When Food Sticks to Wax Paper: Salvage Time!
As you might have already figured out, I love wax paper
It’s great for all kinds of things but there are some things it just doesn’t work so great for.
Like flax seed crackers and fruit leather.
Instead, use parchment paper. I learned after my multiple wax paper disasters that parchment paper doesn’t stick down like wax paper does.
I’ve since made fruit leathers and flax crackers on parchment paper without it sticking, yah! The inserts
Anyway, if you, like me, used wax paper for something that maybe you shouldn’t have, never fear we can salvage it!
I hope.
I have got to be quite good at this since I have managed to firmly glue fruit leather and flax seed crackers to wax paper.
The trick is to wet the wax paper just enough that it releases from the food so you can pull it off. Through trial and error I have figured out a way that works pretty well.
It is ridiculously time consuming but I would rather take the extra time to salvage a batch of homemade goodies than see them end up in the compost pile.
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| The blue areas are where you should concentrate on wetting, since they are the hardest to remove, in my experience. |
I use a spray bottle and heavily wet around the outside and inside edge of the round I made to fit in the dehydrator.
You should be able to see water droplets. Let it set for maybe 10 minutes so the wax paper becomes pliable.
When it’s soaked up enough water you will be able to peel the wax paper off. You need to work fast once it’s wet enough or it will start to dry out again.
After removing the wax paper I put the fruit leather and flax crackers back in the dehydrator so they are fully dry before storing them.
That’s how I saved my fruit leather and crackers. What do you dehydrate your liquidy things on?
This post is participating in The Mostly Homemade Mondays, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Real Food Wednesday and HomeAcre Blog Hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!
24 Comments
Helen · January 29, 2014 at 3:34 am
I want to thank you for this article. I had the same problem. I was out of parchman paper so I used wax paper. What a mess. I tried heating my leather in a skillet to see if that would help release it, no luck there. I then tried to steam it with my steam iron. Not enough steam to work. I was just about to give up and toss the fruit leather. Then I thought, there is no problem in this world that someone else has not already had and solved. I knew that the internet was the place to look. I did a search on “my fruit leather stuck to the wax paper.” I found your website. Your information worked wonderfully. Thank you,Helen
Emily Swezey · January 29, 2014 at 4:11 am
Woho! So glad you were able to save it, Helen! I knew after the frustration I went through I had to share, so I’m very glad someone else was able to salvage something stuck to wax paper from my experience. I do hope you will visit again!
gulnaz · December 9, 2015 at 9:34 am
Thank you so much for posting this information. Very informative and saved my fruit leather..
Anonymous · July 18, 2014 at 7:50 pm
After reading a few things about heat application, I thought I’d try microwaving my wax paper and stuck granola bars. I did it on high for 15-20 seconds, and it totally did the trick! So, I just thought I’d share that quick idea.
Emily Swezey · July 19, 2014 at 11:17 pm
I’ve read that works but it didn’t in my case, its good to have more than one thing to try though!
Anonymous · July 20, 2014 at 11:09 pm
I made the same mistake, couldn’t find a spray bottle, microwave didn’t work, what did work is using a towel, get it wet with hot tap water, wring it out (you want as much water removed as possible), and lay it on the back (paper side) of the leather for a few minutes, when the towel is removed the paper will release the leather. If you don’t leave the towel too long the leather is still almost completely dry on the other side.
725fd47c-44d5-11e4-af0d-636eff068f5d · September 25, 2014 at 5:00 pm
You are my life saver today.. Thank you very much!
amy · May 3, 2015 at 7:59 pm
You just saved me a lot of time and money, not to mention heartbreak. 😉 Bless you for this awesome information!
Hoan · March 9, 2016 at 10:46 am
Thank you so much for saving me!
HM · April 27, 2016 at 1:52 am
It worked. Thank you so much! You saved my fruit leather!!! I can’t thank you enough.
Dawn · June 3, 2016 at 9:46 am
This happened to me with a cheap parchment paper. Thank you for sharing! I used a paintbrush and water on the backside of the paper and was able to peel the fruit leather right off!
Dawn · June 3, 2016 at 9:46 am
This happened to me with a cheap parchment paper. Thank you for sharing! I used a paintbrush and water on the backside of the paper and was able to peel the fruit leather right off!
tanya · September 22, 2016 at 2:58 pm
I just tried this. It worked like a charm. Thank you for your help.
Amanda · November 23, 2016 at 6:41 pm
Thank you SO MUCH! I used a hot damp towel for my gluten free crescent rolls and, though it took a bit of patience, it worked for half of my rolled out dough. I froze the other half for 30 minutes and the wax paper peeled right off, so we have two methods that work. Thanks again for posting!
Amanda · November 23, 2016 at 6:41 pm
Thank you SO MUCH! I used a hot damp towel for my gluten free crescent rolls and, though it took a bit of patience, it worked for half of my rolled out dough. I froze the other half for 30 minutes and the wax paper peeled right off, so we have two methods that work. Thanks again for posting!
Carolyn Mays · December 5, 2016 at 2:55 pm
Thank you so much. I made the cookies for a Christmas exchange at work and couldn’t believe that every single cookie stuck firmly to the wax paper. I’ll try your plan and let you know.
Carolyn Mays · December 5, 2016 at 2:55 pm
Thank you so much. I made the cookies for a Christmas exchange at work and couldn’t believe that every single cookie stuck firmly to the wax paper. I’ll try your plan and let you know.
Dana · December 21, 2016 at 11:56 am
Omg you just totally saved my cookie bark recipe from sticking to the wax paper in the freezer. Took like two seconds too THANK YOU!!
Dana · December 21, 2016 at 11:56 am
Omg you just totally saved my cookie bark recipe from sticking to the wax paper in the freezer. Took like two seconds too THANK YOU!!
Amanda Justice · October 3, 2017 at 11:02 pm
Wow, your awesome idea just saved my family’s dinner tonight! I ran out of nonstick cooking spray last weekend, and me being me forgot to grab any while at the grocery twice this week already. Anyway my husband’s fav food is pizza, he would/will eat it for every meal, so I frequently make homemade pizza.
Well as I’ve said I ran out of nonstick cooking spray, so I resorted to coating the bottom of the pan with plain old vegetable oil (my mother always had us use Crisco if a recipe called for a greased baking sheet. I’ll point out the fact that when using Crisco, margarine and butter type substances that under most circumstances when used while baking they they heat up and liquify at fairly low heat ranges. Now it seems to me that the veggie oil should work,
but the last 3 pizzas I’ve made have stuck to the pan while baking and I tear the pizza slices up something awful trying to get the pizza unstuck from the bottom of the pan. Long story short, I get the brilliant idea to line the pizza pan with wax paper to keep it from sticking. HA, the joke was on me! It had stuck worse than ever. It would only peel off in tiny strips here and there. I couldn’t feed this to my fam like this! So trusty old Google pointed me this way and I found your post. Yay I fixed dinner with all this info and it wasn’t half bad either. Of course couldn’t use the spray bottle method I’ve heard repeatedly in the comments on a pizza, all the toppings would slide right off. So I poured a small small amount of water onto the pan directly and lifted the wax paper/crust a bit at a time all the way around the edge allowing the water to move under all of the waxpaper/crust. After sitting in the water for 15 to 20 seconds I took my pizza cutter and cut the pizza as I normally would have into 8 triangular slices, making sure to cut thru the wax paper as well I then turned each piece of pizza face down on a plate and peeled the dampened wax paper off of the back of each piece. Dinner was not only served, it was saved by this bit of quick thinking. Thanks so much!!
Linda · December 29, 2017 at 4:57 pm
Thank you so much! So glad you posted this, I made Chipotle Almond Brittle, I thought I would have toss…..You saved the Day & gift for my family!
I-chèle · January 8, 2018 at 1:48 pm
THANKYOU for your wonderful and useful info. You have helped me save my dried kiwi…Love, d’Light the domestic diva ?
Rachel · July 20, 2018 at 6:04 am
Thank you, I will try this! I’ve been tearing off little pieces of my disaster and sucking the fruity goodness off – this looks way better!
Julie W. · September 30, 2018 at 3:00 pm
THANK YOU for this article and all the responses- VERY helpful! My 80 year old mother and I dove into making fruit leather. We used plums and added other fruit in various batches, and used wax paper to dry it on. It stuck like crazy! We used a little olive oil on a few to see if that would help it from sticking- nope! Still stuck. We found microwaving the individual sheets until hot- released the sheets of fruit leather. No needed drying time. It turned out GREAT!