All About Cooling Racks

Too Hot to Handle, Too Cold to Hold: All about Cooling Racks and How to Use them

We all know the first place cookies go right out of the oven is to a cooling spot (unless, that is, you have cookie monsters who can't wait to have a taste).

Rather than leave your cookies or other baked goods on a baking sheet where they might get irreparably stuck in place, you'll have better luck, and yummier treats, cooling them on a cooling rack.

Traditional Racks and Why they Work

Today's traditional cooling racks are simple in design, generally featuring non-stick nickel- or chrome-plated aluminum or steel bakeware wire in round or rectangular form mounted on small feet.

Cooling racks cool food because of their open, slatted structure and slightly raised height; air openly and evenly circulates around and through the rack and food, cooling without allowing the formation of condensation. While cookies can cool for a very short time on a cookie sheet, breads in pans cool best when removed immediately and transferred to a cooling rack to prevent a soggy crust.

Cooling racks are also ideal spots for defrosting frozen baked goods.

Antique Cooling Racks

Bakers caught on to the handy benefits of cooling racks long before now, and cooling rack design hasn't changed much over the years. Antique pie cooling racks from the early 1900s, which now go for anywhere from $50 to about $100, featured one or two thick wire circles attached to a handle; pie plates fit into the circles and, thanks to the handle, could be easily transported. Other wire ware cooling racks from turn-of-the-century kitchens looked much like ours; some had small handles attached so they could be hung when not in use.

Specialized Racks

Our modern cooling rack market is chockfull of specialty racks for specific purposes.

Tiered or stacking cooling racks. Perfect for large baking jobs before bake sales or cooling multiple cakes (say for that three-tiered number you have in mind for a birthday), tiered and stacking cooling racks cool all your baked goods while taking up the counter space a single rack would. Some stacking cooling racks also feature collapsible legs that make for easy storage.

Folding cooling racks. Designed with saving space in mind, folding cooling racks have hinged sides that collapse inward to make storage a snap.

Expandable cooling racks. Expandable cooling racks feature several attached, nesting tiers you can pull out to create a cooling space perfectly sized for your baking needs.

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