The Trick To Baking Two Sheets Of Cookies At The Same Time
It's hard enough getting everything ready for the holidays. The gifts, cleaning, outfits, and preparing dinners can quickly become overwhelming. So, why should something as simple as baking cookies be added to that stress. They're the perfect dessert for big family parties, but when you're baking one tray at a time, they can be more of a hassle than they're worth.
There are plenty of ways to screw up even the simplest of cookie recipes, and most of them have to do with your ability to be patient. Chilling your dough, letting your baking sheets cool down in between batches, and preheating your oven can slow you down. Another complication is that for the best results it's important to only bake one batch at a time (via Sally's Baking Addiction). That means only one tray of cookies on the center rack. This can really be a hindrance when you have a lot of cookies to bake, but there is a way to work with two sheets at a time without affecting quality.
Separate the trays and give them a swap
The easiest way to bake more cookies at a time is to separate the trays onto the top and the bottom racks of the oven, and switch them halfway through the bake. According to Taste of Home, this is because most ovens' heat comes from the bottom. If you put a tray on the lower rack, then the bottoms tend to overcook. Put them on the top, and they'll be undercooked. So, the solution is to expose them to both heat intensities, by swapping them halfway through.
Quaker Oats notes that it's important to also swap their position from front to back as well to make sure that every cookie bakes evenly. Reddit user u/glitterbug also suggested this technique, though u/DangerouslyGanache recommended simply using the convection setting, which circulates the air and heat to allow cookies to bake at an even temperature.
So whether you're baking some old-fashioned butter cookies, luscious red velvet cookies, or brown butter toffee cookies, if you're in a hurry to bake en masse, simply separate the trays, and remember to rotate them at the halfway point.