This Is The One Cookie You Shouldn't Bake On Parchment Paper By Any Means

Make no mistake; parchment paper is a marvelous invention that has been saving bakers from burned and wasted batches of cookies stuck to pans since the 1800s. But if you think it'll help you with all cookie batches, you'd be wrong. There's one type of cookie in particular that you should absolutely never bake on parchment paper: the German Spritz cookie. If they sound unfamiliar, there's a good chance you've either tasted or spotted Spritz cookies out in the wild and not even realized it. These buttery-sweet, crumbly cookies are especially prevalent around holidays like Christmas. They're also considered some of the easiest cookies for beginners to make.

Known as spritzgebäck in German, Spritz cookies can be set into a wide variety of cool shapes thanks to the "spritzing" or dough squirting process (the name actually comes from the German word, "spritzen," which literally means "to squirt"). This is where the dough is forced through a piping bag or cookie press, an old-school baking tool that carves the dough into a special design. The dough needs to be sticky to hold its design, but, as many home bakers have found out the hard way, this can make it too sticky to actually stay put on parchment paper. So, unless you enjoy wasting time trying to wrangle sticky dough and leaving a good chunk of it wasted on your baking tools, skipping the parchment paper altogether is a must for your next batch of Spritz cookies, especially since it can even interfere with the baking process itself.

Browse the internet for Spritz cookie recipes, and you'll see some of them do call for parchment paper or any other slippery surface (like a baking silicone sheet or nonstick baking spray). But beware! These tend to ignore the intended composition of the traditional recipe. The high butter content of Spritz cookies will already help prevent them from sticking to the pan, making parchment paper unnecessary.

Now, you can mitigate the issue of your dough being too sticky to stay on the sheet by chilling your cookie dough before using it. Refrigerating your baking pans themselves ahead of time will also help with that. However, a bigger problem with using parchment paper comes while you're actually baking your batch of Spritz cookies. Whether you're going with a circular wreath, little trees, ribbons, or an oblong shape of your own creation, the whole point is to achieve a slightly crispy, crumbly cookie that holds the delicate design you set the raw dough in. When you use parchment paper, the dough will spread out too much before it's done baking, losing the shape you wanted.

To make matters even worse, some home bakers new to Spritz cookies may attempt to correct the situation by adding more flour or other dry ingredients, which wrecks the unique composition of the dough. So, just set your cookies on a cool, non-slicked-up, regular baking sheet, and watch them keep their beautiful shape.