Q: Should I grease my cookie sheet?

A: The recipe should specify whether or not the cookie sheet should be greased. If it is not specified, it needn’t be greased.

Q: Tell me about the difference between greasing with butter, a spray, shortening, using parchment, and silpat.

A: All of them work.

Butter

While you can grease with butter, it isn’t advisable since butter has a lower smoking point than shortening and can burn.

Shortening

It’s easy to use and relatively inexpensive.

Spray

Many of the plain sprays will leave a residue on the cookie sheet after repeated uses. Yuck.

Parchment

This can be a tad cumbersome to use since it often has to be cut to the size cookie sheet you are using. Additionally, depending on the kind you are using it can roll up and not stay where you put it. To get around that, it can always be tacked down with shortening.

If you have half sheet pans, King Arthur Flour http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?id=5854

sells sheets of parchment that are just the right size. Also, since it comes in a very loose roll you don’t run into the problem of the sheets rolling up.

Silpat

These are baking sheets that are good for 2,000-3,000 uses and they stay where you put them. They are great. Granted, there is an initial outlay of money, but the convenience is fabulous.