The Foolproof Method To Remove Stuck Cookies From Sheet Pans

Imagine the smell of freshly baked cookies in the air, your stomach grumbling, and the sweet treat you've been waiting for finally finishing in the oven. You take your cookies out, go to grab your first one, and... it's stuck. Is it time to throw the whole tray away? Not so fast. All you need to do is go upstairs to the bathroom (stick with us) and grab your dental floss.

You heard right: dental floss. While a spatula might cause a stuck cookie to break and crumble, dental floss is just thin enough to get underneath your cookies and unstick them from your pan without tearing the cookie apart. All you need to do is take a string of floss longer than the diameter of each cookie and carefully slide it taut between the cookie and pan using a sawing motion until the cookie is freed. This trick works especially well for delicate cookies such as meringues or macarons, but can help with even the toughest chocolate chip cookie. When using floss, don't forget to choose one without flavor or wax, as both could transfer to your cookie and leave an undesirable taste.

We won't tell your dentist, but if you don't have floss lying around the house, there's no need to fret. There are a few easy ways that you can avoid a stuck cookie debacle in the first place. The first method is simple: Grease your pan with cooking spray or butter before baking your cookies. Make sure you have an even layer with no bare spots or else you risk a sticky situation. Alternatively, you can line your pan with parchment paper. Also pay attention to the cooling time of cookies once they're out of the oven. If you try to remove them right away, there's a chance they may stick or crumble. Allowing them to firm up ensures an easier removal.

Cookies still stuck and no dental floss around? A silicone spatula might work well. Or, if not, you can still repurpose your crumbly cookies into a topping for ice cream or milkshakes. Another way to prevent the pan from getting in the way of perfect cookies is changing up your cooking appliance altogether. Ever tried cookies in a cast-iron skillet or even cookies in a waffle iron? Or, if you're totally turned off from baking cookies after one-too-many mishaps, make some no-bake snickerdoodle cookie dough balls and call it a day.