Coat Cookie Bottoms With Oats For A Toasty Non-Stick Trick

If you find that your batches of drop cookies like cowboy cookies seem to stick to baking paper or tear parchment paper when you reach to remove them after baking, we have an easy hack: Simply cover the base of each cookie with oats.

For those moments when you find your cookie dough is just a bit sticky or worryingly wet, press the bottom of each cookie into a shallow dish filled with oats. This quick hack is ideal for cookie batters that run on the looser side or contain chocolate chip pieces that are at risk of melting onto your cookie sheet. If you can't be bothered dunking each cookie individually into oats, simply distribute oats across the surface of your cookie sheet before setting down any raw cookie dough. When baked in the oven, the oats will result in a cookie that is not only easy to remove from the tray but offers a warm, toasted flavor of oats to your favorite cookie recipes.     

Whether you're setting out to make brown sugar drop cookies or have carefully rolled out cookies that you have cut with your most prized antique cookie cutters, oats will help you place neatly baked cookies onto the table with pride. Adding an extra layer of oats creates a foundation for your cookies to rest on while baking in the oven and results in a naturally non-stick surface. 

Embrace the less-than-perfect-looking spread of cookies and know that this somewhat haphazard array of oats will help you pull a better batch of cookies out of the oven. Plus, if you're making an oat-based cookie like our best oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, this sprinkling of added oats can turn up the flavor dial so that you can experience comforting, warm cookies fresh out of the oven — without having to worry about destroyed cookie bottoms. Sometimes the best culinary solutions are hiding in plain sight.