And other burning questions.
All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.Salted Caramel Apple Cookies
as a sweet treat for your future self. You carefully beat the butter and sugar. You lovingly grated the apples. But when you pulled the tray out of the oven, one half of the batch was perfectly golden and the other was dry and a smidge burnt. Your heart sank like a soufflé gone wrong. And this is where you learned a valuable lesson the hard way: When baking cakes, pastries, and cookies, it’s usually a good idea to rotate your pans.
If you cook from recipes often, you’ve likely stumbled across the instruction to turn your pans 180 degrees about halfway through the bake time. And you’ve also likely wondered, “But do Ito?” Rotating your pans can feel more like a nitpicky suggestion than a hard and fast rule.
It’s only when you’ve suffered the loss of a half-burned tray of cookies that you can finally accept the truth: Your oven isn’t perfect, and neither, my friend, are you. Here’s what you need to know about rotating your pans while baking.This part is easy. If you’ve got one pan in the oven, all you need to do is rotate it 180 degrees.