets, which suffered many complaints regarding them tearing, making their clever handles pointless. If you still like the idea of having a handled design for lifting treats out of their pans, the Kana Lifestyle Rounds come in a similar square, easy-lift design and are tear-resistant.
Many of the selections found here are strong enough for multiple uses, but we wanted to ensure we had something extra resilient and professional-grade, hence the addition of the King Arthur Flour Heavy Duty. A favorite of America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated, these pre-cut sheets are made in the USA and ideal for heavyweight baking projects. They also don't get soggy easily when wet. The eucalyptus-based PaperChef Non-Stick is similar in that regard.
If you're mostly concerned with being environmentally friendly, then the If You Care Baking is the way to go. It uses natural rubber sourced from a responsibly managed plantation and is certified compostable, unbleached, and totally chlorine-free. Beyond Gourmet Unbleached is a similar option proudly made in Sweden as part of a sustainable cycle and is completely renewable. Be aware though, that the box does not make cutting easy, and scissors are likely required.
Special Honors
Forks Over Knives App Baking becomes more difficult when you're a vegan looking to adapt traditional foods to a plant-based diet. For extra help, consider downloading the Forks Over Knives recipe app. It contains over 400 meals, sides, and desserts from over 50 leading chefs, with new recipes added weekly. Each dish fits into a whole-foods, plant-based lifestyle and includes simple, step-by-step instructions and the option to add notes and mark favorites. You can also send recipes to a built-in shopping list, where ingredients are automatically sorted by aisle. forksoverknives.com
Cooking Classes on Eventbrite Eventbrite is a U.S.-based event management and ticketing website that acts as a gateway to everything from music festivals and conventions to pop-up dinners and photography classes. If you're a newbie just beginning to dabble in baking, there are thousands of helpful classes available, teaching everything from how to whip up gluten-free cookies to working with yeast. You can search for both local, in-person sessions and online ones. eventbrite.com
4. Beyond Gourmet Unbleached
5. If You Care Baking
6. Zenlogy Exact Fit
7. Reynolds Pan Lining
8. Kana Lifestyle Rounds
9. ChicWrap Culinary
10. PaperChef Non-Stick
Born in Arizona, Gia is a writer and autodidact who fled the heat of the desert for California, where she enjoys drinking beer, overanalyzing the minutiae of life, and channeling Rick Steves. After arriving in Los Angeles a decade ago, she quickly nabbed a copywriting job at a major clothing company and derived years of editing and proofreading experience from her tenure there, all while sharpening her skills further with myriad freelance projects. In her spare time, she teaches herself French and Italian, has earned an ESL teaching certificate, traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States, and unashamedly devours television shows and books. The result of these pursuits is expertise in fashion, travel, beauty, literature, textbooks, and pop culture, in addition to whatever obsession consumes her next.