The Best Baking Sheet

We've reviewed this guide and continue to stand by our picks.

The Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet is the best all-purpose baking sheet we’ve found for everything from baking cookies to roasting vegetables.

Since this guide was first published in 2013, we’ve spent more than 45 hours testing 15 sheet pans and cookie sheets. After making 24 batches of cookies, six pizzas, and many pounds of oven fries, we found that the Nordic Ware bakes as evenly as sheets twice the price and won't buckle at high heat like cheaper models.

This sturdy, inexpensive sheet pan bakes evenly and will last for years.

We chose the Nordic Ware Baker's Half Sheet as our top baking sheet in our original 2013 review, and after years of heavy use at home and in our test kitchen, we’ve found it still lies flat and bakes cookies to an even golden brown. Some aluminum sheet pans may perform on a par with it, but the Nordic Ware consistently costs the least for a pan of its quality. It's a durable workhorse of a pan that can handle a wide variety of tasks, from roasting crisp oven fries to cooking a quick sheet pan dinner.

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This 13-by-18-inch pan performs nearly as well and looks almost identical to our main pick but usually costs a few dollars more.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $25.

If our main pick sells out, the Artisan Half Size Aluminum Baking Sheet is a decent runner-up. Like the Nordic Ware, it's made of strong, uncoated 18-gauge aluminum that stands up to high heat. In our tests it browned oven chips a little darker than the Nordic Ware, and it costs more than our main pick, a price bump with which we saw no increase in performance. Better to get the Nordic Ware, if you can.

If you prefer a rimless sheet to slide cookies easily onto a cooling rack, this one is less likely to char baked goods than thinner sheets, and its two handles make rotating the sheet in the oven easy.

We prefer the added versatility of a rimmed sheet, but if you like rimless cookie sheets, we recommend the Vollrath Wear-Ever Cookie Sheet. In our testing, this two-handled sheet was easy to rotate in the oven, capable of baking cookies evenly, and simple to clean. Made of 10-gauge aluminum, it's even thicker than our main pick, which is necessary to keep it from warping without the structural support of rims. It isn't as versatile as our main pick, because it can't contain roasting vegetables or the juices from a sheet pan dinner.

This sturdy, inexpensive sheet pan bakes evenly and will last for years.

This 13-by-18-inch pan performs nearly as well and looks almost identical to our main pick but usually costs a few dollars more.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $25.

If you prefer a rimless sheet to slide cookies easily onto a cooling rack, this one is less likely to char baked goods than thinner sheets, and its two handles make rotating the sheet in the oven easy.

In researching this guide, we pored over cookbooks like The Gourmet Cookie Book and equipment reviews from sources such as Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, Serious Eats, and America's Test Kitchen (subscription required). We also combed through Amazon reviews. And for more insight on what makes a good baking sheet, Christine Cyr Clisset interviewed baking experts Alice Medrich (who wrote Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies) and Jennifer Aaronson (the former head food editor at Martha Stewart Living and the lead food editor on Martha Stewart's Cookies, which Christine also worked on as an editor).

In addition to editing cookbooks (several sweet and several savory), Christine has also reviewed a wide variety of kitchen equipment for Wirecutter, including pie plates, casserole dishes, and food processors. Marguerite Preston, who worked on the 2018 update to this guide, is Wirecutter's kitchen editor and a former professional baker. She has written guides to cake pans, bread machines, cookie baking equipment, and more.

If you cook or bake at all, you should own a solid baking sheet. Really, you should own several. A quality rimmed baking sheet doesn't cost much, and it's one of the most useful pans you can own. You need one for baking cookies of course, but it's also great for roasting vegetables, making pizzas, toasting nuts, catching drips from a pie as it bakes, or cooking a quick sheet pan dinner.

Too many kitchen cupboards house a hodgepodge of clunker baking sheets. You know the kind. Warped. Wobbly. Dented. So thin they’re apt to char the undersides of cookies before browning the tops. "If you go to a cookie party with home bakers, you’re going to get a lot of cookies that are burned on the bottom and underdone on top," baker and cookbook author Alice Medrich told us, pointing to the prevalence of low-quality pans. So if your pans are flimsy and bent out of shape, or if you find yourself constantly burning cookies—and you know that your oven temperature is accurate—consider replacing your set with some of our picks.

A good baking sheet needs to do just two things: It needs to cook your food evenly, and it needs to withstand the abuse that comes with regular kitchen use. After talking to experts, testing 15 pans, and researching many more over the years, we’ve learned what features are necessary for a pan to be both reliable and durable. Here, in order of importance, are our criteria:

Rimmed vs. rimlessBaking sheets come with or without rims, and each design has its merits. We focused mostly on rimmed sheets because most experts prefer them for their versatility. They’re the way to go if you ever want to do anything besides make cookies and a few other baked goods (like bread and pizza). The rim keeps oils and juices from roasting meat or vegetables contained, and allows you to stir food around without having it slide off onto the bottom of your oven. Rimless sheets are made specifically for baking cookies and can make it easier to slide a batch directly onto a cooling rack. Cook's Illustrated (subscription required) also found that rimless sheets will bake your cookies a few minutes faster, because they allow for better air circulation. But as long as you pull them out of the oven a little sooner, you won't notice a difference between cookies baked on a rimless pan and cookies baked on a rimmed one. Both sheets should produce cookies with golden-brown bottoms and lightly browned tops.

Aluminum for even bakingWhether you go rimmed or rimless, look for a bare aluminum pan. Although sheets also come in aluminized steel and even tri-ply construction (an aluminum core sandwiched by stainless steel), bare aluminum conducts heat more efficiently, especially for baking; it heats up quickly and evenly and will cool down quickly once you take it out of the oven. Steel tends to heat unevenly, causing hot pockets on the sheet. Tri-ply sheets are expensive, and may retain heat longer than bare aluminum ones, meaning you risk overbaking cookies after you’ve pulled them out of the oven.

Heavy-gauge and warp-resistantA pan should be relatively thick so that it's durable and bakes evenly. "It doesn't need to be super-heavy," Alice Medrich told us, "but it needs to be heavy enough so that it doesn't warp." A thinner pan will also heat up quickly and may burn the bottoms of cookies.

If looking for specific gauges, note that smaller gauges correspond to thicker metal sheets. Most of the well-reviewed heavy-gauge aluminum sheets we found ranged from 18 gauge on the thin end (about 0.0403 inch thick) to 12 gauge on the thicker end (0.0808 inch thick). Both of our favorite rimmed baking sheets are 18 gauge, which is plenty thick to keep them from warping. Our rimless cookie sheet pick is made of thicker 10-gauge aluminum, which helps it stay flat without the added structural support of rims.

Bare metal beats nonstick coatingsOver the years, we’ve ruled out all nonstick baking sheets because they’re not nearly as durable as bare aluminum. Nonstick finishes can degrade at high temperatures and will inevitably scratch and lose their efficacy over time, so they’re not great for a pan you may want to use regularly for heavy-duty tasks like high-heat roasting. If you do need a nonstick surface for, say, baking cookies, it's much better to line your pan with a sheet of parchment paper. This method is not only foolproof, but it also makes cleanup nearly effortless and adds a little insulation to the sheets, which helps prevent burnt bottoms.

Also, as Alice Medrich pointed out, "A lot of the nonstick pans are dark, and I find that dark pans get cookies too dark on the bottom before the top of the cookie is done." It's better to use light-colored bare aluminum for the same reason it's better to wear a white T-shirt than a black one on a hot, sunny day: dark colors absorb heat, light colors reflect it. A dark pan retains too much heat and is liable to burn baked goods.

We’ve ruled out all nonstick baking sheets because they’re not nearly as durable as bare aluminum.

Standard sizes are most usefulAlthough you’ll find plenty of rimmed "jelly roll" baking sheets at grocery and kitchen-supply stores, they’re often thin and wobbly. The best rimmed baking sheets are the aluminum half-sheet pans used in commercial kitchens and adopted by many home bakers and cooks. These pans generally measure 13 by 18 inches (half of a 26-by-18-inch full sheet pan), and we’ve tried to stick to this size in our testing. Many rectangular cooling racks are also designed to fit snugly in a half-sheet pan, which is a great setup for roasting meat or glazing a bundt cake.

Simple is betterThe best pans we’ve tested have all been simple, bare aluminum baking sheets, which rarely cost more than $20 (and usually less). A basic, inexpensive pan is your best option because it's the most versatile—it can handle roasting potatoes just as well as baking delicate lace cookies—and because the less it costs, the more pans you can buy.

Some baking sheets come with special features meant to promote even baking, but these often cost more and don't make a huge difference for most tasks. For example, insulated cookie sheets, which consist of two thin sheets of metal sandwiching an air pocket, will bake cookies much more slowly and will prevent them from burning. These pans can be good for baking delicate cookies such as meringue and tuiles, but for anything else they’re unnecessary. Plus, both of our experts say you can just as easily bake delicate cookies on a regular sheet pan (particularly with a sheet of parchment paper).

Other pans have perforated or slightly ridged surfaces to promote even browning. The ridges are supposed to help hot air circulate, and also keep things from sticking. Though the slight ridges on our favorite cake pans do seem to offer those benefits, it's important to note that the cake pans also have a nonstick coating. Without that coating, things like oven fries do inevitably stick to a baking sheet in spots (the same is true of all bare aluminum pans), and it's a pain to scrub residue out of the ridges.

Over the years, we’ve run numerous tests on our baking sheets. For the most part, each test helped us evaluate one of two things: how durable a pan is, and how evenly it bakes. To test the latter, we always bake cookies, because they require some precision and are quick to show hot spots.

For every test, we’ve baked honey florentines to see how evenly the pans would bake delicate cookies that can burn easily. In 2013, we also baked sturdy slice-and-bake cookies and monitored for even browning on the tops and bottoms. In 2015, we tried roll-out sugar cookies, but they browned unevenly because we rolled them to uneven thicknesses, so we scrapped that test for our 2018 update. Instead we made sugar drop cookies, which we shaped precisely using a portion scoop. For each test, we baked one sheet pan at a time and placed it on the middle oven rack. We always lined the pan with parchment paper, and rotated it 180 degrees halfway through baking.

Because pans can warp at high temperatures, we tested their sturdiness by roasting things at high heat. In 2013 we baked pissaladière on whole wheat dough at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, as well as sweet potato fries at 425 °F for 35 minutes. In 2015 we baked oven potato chips at 500 °F. And in 2018 we made oven fries, roasting potatoes at 425 °F for about 40 minutes. Afterward, we checked to see if the pan still lay flat on the counter or if it wobbled. We also noted how easy it was to wash off oil and stuck-on potato bits by hand. Most manufacturers advise against putting bare aluminum pans in the dishwasher because doing so can tarnish the metal, so it's important that they clean up relatively easily. That said, we put our sheet pans in the dishwasher in the Wirecutter test kitchen, and although it has discolored them, it hasn't affected their performance.

This sturdy, inexpensive sheet pan bakes evenly and will last for years.

The 18-gauge Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet performed as well as or better than every other baking sheet we tested. It baked cookies more evenly than sheets twice the price and didn't warp at high heat (an issue with cheaper pans and even a few pricier ones). Although you might find a comparable pan at a kitchen-supply store, the Nordic Ware is the best option that's readily available online. It also happens to be one of the most consistently inexpensive aluminum pans we’ve found in our years of research.

In every test, the Nordic Ware sheet baked evenly, with no noticeable hot spots or cool spots. In our 2013 testing, it uniformly browned the bottoms of our slice-and-bake cookies while also evenly browning the tops. Delicate honey florentines caramelized nicely on the Nordic Ware without becoming too dark. The bottom of the pizza crust for our pissaladière also baked evenly with no noticeable dark or light spots. Several other sheets we tried, such as the Chicago Metalworks model and the Vollrath Wear-Ever Standard Duty Half-Size Sheet Pan, browned the bottom of our cookies slightly unevenly.

The Nordic Ware sheet also didn't warp at high temperatures. During our high-heat tests—at 425 °F, 450 °F, and 500 °F—the pan didn't buckle or bend. And even after several years of use, all the Nordic Ware pans in our test kitchen still lie flat. In comparison, several other pans we’ve tested, including both the most expensive one (Vollrath 13-gauge) and the least expensive one (Bakers and Chefs 18-gauge) warped slightly after just one round of roasting at 450 °F.

The Nordic Ware sheet pan also comes in ¼ and ⅛ sheet sizes. We love these and think they’re useful to have in addition to the ½ sheet size. They’re good for little things like toasting nuts or baking a few pieces of fish, and they’re easier to wrap up and fit in your fridge. The ⅛ sheet fits in all of our toaster oven picks, and the ¼ sheet also fits in the Cuisinart toaster oven and the Breville Smart Oven (our large toaster oven pick and our upgrade pick, respectively). This is handy because they’re of better quality than the pans that typically come with toaster ovens.

Overall, the Nordic Ware sheet performed about evenly with two other pans we tested—the Focus Foodservice Half Sheet Pan and the Artisan Professional Classic Baking Sheet—but it costs less than either of those.

This sheet pan comes with a lifetime limited warranty that "does not include damage caused by accidents, misuse, [or] overheating." Nordic Ware isn't specific about what it means by "overheating," though.

After years of heavy use both at home and in Wirecutter's test kitchen, all our Nordic Ware Baker's Half Sheet pans still perform really well. We’ve roasted vegetables at 500 °F without the pans warping and used a pan to support casseroles and pies.

Of course, the Nordic Ware sheet pan isn't perfect. I found that a regular nylon scrub pad slightly scratched the surface of the aluminum. The metal is also soft enough that utensils could scratch the surface a bit, but that's the case with all of the pans we tested. In all, the scratches are minor and purely cosmetic, so we don't think they’re a dealbreaker.

And as with all bare aluminum sheet pans, oils and fats will likely bake onto the aluminum, causing your pan to develop a dark brown patina over time. This seasoning (which is similar to the seasoning on a cast iron pan) may be unsightly, but it's actually a good thing––it contributes to better browning, and allows the pan to release food more easily. But you can scrub it off with some effort if you want to. Or just be sure to line your pan with foil or parchment before using it.

If you throw the Nordic Ware pan in the dishwasher, it will turn dull and tarnished. But that won't affect its performance, and Nordic Ware's use & care instructions note that the "discoloration is merely cosmetic and will not affect baking properties or safety of the pan."

While Nordic Ware pans used to have a completely smooth surface, they now include a slightly raised logo on one end. We’ve tested pans both with and without the logo, and found they performed the same—the logo isn't large enough to make for uneven baking, or to leave an noticeable impression in cookies. But it can be a little trickier to clean between the raised letters, which may lead to a buildup of baked-on oils around the logo. Since it's just a small patch, we don't think it's a dealbreaker, especially given that Nordic Ware's pans are consistently the most affordable and high-quality baking sheets we’ve found. If the logo does bother you, our runner-up, the Artisan, has a completely smooth baking surface.

This 13-by-18-inch pan performs nearly as well and looks almost identical to our main pick but usually costs a few dollars more.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $25.

If our main pick is unavailable, the Artisan Half Size Aluminum Baking Sheet is a great alternative. It was one of several aluminum sheet pans we tested that baked about on a par with the Nordic Ware, and of those, it tends to be the closest in price to our top pick. Like the Nordic Ware, it baked cookies evenly to a nice golden brown, and never warped in our battery of high-heat tests. We did, however, hear some crackling sounds when this pan was hot and sitting outside of the oven, suggesting that it moves slightly as it adjusts to the temperature change.

As it turns out, Vollrath (another top maker of sheet pans) owns Artisan. However, a Vollrath representative told us that Artisan pans are made in a different factory than Vollrath pans. We’ve tested both, and confirmed that they’re not identical. Artisan pans are made of a sturdy 18-gauge aluminum, the same thickness as our top pick. The Vollrath rimmed baking sheet we tested (not to be confused with the Vollrath cookie sheet we recommend below) is 13-gauge, but despite being thicker, still warped at a relatively low 375 °F.

If you prefer a rimless sheet to slide cookies easily onto a cooling rack, this one is less likely to char baked goods than thinner sheets, and its two handles make rotating the sheet in the oven easy.

The Vollrath Wear-Ever Cookie Sheet isn't as versatile as a rimmed baking sheet, but it's great specifically for baking cookies. This heavy-gauge sheet bakes gently and evenly, and has two open sides that allow you to slide cookies right onto a cooling rack. Raised handles on the short ends make it easy to rotate in the oven. It also has a small hole on one end if you want to hang it on a pegboard or on a hook inside a cupboard. Like other Vollrath Wear-Ever bakeware pieces, this sheet comes with a one-year limited warranty that doesn't cover "misuse"—so no overheating. Warping, however, probably won't be a problem with this sheet, because cookies generally require baking at 375 °F or below.

Rimless cookie sheets in general are more awkward to maneuver than rimmed sheet pans. When pulling sheets like the Vollrath from the oven, you have to be careful that the parchment paper doesn't slide right off onto the oven rack. However, of the three rimless sheets we tested, the Vollrath was the easiest to use because its two handled ends were better at preventing parchment from sliding than the single handle on each of the other rimless pans.

Cook's Illustrated (subscription required) chose this sheet as its top pick, and the Vollrath also gets high marks on Amazon. We still think the Nordic Ware half sheet represents a better overall value, but if you don't mind storing a single-purpose pan and don't want rims, the Vollrath works well.

The Focus Foodservice Commercial Bakeware 18 Gauge Aluminum Half Sheet Pan is mostly well-reviewed on Amazon, and in our tests it performed on a par with the Nordic Ware pan. It tends to be a little more expensive than our picks, however, and we also noticed that most of the negative reviews on Amazon complained of pans arriving dented. But this would be another good option if our main pick and runner-up are both unavailable or overpriced.

In 2018 we tested the Nordic Ware Prism Half Sheet to see how its ridged surface compared with the smooth aluminum bottom of our top pick Nordic Ware pan. It browned sugar cookies slightly less than pans with a smooth surface (a plus if you’re baking delicate cookies), but it was difficult to scrub stuck-on potato from between the ridges. Ultimately we think our top pick will serve you better.

The USA Pan Aluminized Steel Cookie Sheet and USA Pan Aluminized Steel Jellyroll Pan are more similar to the cake pans we love: They have the same corrugated bottom to promote even browning. Unfortunately, they both also have a nonstick coating, which is fine for cake pans but not great for baking sheets (which need to withstand higher temperatures and more frequent abuse from spatulas). The cookie sheet also has only one handle, making it awkward to rotate in the oven.

We featured the Members Mark Half Size Aluminum Sheet Pan from Sam's Club as our runner-up in our 2013 guide. In our tests, it baked cookies (and everything else) as well as the Nordic Ware, and you get two for the price of one of our main pick. The pan did buckle in high heat, which isn't a big deal if you use it only for making cookies. But because this pan is available exclusively at Sam's Club stores, it isn't the easiest to find. If you do happen to be in a store, we recommend snagging a set.

The Vollrath Wear-Ever Heavy-Duty Half-Size Sheet Pan (13-gauge, model 5314) used to be Cook's Illustrated's (subscription required) top choice for sheet pans and is currently a runner-up. Surprisingly, this pan warped slightly while baking our honey florentines, when the oven was set at only 375 °F. It warped even worse during our sweet potato test at 425 °F.

The Vollrath Wear-Ever Standard Duty Half-Size Sheet Pan (18-gauge, model 5303) is well-reviewed on Amazon. On most of our tests it baked on a par with the other 18-gauge sheets, but it browned the bottom of the slice-and-bake cookies unevenly.

The Chicago Metallic Commercial II Traditional Uncoated Large Jelly Roll Pan is recommended by Cook's Illustrated. In our testing, however, this pan overly browned the honey florentines.

Circulon's carbon steel Bakeware 11″ x 17″ Cookie Pan baked cookies evenly in our 2015 tests, but our baked potato chips wound up over-browned or burned in spots. It's a sturdy-feeling pan, but it has a nonstick surface that will wear off over time.

Cook's Illustrated recommends the Norpro Heavy Gauge Aluminum Jelly Roll Pan, but it didn't have higher user reviews than other pans we decided to test.

At around $100, All-Clad's Cookie Sheet is much too expensive for us to consider for this review. It also has a rim on only one side, making it hard to maneuver in the oven and less versatile than a rimmed baking sheet.

This article was edited by Raphael Brion.

Rimmed Baking Sheets, America's Test Kitchen (subscription required)

Sharon Franke, The Secret to Perfect Cookies, Good Housekeeping, December 5, 2010

What cookie sheets work best for baking cookies?, Better Homes & Gardens

Caroline Russock, So what cookie sheet should you buy? Over 120 cookies later, I found out., Serious Eats, December 14, 2010

Cookie Sheets, Cook's Country

Jane Lear, Choosing the Best Cookie Sheet, Kitchen Daily

Cookie Sheet Bake-Off, Cook's Illustrated, September 1, 2010

Marguerite Preston

Marguerite Preston is a senior editor covering kitchen gear and appliances at Wirecutter, and has written guides to baking equipment, meal kit delivery services, and more. She previously worked as an editor for Eater New York and as a freelance food writer. Before that, she learned her way around professional kitchens as a pastry cook in New York.

Christine Cyr Clisset

Christine Cyr Clisset is a deputy editor overseeing home coverage for Wirecutter. She previously edited cookbooks and craft books for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and she started reviewing kitchen gear back in 2013. She sews many of her own clothes, which has made her obsessive about high-quality fabrics—whether in a dress or bedsheets.

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