Before we start looking at the best stainless steel baking sheets, it’s important to note that the typical metal baking tray/ oven pan/ baking sheet is usually made from aluminum.
While a lot of people assume they are made of stainless steel because of their silver, metal look, if you search for “baking sheets” on amazon or other kitchen/cookware stores, you’ll most likely find aluminum baking pans.
Aluminum is a good substance to use for baking sheets as it heats evenly and conducts heat well. But, it does have some limitations, for instance, you can not put aluminum sheet pans in the dishwasher as the harsh chemicals used in dishwashing detergents will oxidise the aluminum and make the tray all weird and motley on the surface.
Also, some people don’t like to cook with aluminum due to health concerns. If you’d rather use stainless steel than aluminum baking sheets you’re in luck as I’m about to reveal to you the best stainless steel baking sheets your money can buy.
Baking sheets come in many different sizes, the most common ones being a “half sheet pan” and a “quarter sheet pan”. A half sheet pan typically measures 18 x 13 inches, so it’s quite a large baking sheet which is often also used as a “cookie sheet” to bake cookies. Meanwhile a quarter sized baking sheet is typically 13 x 9 inches in size and is used for baking smaller batches of food. They can sometimes also fit into large toaster ovens.
The Best Stainless Steel Baking Sheets
There is no competition here. Without a doubt the best stainless steel baking sheets are these ones made by Checkered Chef.
These are incredibly heavy duty stainless steel baking pans that work amazingly well.
Being a stainless steel aficionado it’s fair to say that I’ve tried many different stainless steel baking sheets over the years and, while most have been OK in that they clean up well in the dishwasher, keep a nice shiny finish and they cook my food, every single one of my collection of stainless steel pans is thin, flimsy and warps in the oven.
Until I discovered these pans from Checkered Chef!
Now, whenever I want to bake something in the oven, I always pick these trays and leave the rest of them in the cupboard. A word of warning, these are heavy, much heavier than any of the other baking sheets I own.
I can only assume that it is the heavy design of these trays that helps to prevent them from warping in the oven. If you understand physics at all you can accept that oven trays might warp a bit at high temperatures – when you heat metal it expands, it has to go somewhere!
This results in some warping or movement in most baking sheets which we can all accept as normal as long as they return to their regular shape on cooling.
That is, of course, unless the warping is more like a total twisting of the pan resulting in a grossly misshapen pan which can be dangerous if you’ve got hot liquid in the pan. Some of my first (cheap) stainless steel pans were like this.
They’d only need to be in the oven for a few minutes and you’d hear a loud “boing” noise and look in the oven and the baking sheet would have a corner sticking right up in the air. Needless to say, those pans are no longer in my collection.
I worked my way through various other options and some were not too bad, although all would warp to some degree. But then I found these heavy duty baking sheets and I no longer had to accept that all baking sheets will warp!
Full disclosure, the half sheet pan size baking sheet has “moved” once for me when I was cooking some chicken wings on it. It was so minor I wouldn’t even call it “warping” but I guess the heat did make the metal move a bit. Once cooled the tray sat perfectly flat again so it certainly won’t stop me from recommending these baking sheets.
Meanwhile the quarter sheet pan size was the first one of these that I bought. It’s still going strong, in and out of the dishwasher, cleans up perfectly every time and has never once warped or even “moved” as far as I am aware. I don’t know how they do it but these baking sheets appear to be physics defying!
Even if they did warp slightly (like all other stainless steel baking sheets) I would still recommend these baking sheets as the best baking sheets I’ve ever owned. They are heavy duty and I anticipate them lasting for a very long time. I also really love being able to wash them in the dishwasher rather than have to wash them by hand, although I often hand wash the half sheet pan anyway as it’s quite big to fit in the dishwasher.
If, for some reason, I still haven’t sold you on the merits of these baking sheets, perhaps the available sizes don’t suit your needs, there are a couple of others you might like to check out. But remember, any of these other options are likely to warp somewhat once subjected to heat – they are all a lot thinner than the Checkered Chef pans and therefore more flimsy, but they do have lots of different sizes available. If you’re looking for different sizes check out these pans from Willow & Eva:
Or these options from Team Far:
Whichever baking sheets you ultimately choose, I’m sure you’ll enjoy baking with stainless steel baking sheets – they’re a great, safe, non toxic alternative to aluminum baking sheets.
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