All about parchment paper

Welcome, friends and fellow bakers. This is the first of a few new blogs where we're hoping that your voices will play a bigger role than ever before.

I love to tell folks that here at King Arthur Flour, the combined baking knowledge and experience of our hotline bakers and test kitchen staff equals more than two centuries. Heck, some of our bakers alone have more than 40 years in the kitchen. Imagine all the successes, triumphs, failures, and learning those hands (and heads) have seen.

And while two centuries isn't a bad start, imagine now the collective knowledge of you, our fellow bakers and food lovers. I'm thinking we're approaching eons, millennia, light years of experience to share. For me, learning something new in readers' blog comments is just as much fun as writing the post itself.

I would never have worked on the Chocolate Dreams cookie recipe without input from Paul in Ohio. My slow cooker has been working full steam ahead thanks to waikikirie's chili recipe; and oh, countless other examples.

So, allow me to share a few of my favorite things about using parchment paper in the kitchen and then run, don't walk, to the comments section to add your input. Put your tongue back in your mouth, Miley, and step aside. Bakers will rule the Internet this day, and it will all start with a video.

I love, love, love this video. I can watch it over and over again. Remember when you greased cookie sheets before baking, and then had to wash them and scrub the corners? Blargh! Seeing the cookies slide right off each and every time is like magic. We do so love our parchment paper here at KAF.

In fact, a quick search of our blogs finds that parchment has been mentioned in no less than 383 blog posts. That's basically one out of every three posts.

Parchment is key to one of our favorite methods for pie crust (above). You'll be amazed at how easy pie crust is with parchment as your partner.

Pre-baking pie shells just became easy as, well, pie. A piece of parchment to hold the pie weights, coins, or in this case wheat berries helps keep the bottom of the crust flat, and makes removing each little wheat grain a breeze.

Boy, if parchment can help keep your cookies from sticking, imagine what it can do for your cakes. Spritz your pans with cooking spray, add a parchment round, spritz again, and your cakes will come out of the pan like magic.

The parchment peels right off, leaving you with a smooth cake top that every baker dreams of.

The clean-plate club takes on new meaning when parchment is in the house. Look, Ma, no drips on your fancy china!

Whoops! Remember to put the parchment paper under your pizza dough and the TOPPINGS on top, not the bowl!

Ready to know a little photography studio secret? We keep artfully browned pieces of parchment on the props shelf for getting just the right touch in photos. I'm certainly glad of that, as my real baked parchment is usually a lot messier!

All right gang, the moment you've been waiting for. The gates are open and the floor is yours. Tell us why YOU love parchment! Has it saved your bacon from a baking disaster? Has it saved your digits from dishwater? Pizza now perfect? Tell me, tell me, praise that parchment!