Thank you all so much. I live in the Middle East and my local market just doesn't carry such. Grease and flour will probably work best. Again, thank you for your time and informative answers. GoodC
I often overlook parchment paper in my supermarket. It's stored on the bottom shelf in the foil and wax paper section but on a much lower shelf; so it can be easy to overlook.
If you're in an immediate pinch (I mean, sometimes you need to bake right NOW and it is a couple of days before Amazon will deliver) you can use the inside of a brown paper bag (like from the grocery store -- the side without ink) cut flat. Long before parchment paper was so ubiquitous (I mean, Costco carries it!), my grandmother used this when baking her coconut macaroons. The higher the oven temp, the more concerned I'd be about this approach -- maybe limiting it to 350 or less. Long ago, it used to be that a cookie recipe would tell you whether or not you need to grease your cookie sheet, as some cookies stuck and some didn't (now it seems like we all use parchment, so it doesn't matter). I've never heard of greasing and flouring cookie sheets, but that is absolutely the way to go for any wet batter, like for cakes. Learning to bake beside my mother, I remember asking why you had to "flour" cake pans, in addition to greasing (I was very familiar with greasing cookie pans -- BTW: a little homemaking tidbit that I'm just now remembering, we would save the butter wrappers and grease the pan with the inside of the wrapper where there were always bits of butter left) and she said it was necessary as an additional barrier with the wet batter and that greasing wasn't enough -- the wet batter would still stick.
Reynolds, the company that makes aluminum foil, sells parchment paper in a similar roll. It's sold in supermarkets in the paper section; not with the baking goods. Perhaps your local supermarket might have it.
I agree also if there is a Costco near you they have large rolls of it in the paper goods section. Sur la Tabl or William Sonoma will have it. King Arthur Flour has it on their website although you may need it before it would arrive. The recommendation on the Silpat would be a good long term solution.
If you're using it for baking sheets you can grease and flour the baking sheets instead. Also, Amazon sells parchment paper of you could order Silpat mats, which work like parchment and are reusable.
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