Home › Home & Kitchen › Kitchen & Dining › Bakeware › Cooling Racks How to Use a Cooling Rack Published: July 9, 2026 · Updated: July 9, 2026
Set cakes, cookies and bread on a cooling rack's wire grid so air can circulate underneath and the bottoms cool crisp instead of turning soggy from trapped steam. Let cookies firm up on the hot pan for a few minutes and turn cakes out of the tin after about ten before moving them to the rack, and the same rack doubles for elevating roasts, draining fried food and catching glaze.
Recommended Cool bakes on the wire grid so air reaches the bottoms — rest them on the pan first, then transfer, and reuse the rack for roasting and draining — A cooling rack is a raised wire grid, and its whole job is to let air reach the underside of whatever's cooling. Left on a solid hot pan, cakes and cookies keep steaming from below and the bottoms go damp and soft; on the rack that steam escapes and they cool evenly and crisp. Timing matters when you move things: let cookies sit on the hot tray for two to five minutes first so they firm up enough to lift without falling apart, then slide them onto the rack. Cakes should cool in the tin for about ten minutes so they set enough to release, then be turned out onto the rack to finish cooling right-side up so they don't sweat. Bread and pastries go straight on once out of the oven. The same rack earns its keep beyond baking: sit it inside a sheet pan to roast meat or vegetables so hot air circulates all around them, to drain fried food without it going greasy on the bottom, or to catch drips while you glaze or ice cakes and doughnuts. Choose a sturdy rack that fits inside your sheet pans if you want it to do double duty, and check it's oven-safe before roasting on it.
