Thanks for your responses. I think stapling the top may be the best way. And Terri, it is interesting on the video link you posted, that she tapes around the point end. I'm thinking she uses a long enough peice so that the tape is taping to itself and not to the paper. I was trying to tape at the wide end, but I am going to try it the way she does, because I end up with icing leaking around the tip occasionally. That piece of tape may fix that problem. Can't wait to try this. I ordered a heart cookie cutter today and am planning on decorating for Valentine's day.

If it were not for parchment paper, I would NEVER roll & cut-out cookies! Parchment makes the whole process fast, easy & goof proof. It might sound more complicated than it is, just because it's harder to write about it than do it: 1. As soon as you've made the dough, put a blob of it between two sheets of parchment. The fresh soft dough quickly rolls easily to the desired thickness! If the parchment wrinkles, peel off the top sheet and put it back on to straighten it. After you are done rolling, put the parchment paper with dough between on a cookie sheet in the fridge. Keep rolling and layering the sheets in the fridge. By the time the last is rolled, the first is chilled enough to cut. 2. To cut..remove a rolled layer of dough with parchment on both sides from fridge. Peel the top parchment sheet off and cut the cookies out with the bottom parchment in place. Keep the top sheet for reuse. Remove excess dough from cookie shapes for re-rolling. 3. Slide the parchment with cut cookies onto a cookie sheet & pop into the oven. When done, slide the parchment with cookies off the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack. I usually wait till cookies are almost cool to remove from parchment and continue to let them thoroughly cool on the rack. 4. Repeat the process. Re-roll excess dough between two sheets of used parchment. Keep going until all of the cookies are baked. ***Notice that you never transfer a cookie until AFTER it's baked and cooled a little. That means NO misshapen cookies! Also saves tons of time transferring cookies from cutting surface to baking sheet. ****If you cover the whole stack of dough rolled between parchment with plasic wrap, you can keep it in the fridge for as long as your dough permits. If you double cover the stack tightly, you can freeze the stack for as long as your dough permits. You can also cut the cookies, remove the excess dough, place a sheet of parchment on top, wrap, refrigerate or freeze and bake later. Or to save space, freeze unbaked cookies until firm and layer between sheets of waxed paper in a plastic box. When ready to bake, just place the cut cookies directly on parchment and bake immediately, adding just a few minutes for the use of frozen dough. If you want to thaw frozen dough, leave it wrapped in the fridge for half the day or so, then, leaving the wrapping still on, place on counter until it reaches the temperature you want. Don't thaw unwrapped dough or skip the fridge stage of defrosting...you can wind up with very wet dough from condensation. I've used most brands of parchment, in rolls and sheets. I like having the sheets precut but I haven't found a parchment that I really like that comes precut. I've found most precut sheets wrinkle more during rolling and can't be reused too many times. The best I've used for this process is Beyond Gourmet, it doesn't wrinkle as much as the others but it does curl a lot and I can't get it to cut well on the box. Instead, I fold stacks of it and run a long knife through the folds to cut into sheets. I can't believe how much you get in one roll and how many times I can use one sheet. It's deceptively thin and light. The cutting and curling is a bit of a pain but overall it's worth it. I bought it very cheaply online and stocked up. I think I might try re-rolling a box in the oppositive direction and letting it sit till I need to use it. It might even be faster to just iron a roll of it flat and cut into sheets in advance! What I won't do for a pretty, well baked cookie!!! Barbara

I agree, you don't need to use parchment.... But my concern is what kind of "decorative dish" will you be using? You need to be concerned about the size...area...of the pan you're using and make sure it's pretty close to 204 square inches, too small and the filling will be too thick and may not get done before the edges get too brown. Sounds good...you could bake the recipe in 4 8 inch round pie pans and it would ba about the same area as a 12 by 17 pan.

It was funny..sort of. Most of my cookies have butter in them (apart from meringues) so donÂt stick anyway, and I donÂt care about washing the cookie sheets. (You have to wash the bowls and beaters and everything, so whatÂs a few sheets?) So the only reason I thought I could use the parchment was to be able to slide the delicate spritz off the sheets and onto my flat countertop to cool. Once they are cool they are easy enough to pick up without crumbling. I sprinkled the sheets with water and put the parchment over that, and thought that would give it enough tack. I realized when I pressed the first cookie that it was not going to work. Normally the dough sticks to the metal sheet, you pull up the press and the cookie is on the sheet. But with the parchment, instead when I pulled up the press the parchment just came up. I put a weight on the end and then it just slid around for the second cookie. I thought of taping the sheet down and then removing the tape before putting it in the oven. But with the clock ticking away on the 23rd and many batches to go, I just abandoned the idea and did it the old way. If the parchment were glued down I assume I could not slide the sheet off to cool the cookies on the countertop. But I think the slickness of the parchment, even if it is glued down with something, will not work for cookie press recipes, or any cookie that needs adhesion to the cookie sheet to get it to work. I mention this in case someone in the future is thinking about using parchment for this purpose.