Tips for Baking Cookies in a Gas Oven
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Cookie season is here! And there’s nothing worse than burnt or flat cookies when you’re trying to bake for loved ones or impress friends and family this holiday season. So I’m sharing my top tips for baking cookies in a gas oven.
If you have a gas oven, then you know that sometimes baked goods can be more difficult than they should be. I have had electric ovens most of my life, but I love cooking with gas. So when we built our house I excitedly ordered a gas oven because I just so excited to cook with gas again that the oven part didn’t even register.
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I got my gas oven, installed it, and then realized I should have bought a dual fuel oven, which is gas cooktop and electric oven. See, gas is better for cooking, but electric is better for baking! An electric oven creates a more even heat, so it’s better for baked goods. While gas can have hot spots and create burnt bottoms, flat cookies, and more.
I did eventually replace my brand new gas oven with a dual fuel range, but it took about 13 months as everything was back ordered from Covid. So, in that time, I bought a simple electric oven and plugged it into the car charging port in my garage (yep, not joking) and I tested recipes in both gas and electric and learned how to master the gas oven just in time for my new dual fuel range to arrive, haha!
So you can bake with confidence in your gas oven, I promise! But there are some crucial tips for baking cookies in a gas oven and I’m sharing them with you just in time for cookie season. If you want more info on this subject, check out my post Tips for Baking with a Gas Oven.
Tips for Baking Cookies in a Gas Oven
Use an Oven Thermometer
Using an oven thermometer is my top tip for any oven. All ovens are a little different, and irregular oven temperatures don't discriminate. The best thing you can do is buy an oven thermometer and leave it in your oven. I have a brand new oven and I leave my oven thermometer in there all the time, just to be sure!
If a recipe calls for 375°F but when you heat your oven to 375°F it’s really registering 350°F, then cookies will suffer! If this is the case you may have to turn your oven up a little more to get it to register at 375°F. If your oven is registering wrong, you can call a repair man to come and fix it. This is the oven thermometer I have, and it's less than $10!
Chill Cookie Dough
Chilling cookie dough has so many benefits, it can slow cookie spread, develop more flavor, prevent burnt cookies, and create a thicker and chewier cookie. And, gas ovens tend to cook a little slower than electric ovens. So your cookies can suffer a lot in a gas oven without adjustments. Cookies can turn out flat because gas bakes slower, so they’re baking longer in order to be done and they’re spreading more because of those few extra minutes in the oven. So, that’s why chilling your cookie dough can help prevent flat cookies.
I got in the habit of making cookie dough at night, chilling in the fridge overnight, and baking the following day. You can always test one cookie if the recipe does not call for chill time, see how it bakes, then decide if you want to chill the rest of the dough if you think it needs it.
Use Aluminum Cookie Sheets
Aluminum conducts heat most evenly, so aluminum cookie sheets are ideal. One of my top picks is USA Pan Cookie Sheets as not only are they aluminum but they also have the little ridges and this helps heat evenly, which is ideal for baking cookies in a gas oven. If you have dark metal cookie sheets, they can absorb more heat, therefore cause cookies to burn on the bottom. This is especially true when the heat is uneven in an oven, which can happen with gas ovens. So, replacing your cookie sheets could be a game chamber!
Use Parchment Paper
Parchment paper not only makes cookie clean up easy. But, it also can help protect the bottom of your cookies if they are growing too much. As mentioned above, dark cookie sheets can conduct more heat and possibly burn cookies. So, using parchment paper can help prevent that! My favorite nontoxic parchment paper is from Kana, use code MIMIBAKES for 10% off your order.
Use a Middle Rack
Using a middle rack will help you get the most even heat. Sometimes gas ovens can have hot spots and hold more heat at the top or even the bottom or sides. So, keeping cookies in the center can offer you the most even heat. This may mean having to bake cookie sheets one at a time, but be patient!
Rotate Cookie Sheets
Rotating cookie sheets will help you avoid hot spots in the oven. So, if you notice you’re always slight burning cookies on the left side of your cookie sheet, if you rotate that half way through baking you could avoid this from happening.
Bake a Little Longer
Gas ovens can sometimes take a bit longer, this can be due to uneven heat circulating. So don’t be scared to bake another 1 to 2 minutes for cookies if they don’t seem done. Always be sure to check them, and then go from there. But when I was baking consistently in my gas oven, I always had to bake my cookies for a couple extra minutes.
Top 10 Cookie Recipes for Baking in a Gas Oven
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