My go-to recipe for fast/emergency potluck baking is Brown Eyed Baker’s Snickerdoodle Blondies because I always have the ingredients on hand, it cooks up fast, and it’s really yummy. But I use parchment instead of greasing the pan because then I can lift the whole thing out about five minutes after it comes out of the oven, put it on a cutting board, and about five minutes later cut bars and load ’em into whatever carrying case I’m using for the event.
It occurred to me on Sunday as I made some that many of you might be fussing around with getting parchment paper into square pans when there’s a super-easy, super-fast trick to help.
Step 1: Turn your pan over on the counter or table.
Step 2: Place the parchment paper on the underside of the pan and fold the edges in to match the bottom.
Make sure your folds are just inside the actual edges of the bottom of your pan.
Step 3: Lift the paper off, flip the pan over, and put the folded sheet into the bottom of the pan.
It should drop right in and fit perfectly.
Step 4: Push out the folds, creasing the corners on the diagonal (the angle will depend on how sloped the sides of your pan are). If there’s too much floppage in the middle on any side, just tighten up one of those corner folds with a little bend or crinkle.
Fold out the corners and squish-crease them into place. Voila!
Step 5: Bake deliciousness and eat the evidence, nom nom nom.
