Essential Bar Cookie Equipment

This article is a part of the L.A. Times 2022 Holiday Bar Cookies.

Though making bar cookies is enticing because they require no cutters, spritz guns or other specialized equipment, it still helps to have a few tools on hand to create the best bar cookies you can. Here’s what I keep in my bar cookie arsenal to make the job of baking and slicing them that much easier.

9-by-13-inch baking pans: To make bar cookies, you obviously need a pan to bake them in. I prefer metal, straight-sided pans that truly measure 9 by 13. Many pans have rounded corners, dramatically-sloped sides or are slightly smaller in dimension than their labeling might suggest. These cookies will still work with those pans, but you’ll have to deal with more oddly shaped corners and sides — a good or bad thing depending on how Type A you are. And stick with light or “gold” metal baking pans, since dark metal pans will cause the cookies to bake up darker than you want.

Rulers: When it comes to slicing up the cookies, you can eyeball it, and the cookies will clearly still taste the same. But if you want to be perfectly neat and get uniform squares or blocks, use an inexpensive ruler as a guide. Use the ruler to make evenly spaced notches along the sides of the slab, then connect them with your knife, using the ruler again to ensure the cut is clean and straight. I use a wooden ruler from a hardware store.

Pre-cut parchment paper sheets: If you’re a serious baker, you’ll know the joys of pre-cut parchment paper sheets. You simply place one on your baking sheet and it lays flat and neat, no frustrating rolling back up or crinkling in the corners. They work just as well for lining 9-by-13-inch baking pans. Lay a sheet — with 13-by-18-inch dimensions — crosswise in the pan and it will cover the entire bottom with extra “handles” that flop over the long sides. There’s no need to line the other short sides because when the cookie slab is cooled, you use the “handles” so that the parchment lifts the whole slab out. This allows you to transfer it to your cutting board without inverting it or losing all your sprinkles.

Metal binder clips: Those handy clips that keep office papers in stacks without the need for staples are just as handy when baking bar cookies. Clip them to the sides of the pan with the parchment paper “handles” to keep the excess paper in place during baking. This prevents the excess paper from accidentally falling back on the batter, creating a weird imprint or shape. Just another optional, but preferable, step to keep all your bar cookies as neat and clean as possible.

Baking spray: Once you’ve buttered and floured a few pans in your life (or a few hundred for me), you learn about the joys of baking spray and there’s no turning back. I use baking spray, often used to coat intricately patterned Bundt pans, for all square or round cake pans and 9-inch-by-13-inch pans. It adheres the parchment paper to the pan, and because there’s flour in the spray, it allows you to lift the cookies out easily without having to use two separate ingredients. I use PAM or Baker’s Joy, the most commonly available brands.

Slicing and serrated knives: A long, thin-bladed slicing knife is the key to getting clean cuts in your bar cookies. The thin blade doesn’t wedge itself through the slab like a thicker-bladed knife would, so you get true-to-size pieces every time. And when the cookie slab is firmer than the typical brownie block — like when cutting biscotti or shortbread — use a serrated knife, which helps to “grip” the cookie slab and prevents the blade from shearing off in one direction and messing up your clean cuts.

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