Children and adults alike adore cookies. On any special occasion – cookies are a staple that brings joy to everyone. Not only do they make fantastic desserts and snacks, but cookie baskets can make beautiful gifts for your loved ones as well.
These delicious things are simple, versatile, and easy to make. But people have questions about baking methods, and a common one is ‘Can you bake cookies on aluminum foil?’. We will try to answer that question here.
5 Tips for Getting the Best Result from Baking on Aluminum Foil
Even an amateur baker can make deliciously dainty cookies with a bit of guidance. But trying a new method like baking them on aluminum foil can seem like a daunting idea.
You will find many people saying that you should never try to bake cookies on aluminum foil. While they may have had bad experiences trying this method, it is certainly possible and not a bad idea at all.
However, if you keep an open mind and an experimental attitude, you will find that following these techniques can make your life a lot easier if you stick to the proper guidelines.
Here are some crucial tips you should follow to get you the best from baking your cookies on foil paper.
Tip 1: Generously Grease Your Aluminum Foil
Cookies contain high amounts of sticky substances like sugar, chocolate, peanut butter, and many others. As with any surface, they will stick to aluminum when heated and caramelized.
To prevent this, apply adequate amounts of baking spray on your aluminum foil. As an alternative, you can also use butter on your foil as grease. But if you are using butter, be sure not to use too much.
Apply a light brushing of butter to get the best results. Butter can burn fast, and using it too heavily can give your cookies a burnt taste.
Tip 2: Don’t Bake Cookies with High Amounts of Acid on Aluminum Foil
Aluminum can react with acids such as lemon juice and leach into your food during the cooking stage. Don’t use aluminum foil for baking lemon bars or cookies with cherries in them.
Tip 3: Lower Your Cooking Time
Using aluminum foil to bake will cook the bottoms faster than using parchment paper. So, lower the cooking time on recipes that call for using parchment paper if you use aluminum foil.
You should reduce the total cooking time by 5%-10% based on your preferred doneness.
Tip 4: Use Less Heat
Using parchment paper on a baking tray creates a heat transfer barrier between the bottom of your cookies and the metal tray, resulting in even cooking of the cookie dough.
However, Aluminum is highly heat-conductive. It will get hotter much faster and transfer the heat to your cookies in a flash.
Using 10F or 5F degrees lower heat will result in better results than the baking surface.
Tip 5: Use Heavy Duty Aluminum
You should try to use heavy-duty aluminum, especially if you plan not to use your baking tray – as we will discuss later. Cheap and light aluminum foil can easily tear and allow the cookie dough to fall through the cracks.
Get the heavier aluminum foil if you don’t want a massive mess in your oven or your kitchen.
Reasons for Baking Cookies on Aluminum Foil
You may now find yourself asking the question, ‘Why should I even try baking cookies on an aluminum foil?’. So, we have compiled a few great reasons for you to try out this method.
You Ran Out of Parchment Paper
Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve had a craving for some cookies, and you prepared your cookie dough but suddenly realize you don’t have any parchment paper left?
If you have some aluminum foil, you can use them instead of the parchment paper and save yourself an unwanted trip to the store.
You Don’t Have a Baking Tray Available
During the holidays, you may find all of your baking trays occupied with making other dishes, and you have nothing to bake your cookies on.
You can easily fashion an impromptu baking surface for your cookies by taking a sizeable piece of aluminum foil.
Lay the foil on your oven grills as long and wide as you need, and wrap the outer edges around the grill to make a stable platform to bake your cookies on.
Cleaning Up Is a Lot Easier
By baking on aluminum foil, you can virtually eliminate any cleanup that results from the baking process. After baking, you can put the cookies on a cooling rack and throw away the foil.
Cookies Will Stick Less
Often, after baking on parchment paper, your cookies will want to stick to the parchment paper, and forcing them to come off will damage the cookies, or a bit of parchment paper might come off with them.
Aluminum cooks the bottoms faster. Apply an adequate amount of grease spray on the aluminum to reduce the chances of sticking.
You Like Your Cookies Crispier on the Bottom and Chewy in the Center
Baking your cookies on aluminum foil to the correct amount will result in consistency between directly baking on a tray and baking with parchment paper.
It is a unique texture that you can’t get otherwise. Cookies will be slightly harder on the outside than baking on parchment paper and moister and chewy inside.
For Making Custom Molds
Use aluminum foil to make any shape you want out of your cookies. If you plan to bake bar cookies, meringue cookies, or macaroon-like ones – using aluminum foil to create your desired shape for baking can certainly help.
You Need to Bake a Large Number of Cookies in a Hurry
If you are baking for special occasions or bake sales, you might need to bake many cookies in a short amount of time.
Baking on aluminum foil requires a shorter cooking time. It will help you to get done with a lot of batches much quicker. As a bonus, you won’t need a lot of baking trays either.
Try It Yourself
With this information, your confusion should be clear about when and how to bake cookies on aluminum foil. Follow the tips and experiment with making different types of cookies using aluminum foil as your baking surface.