Parchment Paper, Silicone Mat, or Greased Baking Sheet: What to Use When

In short: use parchment for cookies and biscuits, silicone for sticky bakes and frequent baking, and a greased baking sheet for vegetables, potatoes and bread with a crispy bottom.

• Parchment paper — good up to about 220°C (check the packaging). Cookies hold their shape, edges turn out crisper, and finished bakes lift off easily. Good for one use or several.

• Silicone baking mat — depending on the manufacturer, up to roughly 230–250°C. Nothing sticks to it, and it lasts hundreds of bakes. It's slippery, so dough spreads more; the bottom tends to come out paler.

• Greased baking sheet — no temperature limit, and heat goes straight into the food. Gives the best browning and crispness, but means more washing up, and with sweets there's a risk of sticking and scorched sugar.

Parchment paper is the best choice for most cookies, biscuits, meringues, and lining cake tins. It's thin, so it conducts heat almost as well as a bare baking sheet, but nothing sticks to it.

• Cookies and biscuits: the dough "grips" the paper slightly, holding its shape, and the edges turn golden. You can slide the whole sheet of finished cookies onto a wire rack and reuse the baking sheet right away.

• Meringues and egg-white bakes: once cooled, they peel off the paper easily.

• Cake tins and loaf pans: a circle of paper on the bottom and a strip around the sides save you the hassle of greasing and flouring.

• Cooking en papillote: fish or vegetables wrapped in parchment steam in their own juices — like the salmon parcel below.

Watch the temperature. Most papers list a limit of around 220°C on the packaging. Above that, the paper browns, turns brittle, and the edges can scorch. For pizza at 250°C or higher, only use it briefly to help transfer the dough, or pull it out after the first few minutes.

Fix for curling paper: crumple the sheet into a ball, then unfold and smooth it out, or anchor the corners of the baking sheet with a dab of dough or butter. Don't let the paper hang over the edge of the sheet — in a fan oven it can lift up and touch the heating element.

A silicone baking mat pays off when you bake often and make particularly sticky or delicate things: macarons, thin tuiles, caramel, pralines, marzipan, or sticky yeasted doughs you work with directly on the mat.

• Nothing sticks even without added fat — not even melted sugar.

• Lasts hundreds of bakes — less waste than paper, and cheaper in the long run.

• Higher temperature limit — typically 230–250°C, depending on the manufacturer.

What to watch out for.In America's Test Kitchen trials, chocolate chip cookies baked on a silicone mat came out roughly 6mm wider than those baked on parchment — the mat is slippery, so the dough spreads more. For the same reason, the thinner edges can bake through and brown more, while the centre of the bottom tends to stay paler on silicone. If you want taller, more compact cookies, reach for parchment instead — or a perforated mat that lets hot air pass through.

Care: never cut on a silicone mat with a knife or pizza wheel — you'll slice right through it. Wash with warm water and a drop of dish soap; the rough side of a sponge will scratch it. Always place the mat on a baking sheet, never directly on a rack — without solid support underneath, it sags (a perforated mat can go straight on a rack, per the manufacturer's instructions).

A greased baking sheet is best when you want maximum browning and crispness: roasted vegetables, potatoes, meat, bread rolls, pizza and bread. The metal transfers heat directly to the food, and the fat on the sheet essentially "fries" the bottom — something neither paper nor silicone can do.

• Vegetables and potatoes: grease the sheet with oil (1–2 tablespoons per sheet is enough) and spread the vegetables in a single layer so they roast instead of steam.

• Pizza and bread: at 250°C or above, a bare or lightly oiled sheet (or a preheated baking stone) is more reliable than paper.

• Cakes in a tin: grease the tin with softened butter and dust with flour — a thin layer of flour stops sticking and lets the cake release cleanly from the sides.

Careful with sweets. Fat on the sheet gives cookies a slippery base, so they spread more. Buttery doughs like linzer cookies or vanilla crescents already have plenty of fat and won't stick to a clean sheet — you don't even need to grease it. On the other hand, anything with caramelizing sugar, honey, or a fruit filling will stick and scorch on a bare sheet; that's where parchment belongs.

Cookies bake differently on parchment paper, a silicone mat and a greased baking sheet because of three things: heat conduction, surface friction, and how the bottom browns.

1. Heat conduction. A bare metal sheet transfers heat fastest, paper is thin and slows it only slightly, and silicone slows it the most. The slower the bottom heats up, the longer the dough stays soft — and the more it can spread.

2. Friction. Paper has a slightly rough surface that the dough can "grip." Silicone, and especially a greased sheet, are slippery, so melted butter carries the dough outward — and the thin edges then brown faster.

3. Bottom browning. Direct contact with metal (and fat) gives the darkest, crispiest bottom. On silicone, the centre of the bottom tends to stay palest.

Practical takeaway: if you switch from parchment to silicone and find your cookies spreading too much, chill the dough for 20–30 minutes before baking, or leave more space between portions.

There are six mistakes people make most often: mixing up parchment with wax or sandwich paper, using foil under sweets, exceeding the paper's temperature limit, cutting on a silicone mat, using a greased sheet for delicate cookies, and placing dough on a hot sheet.

• Mistaking parchment for sandwich paper or wax paper. Wax paper has no place in the oven — the wax melts and smokes.

• Using foil instead of paper for sweets. Foil has no non-stick coating, so cookies stick to it and the bottom scorches faster. Lightly oiled foil is fine for vegetables or meat, though.

• Exceeding the paper's temperature limit. At 250°C, parchment browns and turns brittle within minutes.

• Cutting on a silicone mat. One cut and the mat is ruined.

• Using a greased sheet for delicate cookies. The extra fat makes cookies spread more, and the bottom can darken before the top is done.

• Putting raw dough on a hot sheet. Whatever surface you use, put the next batch on a cooled sheet or a fresh sheet of paper — otherwise the dough starts spreading before it even reaches the oven.