The 6 Best Cookie Sheets of 2023

Our top picks guarantee even baking, quick release, and easier clean-up.

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A flawless batch of cookies depends on the quality of your recipe and sheet pan. With the wrong baking sheet, your results can be undercooked or overcooked and hard to remove. It could also make cleanup a real chore, as you’re forced to put in some elbow grease to scrape off any bits clinging to the surface. A great cookie sheet, on the other hand, is one you can rely on for consistent results — goods that effortlessly slide off the pan and are cooked evenly.

To find the best of the best, we tested 19 different cookie sheets, evaluating each one's durability, performance, cleanability, and overall value. Read on to learn what models made our list of best cookie sheets.

Amazon

This baking sheet delivers on performance, feels good to handle, and proves a cinch to clean by hand.

The pan is not dishwasher-safe.

This impressive baking sheet received the highest scores possible across every category, with one tester saying it "performed perfectly throughout all of the tests." Praising the baking sheet for being very lightweight and easy to use, a tester said, "the rolled edges and wall height make it easy to hold and get in and out of the oven." The pan required minimal scrubbing, and we found that it retains a nice shine even after several uses.

The manufacturer doesn't state if it's broiler-safe, but during our tests, the pan didn't change shape when placed in the oven at 475 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Plus, one of our testers has owned it for years and said it hasn't warped whatsoever. Overall, we believe this is the best baking sheet for every home cook and gets the job done right, whether you’re roasting vegetables, baking cookies, or cooling cooked grains.

Price at time of publish: $43

Food & Wine / Lindsay Owens

Food & Wine / Lindsay Owens

Food & Wine / Lindsay Owens

Food & Wine / Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm

Amazon

It has convenient side handles, withstands heat up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit, and features a nonstick surface for easy removal.

The stainless steel handles get very hot.

Earning perfect scores in our assessment, this baking sheet may be more expensive than other models, but our testers found it well worth the money. "It cooks food evenly, cleans beautifully, and has helpful handles for transporting to and from the oven," one tester said. "It also withstands high heat, so it's sure to last for a long time, which is always a reason to splurge, in my opinion. I would trust this pan with any recipe."

Thanks to its nonstick coating, the pan made it easy to remove both the cookies and the roasted potatoes from the surface and was a breeze to clean, as there were barely any crumbs left behind. The only con about this model is that the stainless steel handles get extremely hot after being in the oven, so it's crucial to have quality oven mitts for protection.

Price at time of publish: $55

Food & Wine / Bridget Degnan

Amazon

With these cookie sheets, you’ll enjoy even cooking and easy cleaning — all at a particularly attractive price since it's a two-pack.

The pans’ thickness means things may take longer to cook.

This baking sheet set fulfills its promise of being nonstick even with those distinct grooves on its surfaces. During the cookies test, the bottoms were perfectly golden brown, each cookie was the same color, and they slid right off the pan after cooling down. It was the same story with the potato wedges. "The wedges came off very easily; I could have just dumped them straight off with no problem," one tester said.

The pan has tall sides that prevent food from spilling out or falling off, and testers noted that they felt "very durable" and had "a nice grip." Because these pans are on the thicker side, you might find that food takes longer to cook on them, so just keep that in mind when checking your baking times — you may have to add a couple of minutes. Even so, a tester said, "that's worth it for perfect evenly cooked food."

Price at time of publish: $28

Food & Wine / Bailey Fink

Food & Wine / Bailey Fink

RELATED: We Cooked 68 Omelets to Test the Best Nonstick Pans—These Are Our Favorites

Great Jones

Coming in a variety of vibrant colors, this baking sheet is a winner in terms of looks and in performance.

Its larger size means it may not be suitable for smaller kitchens.

Who says your cookie sheet has to look boring? Veering from standard silver and black, these baking pans come in bright colors, including pinkish-red, cobalt blue, and mustard yellow. The positives go beyond aesthetics, though. We were very impressed with how the cookies and potatoes turned out, with one tester saying, "the potatoes especially got a beautiful perfect crisp to them without being overcooked." It was for baked cookies and potato wedges to glide right off — no extra effort required, and the pan "felt really durable and long-lasting."

One thing to note is that the pan is on the larger side, so we recommend keeping that in mind if you’re working with a smaller kitchen or sink. That being said, it's the perfect size for large batches of food.

Price at time of publish: $40

Food & Wine / Rachel Lee

Amazon

This pan is ideal for sheet cakes and gives vegetables a golden crisp.

It's a great sheet pan but only worth the investment if you cook a lot.

With its angled, raised edges and weighty, oversized handles, this versatile baking sheet properly contains batters and liquids for rolled cakes, bars, and more. It's suitable for baked goods, roasted vegetables, roasted chicken, pan pizzas, and sheet cakes, but whatever you decide to make it in, you can expect uniform results and easy cleaning afterward. One tester said that it "performed exceptionally well" and had "zero issues during each test."

The baking sheet is on the pricier side, but we still stand behind its value, especially if you cook a lot. "It's a superior sheet pan that helped me achieve very crispy foods and is built to last."

Price at time of publish: $38

Amazon

It's ideal for anyone cooking for many people, and you can count on foods cooking evenly without sticking to the pan.

Because of the baking sheet's bigger size, a wire rack could slide around.

At 21 x 15 inches, this pan is an excellent choice for anyone who makes a lot of sheet pan dinners or meal preps for the week. Despite its larger size, a tester said it's "not unwieldy," but if you want to use a standard wire rack on top of the sheet, it might slide around.

In terms of performance, there was no adhesion with cookies or potato wedges, with one tester noting the "extremely easy" release of food. Along with its flawless removal, a tester praised its yield of even browning. Another plus is how easy it is to hold onto with its rolled edges and gently angled walls.

Price at time of publish: $28

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Based on our tests, we chose the Nordic Ware Naturals Baker's Half Sheet as our overall favorite because it offered perfect performance and easy handling. It's an excellent combination of quality baking results, a reasonable price, and maneuverability.

Our testers assessed 19 different baking sheets by baking cookies from prepared cookie dough and baking homemade potato wedges. With the former, they examined how much the cookies spread, how dark or crisp the bottoms were, and how simple it was to remove the cookies from the sheet. During the latter, the testers noted how easy or not it was to flip the wedges during cooking and then release them from the pan once finished. In a third test, they inspected whether or not the baking sheet warped in an oven heated to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Throughout these processes, the testers observed how easy it was to handle the baking sheet and then clean it by hand. Based on durability, performance, ease of cleaning, and value, we rated each pan from one to five, with five being the highest score.

Generally, baking sheets fall into two categories — rimmed and unrimmed — with further variations in material and design features. While some professional bakers swear by unrimmed sheets for their superior air circulation and simple design, most home bakers will find rimmed baking sheets more practical. Thanks to their spillproof edges, rimmed baking sheets are serious multitaskers: Just as handy for roasting root veggies, toasting nuts, baking chicken, and supporting a deep dish pizza as they are for turning out perfect sheet cakes and chocolate chip cookies. Place a wire cooling rack inside one, and you have an easy-to-clean setup for draining fried foods and broiling cuts of meat, as well as cooling and frosting cupcakes and cookies.

Whether you choose a rimmed model or an unrimmed one, a nonstick surface or a natural one, a good baking sheet should heat up efficiently and quickly without twisting or warping, yield baked goods that are even and tender, and clean up easily without sticking or scratching.

While the terms "baking sheet" and "cookie sheet" are often used interchangeably, there are considerable differences between the two. Baking sheets have rimmed edges and are usually about 13 by 18 inches — a dimension known as a half-sheet pan and fit perfectly on most oven racks with just enough room around the edges for even air circulation. The workhorses of a commercial kitchen, rimmed half sheets are suitable for baking cookies, pastries, shortbreads, sheet cakes, roasted vegetables, meat, and toasted nuts.

Cookie sheets feature flat edges with small lips on one or two sides that act as handles and assist with maneuvering and gripping. Their large, flat surface area accommodates big batches of cookies and allows for graceful pan rotation in the oven. But versatility is not their strong suit: Without four rimmed edges to contain spills and crumbs, many other tasks — from roasting olive oil-tossed veggies to toasting nuts or breadcrumbs — are out of their reach.

What is the best type of cookie sheet? Uncoated aluminum is typically the top choice for professionals due to its durability, high-heat conductivity, and efficiency. Fast to heat up, aluminum is also quick to cool down, which helps prevent burns and reduces the wait time between getting batches in the oven if you are reusing the same pan. While it is primarily a cosmetic concern, aluminum's light color can be prone to staining; however, slipping a sheet of parchment or a silicone baking mat onto the pan before baking is a quick and easy way to expedite cleanup and prolong its life.

Whichever type of pan you choose, other vital factors to consider are thickness and finish (natural or nonstick). A baking sheet's relative heft is something you can test fairly accurately by touch, but if you want to double-check the thickness, the specification to look for is "gauge." For instance, most of our favorite picks fell in the 10-18 gauge range. (Note that gauge is a retrogressive scale, meaning the higher numbers indicate lower thickness.) Gauge is important and not just because a sturdy pan feels good in the hand. Thinner pans are more likely to warp in high heat (which can lead to unevenly cooked or slumped results) and burn the underside of cookies before the tops can thoroughly brown.

Nonstick baking sheets can be convenient when it comes to cleanup, but they come with a few performance caveats. In general, because of their slickness, these sheets yield cookies that are flatter and more spread out, with smoother, less textured bottoms. Also, because nonstick pans usually have darker gray finishes, they're apt to bake batches more quickly than their lighter, natural aluminum counterparts. In other words, keep a close eye on the time when you're using them.

Conversely, insulated cookie sheets, which work with a layer of air sandwiched between two sheets of metal, present some of the opposite issues. Because insulated sheets are slow to warm up, they can result in bake times that run considerably longer than recipes indicate. Their gentle heat conduction tends to produce cookies with edges and bottoms that are evenly browned but not particularly crunchy or crispy. Those properties may be just the ticket if you're working with delicate cookies, like meringues, which are at their best when slowly baked and pale.

A baking sheet is a flat, rectangular pan used for cooking in the oven. While "baking sheet" and "cookie sheet" are often interchanged, they have different meanings based on their standard definitions. Baking sheets have raised edges on all four sides, while traditional cookie sheets have a small lip on one or two sides to help with handling. Baking sheets can be used for cookies, but a typical cookie sheet won't work for liquid-based foods like cakes, as the batter will most likely spill over the sides.

In general, you should be able to wash your baking sheet using hot water, a standard sponge, and some dish soap. To deal with more stubborn messes, let your baking sheet soak for 30 minutes to an hour in a mixture of baking soda and vinegar before scrubbing. If you have a baking sheet with a nonstick coating, don't use anything abrasive, like steel wool, for scrubbing since that can destroy the coating. Even if your cookie sheet says it's dishwasher safe, we recommend handwashing to best preserve their condition.

You have a few different options for greasing a baking sheet. One way is to put some butter or shortening on a paper towel and rub a light layer on the surface. If your butter or shortening is soft, you can also use a pastry brush to spread it across the baking sheet. Alternatively, you can grease your baking sheet with a nonstick spray. There's no need to grease your pan when using parchment paper since it already has a nonstick surface.

A baking sheet can warp as the metal on different parts of it expands at different rates when it is heated up. This can lead to that distinct "pop" sound when a corner slants upward. Heavier baking sheets are less likely to twist than thin, lightweight baking sheets, and rolled edges help prevent a pan from warping.

Unless your recipe call for greasing the pan, we recommend using parchment paper or nothing if your pan has a nonstick coating. Additional butter or oil can cause your cookies to spread and the bottoms to burn, leaving you with thin, unevenly cooked results. For an eco-friendly alternative to parchment paper, consider this reusable silicone baking mat. Another plus of parchment paper and silicone mats is that cleanup is much easier.

Cindy Brzostowski is a freelance writer and avid home cook with previous experience in cookbook publishing. Her writing has been featured in Allrecipes, Blue Apron, The Kitchn, and EatingWell among other publications. To determine the best baking sheets, she used data and insights from Food & Wine editors who tested 19 of the most popular models on the market.

Expert food product reviewer Laura Denby also contributed to this article. Laura is a food writer and former professional chef with a degree in Culinary Arts from the Institute of Culinary Education. Her work can be found in Real Simple, FoodNetwork.com, Taste of Home, and more.