The Best Cookie Sheets and Silicone Baking Mats

This is the traditional American cookie sheet: pure uncoated aluminum, raised on three sides for gripping and flat along the front so baked cookies slide straight onto a cooling rack. Nordic Ware makes it in the United States and gives the baking surface as 14.1 by 13.1 inches, with an outside size of 15.7 by 13.9 inches.

Bare aluminum is the standard for good reason. It heats quickly and evenly, browns the bottoms of cookies lightly and consistently, and never rusts. Line it with parchment and there is almost nothing to wash.

It is smaller than a half sheet, so it holds fewer cookies per batch, and a half-sheet silicone mat will not lie flat on it. It is hand wash only; the dishwasher dulls and darkens bare aluminum.

The catch. Smaller than a half sheet, so a standard silicone mat will not fit it.

An insulated sheet is two layers of metal sealed with a cushion of air between them. Heat reaches the cookie more gently from below, so the bottoms bake without browning. Nordic Ware builds this one from natural uncoated aluminum and says it protects against over-browned bottoms, especially in ovens with hot spots.

It is the right sheet for rolled and iced sugar cookies, shortbread, meringues and anything meant to stay pale, and a good fix for an oven that runs hot at the bottom. The baking surface is 13 by 16 inches.

Insulation cuts both ways. Cookies that should crisp and brown underneath, like chocolate chip or gingersnaps, take longer and spread more on an insulated sheet. Keep a plain aluminum or nonstick sheet for those.

The catch. Slows browning, so crisp cookies take longer and spread more.

All-Clad designs its Pro-Release bakeware in Pennsylvania and has it made in China. The cookie sheet is heavy-gauge aluminized steel with a ceramic-reinforced nonstick coating in a light color, which All-Clad chose to help prevent overbrowning. It is rated oven safe to 450°F.

The handles are the practical difference. They are wide enough to grab with a thick oven mitt without denting the edge of a tray of cookies, and the rounded corners make it easy to clean. Unlike most nonstick bakeware, All-Clad lists it as dishwasher safe, though it recommends soap and a sponge to keep the coating longer, and backs it with a limited lifetime warranty.

It costs nearly twice the USA Pan and bakes much the same cookie. Buy it for the handles, the dishwasher and the warranty, not for better results.

The catch. Made in China, and priced above sheets made in the USA that bake as well.

A silicone baking mat does what parchment does, again and again. OXO's is food-safe silicone over a fiberglass core, sized at 11.5 by 16.5 inches for a standard half sheet. Cookies release without greasing, and sticky things like florentines, brittle and caramel lift off cleanly.

Mats also insulate slightly, which helps cookies bake evenly and keeps thin bottoms from scorching. OXO lists it as oven and dishwasher safe and covers it with the OXO Better Guarantee for repair or replacement.

Never cut on it; a knife or pizza wheel slices through the silicone to the fiberglass. It fits the USA Pan and All-Clad sheets above and any half sheet pan, but not the smaller Nordic Ware cookie sheet. For crisp, well-browned bottoms, parchment on bare metal still does better.

The catch. Cuts easily and gives slightly paler bottoms than bare metal with parchment.