No More Plastic Wrap: What About Baking?

Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap. These are familiar instructions to home bakers, and I even include them in my own recipes here on The Kitchn. Though I don't use plastic wrap for many purposes other than chilling pastry, pie, and cookie dough, I am always looking for ways to make my kitchen more environmentally friendly and now that plastic bags and paper towels are (mostly) out of the picture, I'm turning to plastic wrap...

For most purposes, plastic wrap may be replaced with containers, aluminum foil, or reusable bowl covers. But what about pastry dough, which often needs to be wrapped and chilled in the refrigerator or freezer?

Wax paper and parchment paper are greener alternatives, as long as they're unbleached and don't contain petroleum-based coatings. However, paper doesn't offer the tightest wrap, and I worry about the dough drying out. Is plastic wrap really the best option, or have I just been conditioned to think it is? Surely bakers made perfectly good pie crusts before the invention of plastic wrap!

So I turn to you, dear readers. Do you have experience chilling dough without using plastic wrap? What works well? Are there any instances where you'd find it hard to give up plastic wrap?

(Image: Faith Durand)

posted originally from: TheKitchn

Comments (4)

I bake occasionally and live with a serious baker – we don’t use plastic wrap or plastic bags. I put my pie crust in the fridge in my reusable containers (tupperare or pyrex) and I think it works better than plastic wrap, nothing gets in at all.

Reuse is a good option; if you look around your home you might find plenty of polythene bags such as bread, cereal or frozen vegetable bags

if you have none of those, then grab a container with a lid and put your dough into it - it will be fine in the refrigerator until you need it; just make sure it's airtight to keep the dough fresh and stop it drying out.

Sometimes I use a bowl covered with a clean tea towel; this works well too.

A bowl covered by a clean, damp tea towel works well for me for most things. I have lived without plastic wrap for 6 years... and don't miss it at all!

I use lidded containers for dough or a damp flour sack to cover things that need to stay moist.