If you’ve pursued baking as ever baked something like a cake, biscuits, pizza, or any other bakery item, then you must know the struggles of these items sticking to the baking sheet inside the oven. Subsequently, it’s only natural of you to have tried these papers to line your baking sheets and pizza stones to avoid sticking. While wax paper might work in some cases inside an oven, It’s isn’t advised for a majority of cases.
True to its name, wax paper is essentially coated with a thin layer of wax on either sides. This imparts the paper its virtue. The fact that it is real wax that lines both surfaces of wax papers raises some questions on its suitability in oven cooking. There’s been a growing trend of questions like ‘can you put wax paper in the oven’, ‘can you bake with wax paper’, ‘will wax paper melt in the oven’, ‘does wax paper burn in the oven’, and various others. We attempt to answer them all in this comprehensive write-up.
Also, please note that wax paper is different and should not be confused with parchment paper despite their similar scope of use. We’ve put together a separate guide on parchment paper that you can refer to, if you’d like to gather some info on that topic too. Back to the matter at hand, can you use wax paper in the oven? Read on to find out!
What is Wax Paper?
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Just per its name, a wax paper is more or less a paper that is coated with a thin layer of wax that results in different properties than standard paper. This kind of paper is highly popular as it gets used for various kinds of things other than just cooking and baking in your kitchen.
Originally, wax paper was used as plastic wrap for storing food items like bread loaves and protecting them from moisture. As for its construction, it is made out of paper and paraffin wax because of which it is also called paraffin paper sometimes.
Are Wax Paper and Parchment Paper the Same?
Now that you know more about wax paper and its primary usage in cooking, parchment paper might come in your mind as it is also quite similar along with having similar usage in a kitchen. This is mainly due to the reason that both of them have multiple similar properties. Whether you are using wax paper or parchment paper, both of them will offer you a nonstick surface for baking.
These papers can also resist moisture that can be handy for keeping your food items dry and even help a bit in preservation. A great thing about these papers is that you can even make oily or greasy doughs and mixtures on them without getting it stuck on to your countertop. Generally, wax paper, as well as parchment paper, come in rolls that you can unroll and use either parchment or wax paper in oven for baking at your home.
How are Wax Paper and Parchment Paper Different?
Apart from having various similarities, there are also differences between wax papers and parchment papers that you should know. One of the biggest differences between parchment paper and wax paper is that wax paper cannot handle the high temperature. If you are using a wax paper at high heat, its wax coating will start to melt and come off. In severe cases, the paper may catch fire altogether. This is the reason, it’s only recommended with baking cakes and muffins where the paper itself isn’t in direct contact with the heat.
On the other hand, parchment paper has a silicone coating that can easily handle the heat. You can keep using a parchment paper even at 450°F at which it might become brown at, but will not burn. This makes it a better option for lining pizza stones (where the paper is exposed to heat). If baking pizzas comprises a majority of your baking tasks, you’d know how tough it can get cleaning a pizza stone that’s been used over and over without any lining between the dough and the stone surface.
A Pizza Guy’s perspective on the use of parchment paper while baking pizzas:
As much you may dislike it, there shouldn’t be a need to line your pizza stone with parchment paper ideally. If you get all things right, the pizza dough shouldn’t stick to the stone surface at all. However, you’d need the help of a pizza peel to shake and toss the pizza occasionally to ensure uniform cooking (check our detailed guide to the best pizza peel according to your cooking style here). With the tapered edge of a peel, you could move the pizza around just like you’d do to a pan cake with a turner spatula.
Alternatively, you could switch your pizza stone with a metallic deep dish pizza pan. These often come with perforation to get rid of excess moisture, thereby eliminating the primary reason due to which the crust turns soggy and tends to stick to the bottom surface. We’ve discussed other differences between a pizza pan and pizza stone for your reference.
However, if you want to use a wax paper in your microwave, you can use it without any issues just because of the way a microwave works. This can be handy in many cases as you cannot use things like aluminium foil or plastic wrap in a microwave. Another difference between wax paper and parchment paper is that parchment paper is much more expensive and can be an issue for some users out there.
Is Wax Paper Toxic?
Unlike most other cooking papers out there, a wax paper is as natural as it can get because of its construction. It uses paper and paraffin wax, both of which are quite natural that means the wax paper is not toxic.
Even if you end up burning wax paper, its ash and smoke are not toxic at all making it safe for cooking at home. Although, the smoke can cause breathing problems if the wax paper is burned too back. But in general, wax paper is not toxic, and you can use it without any worries.
Conclusion
While there are a lot of paper and wrapping options out there that you can use during baking and cooking in your kitchen, wax paper is one of the most popular ones. Hence, we have mentioned all of the details regarding the wax paper in this article.
You can also find the answer to your questions like can wax paper go in the oven, will wax paper melt in the oven, can you put parchment paper in the oven. Although, if you still have any questions or doubts, you can leave all those in the comments section down below.