Hopefully it's silicone.

Wax paper- unlikely to work.

Aluminum foil- could stick

Maybe parchment paper could work?

Though, silicone mats aren't expensive.

I find that foil works well.

i'm a parchment paper convert. "non-stick" cookie sheets often need a tiny bit of some kind of oil/fat. those sprays just gunk up a surface you can't get tough with when cleaning. parchment paper keeps cooking surface clean and lets cookies slide right off.

Parchment paper is expensive at $12 roll. Two silicone mats for $10 will last a lifetime.

a light application of cooking oil is all you need on ANY pan...the silicone only eliminates the NEED for fat. If it is a cookie that will leave a sugar residue you might have to scrape good after each batch..the paper would have to be replaced each batch.

I use parchment...I pay under $4 per roll. There's just something icky to me about silicone baking sheets. Something about their texture/stickiness I don't like.

I agree with using parchment paper.

Parchment paper is also reusable. I can bake several batches of cookies on one sheet. I don't recall it being very expensive, I got mine from Sam's. They have sheets already cut at GFS (Gordon's).

I use parchment paper for all my baking. I stock up on it when I see it on sale. I even line my roaster with it when baking chicken or beef.. All my cookies are baked on it. No more sticking pans. The cookies just slide off. I even line my broiler pan for easy clean up.

A 45 sq ft roll of parchment paper costs about $3.00 at Winn Dixie. 45 sq ft is plenty for baking this holiday season.

Parchment paper contains silicone.

We're a silicone-free house.

Dollar Tree sells parchment paper for cooking. $1

I also own a roll of parchment paper. I worked at a bakery(thought it would be a fun retirement job, it wasn't...lol) for 4 months. They used parchment paper for cakes, cookies....proofing rolls on.....

You can sub aluminum foil, lightly greased, for parchment but your cookies may cook very slightly faster and be a bit browner on the bottom. Same with cooking them directly on your greased pan.

I have silicone mats and reach for the parchment more often than I use them. I buy it any place the price is right - Costco, Walmart, grocery store, cookware stores. I must have been finding some good specials during this last year because I seem to have about 4 rolls right now.

Reynolds Wrap sells parchment for a few dollars. With parchment, your cookies will turn a nice golden brown on the bottom but never burn.

I would use parchment paper

Parchment paper contains silicone.

Yes, regular parchment these days is coated with silicone. So-called "organic" parchment is coated with latex.

So, lukkiirish, while I agree with you entirely, you're not avoiding silicone by using parchment paper, just shifting the source of it.

What about Reynolds non-stick foil? Haven't tried it yet, but interested if others have.

Also, whatever you use, the trick is not to let your baked goods cool down too much on it. It's then when it sticks.

I use parchment. It has so many uses other than baking. I buy the giant double rolls at Costco.

It would depend on what type of cookie you are cooking. A few high sugar content ones that make a lacy looking cookie are much easier to remove on the silicone. A never on wax paper. Perhaps knowing the type would help.

Last year I put parchment above the kitchen cabinets. No more greasy dust-just replace the paper and wash the knick knacks.

pennydesign, two comments to answer your post. First, I use the non-stick foil for baking meat items, it's awesome! If you bake oven fried pork chops or chicken, it never sticks at all, it just rolls off. Second, I bake all my cookies on parchment then just slide it off the cookie sheet onto a folded up towel to cool, cookies never stick no matter how cold they get.

We also don't use aluminum foil. lol

Too many possible health hazards. Our kitchen is glass, stainless steel, and cast iron. Wood and stainless utensils only. :)

Parchment for baking for me.

Parchment paper for me also. It is cheap here. I like that I don't have to clean a mat. Just crinkle up the paper and throw away. I use it always when baking.

I like parchment for baking and have no problem with the fact that it is disposable.

People that use parchment may not realize that you can use it a bunch of times before it's ready to be thrown away. For cookies, I use it until it's all mucked up with sugars.

I didn't know parchment paper had silicone on it. I remembered it saying it was biodegradable on the package. So I looked up my "Paperchef Culinary Parchment" that I use. The site had recipes and good info.....Here's the link to CHECK IT OUT>>>>

Thanks for posting the link Nicole. I never knew you could wet parchment to mold it to skillets and pans. Going to try it next time I want to scramble some eggs . No stick, no clean up.

I often bake cookies on an air-layer cookie sheet. Sometimes parchment.

I think there are a lot of myths about aluminum, but that it is (scientifically speaking) harmless. It's the x-rd most common element on the planet

I have never used silicone mats for baking. I've seen some (online pics) grow quite toasted/charred looking.

However, I've bought a couple ON SALE. My plan: to use them when sewing to keep the foot controller from sliding away. Anyone ever try that?

Someone please mail me a box of cookies! Yum!

“However, I've bought a couple ON SALE. My plan: to use them when sewing to keep the foot controller from sliding away. Anyone ever try that?”

Ha! Ha! That is so clever!!! What a great idea! I wish I liked to sew and envy those that do, I have had a brand new machine in my closet for about 5 years now and I’ve never used it.

Lukki, I cannot truly declare that I "sew." I hack a bit. Mostly I mend a lot of our patched and re-patched garden, painting and work clothes. I mess around a bit with quilting. I made small utilitarian objects. I tinker with vintage sewing machines -- I think they are so cool; they get a higher score if they will easily sew over jeans and thick seams.

Go to your closet and look at your sewing machine. What brand and model is it. Gift? You purchased? Were you thinking (back then) that you wanted to sew or create something? There are lots of little things you can make with a simple sewing machine. Rice or buckwheat packs for aching backs; a cover for those blue ice gel rectangles for headaches or twisted ankles. I make those "draft dodger" sand or rice filled tubes to keep air currents in check at the bottom of doors. Baby bibs and burp clothes. Fun!

I really broke out laughing at the afraid of silicone but recommending using parchment!

I will say there's some things that I avoid but I don't have a paranoia about it. I don't like having cellulose in cheese so I avoid shredded. I avoid HFCS but I'm not paranoid about either. There really is no evidence that either is bad for you despite the hysteria. There's people ranting that aluminum foil will kill you but again, no proof that it's actually bad. And if it's going to take 100 years for it to cause an issue I'm sure I won't be around for it to matter.

I do avoid the spray coatings though. Looking at what it does to pans - it CANNOT be good for you. And really, a (silicone!) brush and some oil coats things so well, is so cheap, so easy and so effective, and I don't have to inhale the spray stuff.

People often get worked up over the most trivial things. And ignore things that should be a concern. Never quite understood that.

I have silicone mats but I really don't use them much. I have parchment and seldom use it. It's usually not within easy reach. I usually just use foil because it's more convenient and is always handy in my kitchen. Just how it''s been and I haven't been prompted to change it.

I laughed at the silicone knowing that is one of the minerals in most sand.

Not true. Silicon is an element, silicone is a compound (contains more than one element). The largest component of sand is silicon dioxide, a compound that includes silicon. Silicone also contains silicon but it contains other elements too.

Elmer you know that and I know that since it is what I studied but for the average person they may recognize the word mineral but the breakdown beyond that they will not know. I was trying to make it simple since most do not know or care that there are many different chemical compositions of varying elements into what makes up sand.

I don't think it's helpful to use the wrong word in the wrong place, it misinforms. Especially when the words are so similar but the compounds are very different. I don't agree that it's necessary to dumb-down comments.

:O

The problem is Cynic, is that a lot of that “cr*p” comes from China, is often not 100% Silicone and the substitutes can be harmful. It’s also not been tested a whole lot. Reminds me of tephlon and how wonderful people thought is was in the beginning. There is no harm in avoiding any product if one feels it isn’t safe or at the very least, not a good choice for them, regardless of their reason. (ETA: FWIW, cooking sprays are also deemed to be safe by the FDA)

I can accept that silicone mats & baking ware are safe. But I just don't like their texture. Floppy and seems likely to melt, although of course it does not. I'll stick (ha ha!) with pre-cut parchment, reusing each sheet a couple of times.

Came in this morning to apologize for upsetting Elmer by using terms that he objected to. I was not trying to dumb down but use a term that most would recognize.

No problem, no offense taken.

maifleur01 - that is very nice of you. Thank you.

Hey, maifleur01, not necessary, but that was kind. This group is thoughtful as well. I am such a nerd sometimes and I might have a bit of a tendency to make note of or 'correct.' I bet my buddies and family just love me. I am the type that tends to point things out, somewhat like Elmer. I am not motivated to show up, but to illuminate. I appreciate it when people set me straight (in a decent tone). One housemate corrected my saying "Canadian geese" when the correct description is "Canada geese." She just corrected me in a non perjorative, even tone. I got it and was appteciative. It's a huge world and most of us don't know every detail and corner. I used to have a pretty pronounce Timbuckloshawash accent. I was young and got teased in a nice way a few times. I liked languages and accents. (If a jet had a stopover in Scotland, it would take me 15 minutes to figure out what they were saying, and 15 seconds to start in with the accent. Good thing that cults don't appeal to me as much as sounds and words.

All humans are emotional -- our survival depended upon this. But I do love reason, logic, science and information. It kinda drives me a tad nuts when people/patients are given a sloppy "explanation" for something. And yet, there is only a bit of time to explain sometimes complex subjects to an often non medically versed person. An analogy may be offered in good faith, but taken literally.

What if Silicon Valley was Silicone Valley? Hahaha!

I wanted to ask -- what am I not getting? I usually just brush on a thin coat of butter or oil, and use the bare metal of a cookie sheet. As for roasts, or turkey/chicken. I have a few classic enameled steel roasting pans with molded ridges for lifting the roast off any dripped fat or grease. Sure, I get a browned fond. But after removing the roast, I use this fond and some of the fat for either a flavorful gravy or soup stock. It would seem blasphemous to toss it into the trash.

As for final cleanup, I decant the fat and either save it for birds, or put into some container that's already headed for the trash. We never put fat or oil into the sink drain. I wipe out any remaining fat or grease with an "almost clean" paper towel (say a half towel a bit soil from breakfast). Bada Bing. Then I just wash the roasting pan with hot soapy water. Maybe allow to soak 10 minutes. No hardship. We recycle -- vegetable and garden scraps, paper, plastic and all aluminum. We wash aluminum (easy) and recycle it with metal via a disabled veteran. Seems crazy to toss metals into a landfill. Someone told me many years ago that the production of aluminum is very energy intensive. I don't know if this is true.

I am craving cookies, cakes, pastries and roasted chicken now.

petalique if you picked up a mineralogy book that was translated from a different language or British Isles English and printed in England you would probably find the word silicone with a final letter for silicon. Similar to finding an extra 'U' in color/colour. Most of my collection of geology books used the British English words since many were written when some of the most respected mineralogists were Scottish. Edited to add most of those books were written in the late 1800's.

Some type of cookies you never oil/grease a pan when making them. The only ones of that type I used to make would run together if you oiled the sheet. On the baking sheet the cookies may spread a little but you do not end up with a single sheet of cooked cookie. Sometimes to remove the cookie sheet the only way is to stick the tray back in the oven and hope it softens enough to scrape out.

Petalique, I like the way you think! :c).

Current word usage in Britain, riffs off of Silicon Valley (so named originally because of being ground zero for semiconductors, made on cut slices of silicon crystal), include the following:

Tech area in Scotland: Silicon Glen. Near Cambridge: Silicon Fen (fen is marshland, to the north of Cambridge). And there are more. And silicone is silicone.

I'll give you that they do say aluminium instead of aluminum. Word usage since the 19th century has changed greatly, what was used then is hardly relevant or instructive today. Many English experts believe that if you could go back to the early 19th century, you may find there would be no such thing as a clearly British or American accent in English. George Washington likely sounded more similar to Paul McCartney than to George Bush.

Maifleur, you had me at "geology" and Scotland. If you are in Scotland, let's houseswap. For a few years I went about on a Euro -UK spelling binge. I thought that "colour" and "behaviour" looked so much nicer than the American spelling.

I asked once about aluminium and was told that the Americanized word was related to some commercial product.

I liked descriptive geology, paleontology, mineralogy, but the minute someone wanted to put my brain through a triple-quadriple subduction zone, later raised to 4 miles above sea level, then flooded by Tethys and bent to bits in a metamorphic vortex, I began to grow I'll. Deep vagus meta thrombin collisions. The serpentine in my spine went through a phase change and ended up as jadeite. I now walk with a limp and cannot look at a road cut anticline without stopping to photograph and measure. I had to trade a geology hammer for a Smith & Hawkin hand spade.

Someone slap me. I still want to spell Brit and say, "aluminium" -- as it seems much more natural. I've not eaten haggis, but have rescued a few moggies. Quote Burns to me, someone.

Lukki, you just had to go and mention China and remind me of the melamine infant formula. I have a few silicone cooking spatulas that I like. No boob implants or silicone teeth (yet).

I think I saw on a craft site that one can make their very own silicone molds based on their own personal dreams or nightmares. Now that should both fun and scary. I'd start off with thyroid-shaped chocolates, then maybe a dodecahedron shortbread. A huge Giant Stairs cake for my final opus.

Anymore, I avoid “made in China” as much as I possibly can.