@candys mine wrote:
I'd go with the good sheets. If you MUST use the foil ones do a test run and if the cookies brown to much maybe double up the sheets to insulate a bit. Baking cookies is a labor of love and I'd rather use my tried and true baking sheets if at all possible.
THIS! It's called deadpanning and is used in commercial bakeries for items that they don't want to get too brown on the bottom. It's a very cheap and effective way to get a product cooked through without burning the bottom.
As to the need to only use the absolute best cookie sheets/pans, I'm not so much an advocate of that approach. You can do fine with the cheaper ones as long as you're a careful baker/cook. Techniques like deadpanning and rotating cookie sheets midway through, can give you very good results with even the cheapest cookie sheets. Truth be told if you saw some of the pans used in the finest kitchens you'd be shocked. Most were cheap when bought and look like they've been through a war. The very best chefs can turn out superb food using whatever's at hand. Much like any pastime whether it's cooking, golf, tennis, etc. equipment can help, but it won't make a hack into a pro. You can spend $400 on a putter for golf and still be a bad golfer. It's a nice putter, but it won't make you a better golfer. Likewise really nice pans are nice, but they won't necessarily make you a better cook.
If you have lesser quality stove top pans you'll typically want to keep the heat a tick lower and rotate the pans from time to time to minimize hotspots and even out the cooking. Watch top chefs in a professional kitchen and they routinely are moving the pans and leaving the handles in a different direction than they found them. There used to be a cooking show that went into professional kicthes. (Great Chefs of wherever) and the equipment you saw used in those kitchens was kind of eye opening. I don't remember ever seeing any Le Creuset cookware, or anything remotely resembling it, used in any of the professional kitchens. There were a surprisingly large number of chefs who did use disposable foil stuff however.
Tools are just that, tools. They don't make you a craftsman. That comes with time and experience and there's no shortcut. You can spend a lot of money on the finest cookie sheets out there, but if you forget ingredients, leave the cookies in the oven too long, or do any of the "normal" mistakes, the pan won't help you. People selling the high end stuff want you to think all you need to do is buy their stuff and you'll be great, but what you really need is experience. You can turn out great cookies on the cheapest cookie sheet you can find if you practice and get experience and you can turn out horrible cookies on the best cookie sheets if you're not experienced.
As a general rule with cookies, try a small batch (a few cookies) on whatever cookie sheets you have and time them carefully. If you've got a reliable oven (and some aren't) time their cooking and take them out a tick before you think they're done. Let them sit on the sheet for a minute or two then transfer them to a rack to cool. (Most cookie doughs can be refrigerated if you're worried about the wait time or your kitchen is very warm.) Sample the test cookies and adjust accordingly. If they're underdone, add a minute or two to the time for the next batch. If they're a bit overdone, take a minute or two off the cooking time. If the bottoms got too dark, but the top is still doughy, stack two cookie sheets together the next time (deadpanning.) If the deadpanning lets the top cook fine but the bottom is a bit doughy, take the bottom pan out midway through the cooking time.
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