Hello everyone!
I just bought some new, smal, Chicago Metallic, cookie sheets. They are dark non-stick, and I have a few questions.
1. They came with the directions to reduce baking time by 25 degrees. I know that that’s a good rule for dark pans, but I think I’ve read somewhere that Rose said that the combination of dark pans and nonstick coating kind of cancel each other out. Am I imagning it?

2. Say I have a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but the recipe makes GIGANTIC cookies, and I want to make them smaller. I should raise the temperature up a bit, right? So that the heat will work the same way it does for the big cookies?

3. If 2 is true, AND I have a dark cookie sheet- should I just keep the temperature as it is? The thing I don’t get is that if the dark pans absorb heat faster/better, then the bottom will darken faster, right? It should affect the “top” part of the cookie? Or is it that because they are small [at least smaller than a standard cake] there isn’t much seperation between top and bottom parts?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Chocolate chip cookies are typically baked at 350 or 375.  Given the darker pan, I’d choose the 350. 

The darker pan should brown the bottoms faster, but really shouldn’t affect the top; that’s governed by the air temperature and the radiated heat from the sides and top of the oven.

Hey Charles,
I just started reading Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine. He has some very interesting things to say about ovens-pans-heat transfer.

Gene - 23 July 2012 11:30 PM

I just started reading Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine. He has some very interesting things to say about ovens-pans-heat transfer.

I’m very envious of you.  I’ve stared at it on Amazon thinking “Should I?”  It’s quite a splurge.  Please post any good tidbits.

My copy is borrowed. While it is a fascinating read I would not recommend anyone buying it unless that person had a great deal of disposable income.

Im hoping my library gets a copy.

A new one is going to be released:

http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343144393&sr=1-2&keywords=modernist+cuisine

re: the cookies, they will brown faster only on the bottom, so you may want to consider doing something to combat that:  either move the pan to a higher rack in the oven or use a silpat. 

Whatever temp you choose, bake a few test cookies (three or four spaced evenly on the sheet) before loading up your pans and putting them all in. They won’t bake exactly the same as full pans, but it will be close enough to give you a good idea of what you need to do to bake evenly (temp or oven rack higher/lower).

Thanks everyone!
What if I’ll stack two sheets together- will it be enough to prevent the excessive-bottom-browning?

McBrownie - 25 July 2012 10:18 AM

Thanks everyone!
What if I’ll stack two sheets together- will it be enough to prevent the excessive-bottom-browning?

Seems unnecessary to me, when you can just reduce the temperature.

CharlesT - 25 July 2012 03:26 PM

McBrownie - 25 July 2012 10:18 AM

Thanks everyone!
What if I’ll stack two sheets together- will it be enough to prevent the excessive-bottom-browning?

Seems unnecessary to me, when you can just reduce the temperature.

But if you reduce the temperature, it just means that the bottom will be baked the same way it normally would [say, in a 350]. but the top of the cookie will have a lesser temperature than what it should have. Won’t it affect the finished cookie?

McBrownie - 25 July 2012 10:23 PM

But if you reduce the temperature, it just means that the bottom will be baked the same way it normally would [say, in a 350]. but the top of the cookie will have a lesser temperature than what it should have. Won’t it affect the finished cookie?

I bet you won’t see a difference, but try it and see.  I haven’t used non-stick bakeware in many years; I look for heavy, shiny aluminum.  But I prefer to start with the simple solutions until they are shown not to work.  A long time ago, I used to use those air-bake cookie sheets, the ones that sandwiched air between two layers of aluminum.  They were supposed to prevent over browning.  In many forums, people complained that they didn’t brown at all, but I didn’t find that to be true.  In fact, I ran a comparison between them and my solid aluminum sheet pans and they performed identically.  That’s when I got rid of them.  They were too complex of a solution for a non-problem.

Thanks! I’ll try it.