Solving the Mystery of Parchment Paper

No, not the kind related to papyrus. The kind we line our baking pans with, or roll dough on.

What mystery, you ask?

Well, I don't know about your baking sheets/pans...but mine are not the same size as the roll of parchment paper. The stuff is slippery, resists folding into any shape, tape won't hold it...

Once I even resorted to stapling the corners in a vain attempt to get the paper to lie flat on my baking sheet!

I end up working ten minutes per sheet of parchment paper trying to get it to lie flat so I can put cookies on it, or berries for freezing, or whatever. It's always been a battle.

Till today. I worked out the secret, the technique that's been hiding in plain site, in front of my nose, for years!

I sew. I quilt. For both these practices, it is occasionally necessary to clip curves. In sewing terms, that means when you've sewn two pieces of fabric together and the seam is a tad bulky, you clip (snip!) into the seam to release the tension of the bulges of fabric.

Today, while trimming the edges of my parchment paper, I had the bright idea to clip the corners. Just a single snip going diagonally toward the center of the pan.

The clipped edges fall neatly toward each other. When all four edges have been clipped, the parchment sits neatly aligned in the pan, no longer slipping out.

You're welcome!