The Parchment Paper Trick To Roll Out Cookie Dough Without The Mess

Just about everyone has memories of baking cookies (or some other sweet treat) as a family around their favorite holidays. What better way to celebrate togetherness than by baking something delicious together? Making cookies is also a great enrichment activity for children — as it helps them improve their communication, coordination, and planning skills. Best part? There's a fitting reward at the end of all the hard work, too!

One of the biggest problems with this activity is that it can — with or without little helpers — create a lot of mess in the kitchen. The flour, sugar, and egg shells can leave your kitchen in a sorry state. Some of this is hard to avoid. Even if you make something like no-bake cookies or a classic sugar cookie, you're going to have a mess to clean up later. Luckily, there is a trick to cut down on the amount of flour that will get spread around your kitchen in the process.

Flour is one of the hardest ingredients to work with while keeping a kitchen clean. It floats through the air, sticks to your hands, and keeps turning up in unexpected places weeks after you've finished baking. One way to avoid some of this mess is to use parchment paper when rolling out your cookie dough.

Normally, the process for rolling out cookie dough is to first let it set in the refrigerator to give the flour time to fully absorb the water. You then sprinkle a handful of flour over your workspace to keep the dough from sticking while you roll it out. Likely, you'll need to put some more flour onto your rolling pin or on top of the dough to prevent it from sticking to the counter. (Not only will this create a mess to clean up, but it can also negatively impact your dough.)As mentioned earlier, dough absorbs the flour during the resting period. By adding more raw flour afterward, you're introducing raw flour to your cookie's surface, and throwing off the ratio of flour to water in the dough. Sadly, this can cause cookies to turn out dry and — at worse — bitter.

Instead, try rolling your cookie dough sandwiched between two pieces of parchment paper. This will avoid the need for extra flour and keep things from getting sticky.

Another great aspect of this parchment paper trick is that it can save you a mess in more ways than one. Another moment when flour is likely to spread around your kitchen is when it's being measured out. To avoid this, simply lay out the parchment paper underneath your flour container. As you measure carefully and add flour to your mixing bowl, you'll inevitably drop some flour around the space. But this will be caught by the parchment paper, so it can be easily disposed of or used later when rolling out your dough.

You can also slightly change the steps and roll your dough out before you refrigerate it if you'd like. Parchment paper's natural non-stick properties make it more than capable of handling the room-temperature dough. Additionally, it allows you to do most of the messy work beforehand, freeze the rolled-out dough, and bake it fresh the day it's going to be served.

Mix your dough normally, then roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper. Once it's at the proper thickness, carefully set it on top of a cookie sheet to rest. Transfer it to the refrigerator or freezer for longer storage. An added bonus to this method is that it will make your dough more durable when you go to cut it into different shapes as well — like hearts for Valentine's Day-themed cookies.