The One and Only Cookie Sheet You Need

Maggie Battista
Maggie Battista
Maggie Battista is an author, writer, podcast host, and hospitality consultant. She’s the co-host of the Made Fresh podcast, where everything is on the table, including the food. In 2007, she founded Eat Boutique, an award-winning online food shop. After creating pop-up Eat Boutique food markets for 25,000+ guests, she now advises on collaborative retail and food market developments. With her latest project, Maggie guides operations and storytelling for the Speedway, a vibrant marketplace in Boston’s historic racetrack headquarters on the Charles River, set to open in summer 2020. Maggie’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Eater, Boston Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Financial Times, Pineapple Collaborative, and Refinery29. She’s written for Food52, Time Out New York, Southern Living, The National Post, and The Kitchn. Her second cookbook, A New Way to Food, which chronicles her journey toward learning to love herself, was published by Roost Books in 2019.
updated May 1, 2019
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(Image credit: Heidi Murphy/White Loft Studio)

Choosing a cookie sheet can be complicated business. Between all the possible variations on offer — aluminum, nonstick, perforated, heavy-duty, with a rim, without a rim — there are enough options for whatever sort of cookie you’re baking. But unless you’re making hundreds of cookies a day in a bakery, all those options aren’t necessary.

Most home cooks only really need one sheet — and it’s not a cookie sheet at all.

(Image credit: Webstaurant Store)

Years ago, I cut out all the confusion and made it way easy on myself by stocking just one pan for all my baking projects. Whether bringing a tray of cookies to life or, frankly, doing a thousand other baking (and roasting) projects, I settled on a half-sheet aluminum baking pan.

On buying a sheet pan: Here’s How to Buy a Sheet Pan You’ll Use Forever

This is, as I mentioned, not in fact a cookie sheet. Technically, a cookie sheet is one that doesn’t have a rolled-edge rim. That can make it easier to simply slide the cookies straight off the tray onto your cooling rack or plate.

But trays without a rim are one-trick ponies, only useful when baking up, well, cookies. You can’t bake a sheet cake on it because it doesn’t have a rim to catch your cake batter. You can’t roast vegetables or a piece of fish on it because any collected liquids or oils will simply slide off the sheet into your oven.

A straightforward baking sheet pan with the rolled-edge rim, on the other hand, does everything beautifully. And when I do bake cookies, I frankly prefer the rim so that my spatula can snug up against it when I remove the warm rounds of sugar-and-flour from the pan.

Buy It: Half-Sheet Aluminum Baking Pan, $3.50 at Webstaurant Store

Do you also use a half-sheet pan when you bake cookies?

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