10 Surprising Uses for a Sheet Pan
It's a tray! It'south an organizer! It's a cleaning hack! A sheet pan is a lifesaving kitchen tool—in the oven and out.
If y'all're looking for ways to make life easier and more efficient in the kitchen, look no further than the humble half sheet pan. Non to exist dislocated with a cookie sheet, which is rimless, a sail pan is made of sturdy aluminum or stainless steel (18-gauge or heavier works well for home employ) with a i-inch rim around all edges. A full sail pan, used mainly in commercial cooking and measuring 18×26 inches, is usually too large for home ovens, but a quality half sheet pan at 18×13 inches is an indispensable tool that costs less than $20.
Sheet pan dinners take skyrocketed in popularity considering they're such an easy manner to cook veggies and proteins together in ane pan, allowing flavors to alloy and fugitive a sinkful of dishes to clean. Just that's non all the mighty one-half canvass pan can exercise. Here are ten creative means to apply this low-tech workhorse in your kitchen.
1. Freezer Tray
I complaining the end of fresh fruit season, but a canvas pan makes it easy to freeze my favorites. Piece fruit and identify it in a single layer on a canvass pan. Place the pan in the freezer and allow the slices to freeze until solid. Remove, place slices in a resealable plastic handbag, then return them to the freezer until set to utilise in smoothies or crisps.
(Bank check out these surprising foods you may not know you tin freeze.)
two. Prep Space
Experienced cooks advise prepping all your ingredients and equipment prior to cooking, as well known as mise en place. (If you're a messy melt like me, that means ingredients all over the counter.) Every bit you chop or dice, pile each ingredient onto the canvas pan. This keeps them together at your fingertips, ready to go every bit needed. Information technology also frees up space on your countertop and makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to transport ingredients from the counter to the stove.
(Demand more than room in the kitchen? Try these 12 simple tricks to gain more than counter space.)
iii. Oven Protector
There'southward zip I like better than hot blueberry pie—unless it's bubbling on the lesser of my oven because the juices overflowed from the pie plate. Sideslip a sheet pan on the bottom rack of your oven every time you lot cook a pie, souffle, lasagna or whatever other dish that might bubble over, and you'll relieve yourself the hassle and time of a messy cleanup. It'due south much easier to simply launder the pan rather than scrubbing residue off the inside of the oven.
4. Slab Pie Baker
And speaking of pie, slab pies are a slap-up style to feed a crowd. Press bootleg or store-bought pie dough into the bottom and upwardly the sides of a canvass pan. Fill with your favorite filling and top with lattice strips for a pretty presentation. Try information technology out with this recipe for apple cranberry slab pie.
five. Dish Carrier
A sheet pan is the perfect tool for loading and unloading private ramekins into and out of the oven. Information technology's too handy for transporting hot dishes or dishes that might spill on their mode to a potluck. And how many times have you sloshed h2o out of the water ice cube trays when carrying them from the sink to the freezer? Load them onto a sheet pan and and then but dump any excess water off in one case you get the trays in the freezer.
vi. Drying Tray
I honey to preserve the fresh herbs from my garden for the winter, and my sail pan is indispensable. Snip herbs first thing in the morning when they're at their peak. Lay a tea towel or paper towels in the sheet pan and spread the herbs out in a unmarried layer to dry. You tin can easily move the pan if you need that space temporarily. Once dried, crumble and place the herbs in an airtight container. A canvass pan also works well to dehydrate apple and orange slices. Afterwards drying, simmer slices in a bucket with water, cinnamon sticks and cloves to make full your home with a lovely olfactory property.
7. Big Breakfast Hack
Need lots of eggs or bacon for the brunch crowd? Rather than make them a few at a time, make them all at in one case on a sheet pan. For a frittata, double the recipe, grease and flour the sheet pan, spread your filling ingredients across the bottom, then pour on the beaten egg mixture and summit with cheese. Place in the oven and cook until set. Follow the same steps with pancake concoction. Remove from the oven and cut into squares to serve. (This works for big-batch sliders, too!)
8. Pizza Pan
Cooking pizza on a preheated pizza stone makes it prissy and crispy, but how practise y'all get the pizza into and out of the oven? Flip a canvass pan over and utilise the back side to transfer the pizza without losing the toppings. If you don't have a pizza stone, preheat an oiled sheet pan in the oven. Identify pizza dough in the sheet pan and meridian with your favorite sauce and toppings. Cook until washed, cool slightly, cut into slices and serve.
9. Juice Catcher
If your portable cutting board doesn't take a rim, slicing juicy foods like pineapple or watermelon for fruit salad recipes tin can be tricky. To avoid juice dripping downwards the front of your cupboards, place a cut lath in a sheet pan before slicing. The sheet pan catches the excess juice and contains the mess. This also works when cutting the kernels off an ear of corn.
10. Pantry Organizer
Corral your blistering soda, baking pulverisation and other blistering goodies onto one sheet pan on a pantry shelf. That way you tin can merely slide the sail out of the pantry when you're ready to broil upwards a vintage block instead of rifling through boxes and cans to find what you need. This is especially helpful if you accept wire shelving—nothing falls through!
Bonus: Use a Wire Rack
Double your sheet pan's uses by fitting a wire rack within. Proteins can roast evenly considering air circulates all around the food (it'southward perfect for roasting bacon in the oven). A sail pan with a wire rack is the trick to keeping things warm in the oven without assuasive condensation to grade on the bottom (think loads of waffles for that brunch crowd). Line the sheet pan with paper towels, pop on the rack, and use it as a drip tray for foods you've deep fried. Cool cookies on a rack in a sail pan and yous'll contain the crumbs and catch any leftover drizzle of frosting.
My father-in-law always said, "If something'due south too hard, you lot're either non doing information technology right or y'all're using the wrong tool." A half sail pan is just one of the essential kitchen tools anybody should take. And if yous dear to bake, check out these must-have blistering tools. Happy cooking!
Source: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/10-surprising-uses-for-a-sheet-pan/
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