If You Take Baking Seriously, You Better Be Using Parchment Paper! Ateco Parchment Paper
Written: Dec 14 '03
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Pros: Can be reused several times, helps with clean up, great when making sugar sprinkle cookies.
Cons: When baking with shortening the paper can only be used once.
The Bottom Line: If you take baking seriously then you are probably a regular user of parchment paper. If you’ve never used it you should invest in a roll of it!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Ateco Parchment Paper |
I started using parchment paper years ago when I grew tired of having to throw out cookie sheets when they got pitted, stained or had burned on sugar crystals. That’s not to say that I don’t throw out the occasional cookie sheet, but it’s not nearly as often as in the past. Over the years I have come to love parchment paper – not just for helping to protect the cookie sheets but to help with clean up and to keep messes at a minimum. If you aren’t into having to cut the sheets of paper, you can purchase precut sheets in packs of 25 and 50 but you will pay almost twice as much for the convenience. No matter what I am cooking on a cookie sheet – the parchment paper goes on first! This is great for reheating pizza that has a lot of toppings too – slide a sheet under the pizza and no more messy cheese or greasy toppings all over the place. And lets talk fish – if you want the juiciest pieces of fish, try wrapping the filets or pieces in some parchment paper with some vegetables and you have a quick meal and almost mo clean up.
Ateco Parchment Paper
I came across this at Smart & Final when I was looking for thick plastic bags to use for piping on royal icing. If you aren’t familiar with Smart & Final it’s sort of like Costco – items sold in bulk or large industrial sizes and usually geared towards large families, small business or fundraising organizations. I was a little surprised to see this on the shelf next to the tin foil and take away containers – not shocked that they sold parchment paper but rather that it was a “normal” sized roll. Usually they only carry sizes that aren’t practical for home use unless you are a hard core cook or do an at-home chef business. When I saw this roll on the shelf and knew that I’d be needing a replacement roll soon I decided to pick it up and try it out. Priced at $2.19 it was less than the Reynolds or Wilton brand so if it was a complete disaster I wouldn’t be out a huge chunk of change.
The size of the parchment paper [10 inches by 14 3/4 inches] makes it easy for me to line pans with only a minimal amount of trimming and I’ve gotten pretty good at eyeballing the sheet and folding down the edges. The standard roll is twenty square feet but its impossible to provide the exact number of sheets you can cut off of one roll without knowing the size cookie sheet you are working with. When I first opened the box I was a little confused since I didn’t see a cutting edge, that was soon put to rest as I foolishly ran my finger over the edge only to discover that there was a cutting edge – only it’s clear plastic instead of metal. Since this is a rather long box getting a straight cut from it is almost impossible unless you’ve worked with similar sized boxes. To get a straight edge you are better off using scissors, this will help you avoid wasting the paper or running out when you could really use a few of those wasted inches you threw away previously.
I have gone through almost an entire roll of this parchment paper and can honestly say that it works as good as the Wilton or Reynolds version but you don’t get the luxury of reusing it more than a few times. As much as I hate to say it, Reynolds beat Wilton every single time and with every single recipe I tried. That’s not to say that the Ateco brand is inferior – not in the least – but the paper gets crisp [from the heat] and hard to work with after two or three uses at 350 degrees F. Knowing that this is how the paper reacted to the different recipes, I saved the sugar sprinkle cookies for the last use of each sheet. While this took a little planning and had me stacking sheets of parchment paper all over the place – I did get my moneys worth from this roll. I started out with chocolate chip cookies then moved on to plain sugar cookies and if it still looked like it could handle a few more trips into the oven I’d send in a second batch of plain sugar cookies then the last hurrah would be the sugar cookies with the sugar sprinkles on them. After that, they were ready for the trash and I didn’t have to contend with sugar crystals baked on to the cookie sheet or ending up on other cookies.
With the holidays almost here I am baking up a storm which means I am trying out new recipes – my favorite so far being the stained glass cookies. Without using parchment paper I am sure that I would have given up on making these since the crushed up hard candies would surely take a toll on the metal sheets. This is another great perk of having parchment paper around – it’s great to use on the counter top when decorating or icing cookies. This is a must have if you do any type of chocolate covered items as and works better than aluminum foil or plastic wrap. I get the most miles from parchment paper when I use this for chocolate covered pretzels, strawberries or making peanut clusters. I’m not kidding when I say I can use the same sheet at least ten to fifteen times – mainly because the sheet isn’t coming into contact with heat or a lot of oil.
The Bottom Line
So is the Ateco brand better than the others? Yes and no. Price wise it is the least expensive and since you are only going to end up tossing the sheets in the trash – what’s the real difference if you use it three times or four times? It worked great with all the recipes and ingredients [ranging from vegetable shortening to butter and margarine], reduced clean up time and [as usual] almost eliminated “brown bottom cookies”. For $2.19 this was a complete steal and I am sure that I’ll be purchasing it again. The Reynolds brand is hands down the best and lasts the longest but I’m just too rough on parchment paper – especially when I am doing a ton of baking – so when push comes to shove you’ll see me in the aisles of Smart & Final tossing these into the cart with the 20 pound bag of flour, five pound bags of sugar and tooth rotting three pound bags of powdered sugar.
If you are interested in checking out the other great products that Ateco offers, stop by their official website at www.atecousa.com. Some of the links are down from time to time but it is a great way to take a peek at the cooking, baking and desert products that they carry.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2003 Freak369
Other kitchen essentials …
Casabella Grippee Fish Sponge
OXO 9 Inch Black-Handled Meat Tenderizer
Aluminum Muffin & Cupcake Pan
Norpro Marble Mortar and Pestle
Misto Gourmet Olive Oil Sprayer
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $2.19
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