Say goodbye to parchment paper issues with these expert tips

It’s one of baking’s great annoyances: parchment paper that refuses to behave. You smooth it into a round pan, and it springs back. You try lining a rectangular dish, and those stiff corners fold like origami gone wrong. Parchment paper may be a baker’s best friend, but getting it to fit can make it feel like your enemy, right?

That’s where content creator Steph Gigliotti’s kitchen hacks come in. Shared recently on TikTok (see below), her folding and trimming tricks have amateur bakers rethinking how they line their pans... and saving them from endless rounds of frustration.

How do you line a round pan with parchment paper?

Instead of freehand cutting circles that never quite match, Gigliotti uses a simple folding method. Tear off a sheet large enough for your pan, fold it into a square, then into a triangle. Place the triangle’s point in the center of the pan’s base, trim the wide end using the pan’s curve as a guide, and unfold.

What you get is a perfect parchment circle – no gaps, no lopsided edges. To keep it in place, lightly grease the pan or follow Gigliotti’s shortcut: a few drops of water in the bottom. That extra moisture anchors the paper so it won’t slide when you pour in the batter. Here’s a visual step-by-step to help:

How do you get parchment to fit neatly in rectangular pans?

The trick for rectangles is precision cutting. Gigliotti suggests turning the pan upside down, tracing around it, and cutting out a rectangle of paper. Press the parchment firmly into the pan, making sharp creases along the sides. Then snip a small diagonal cut at each corner. The paper overlaps neatly, tucking into place without bulging.

For brownies, bars or sheet cakes, this means no more uneven edges or stuck corners. The finished product lifts out cleanly and looks bakery-ready, without the amateurish wrinkles.

These tips may sound simple, but they solve problems that have plagued home bakers for decades. With a few folds and cuts, parchment goes from awkward to effortless, and your cakes, cookies and bars finally come out looking as good as they taste... assuming you did everything else right!

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