That's how I bake my pizza at 500 degrees in my home oven. The parchment paper may darken and char around the edges, but it doesn't catch on fire - at least not for me. I try to have the square of paper measure just about the size of my round pizza - meaning no extra inches of paper hanging off the sides.

Sometimes I even trim the paper in a circle (er, not really a circle, more like an ameoba shape) around the pizza, and it does get dark and brittle around the edges, but no fires have happened.

I often cook "en pappilotte"....meaning wrapping food in parchment and baking. I cook bread and cookies on parchment....never a problem.
Much easier than greasing a pan....and easier to clean up too!
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: cooking with parchment

Amen and amen, Lindac! I don't ever bake cookies or bread loaves on a sheet pan w/o using parchment paper anymore; life is too short to spend it greasing pans and washing them up after baking.

This is a timely post for me. I have never used parchment paper. Recently I was visiting a friend and she was advising me to get with the program. Can you buy this at a regular grocery store - or do you have to buy it at a cooking store?

I think that now most of your larger grocery stores have parchment paper - usually in the aisle with Saran Wrap, aluminum foil, paper lunch bags, etc.

great info, as always. thanks a bunch, trying it tonite! mol

I have bought it at the restaurant supply. The last box I bought was not like the parchment I had before. It came in sheets and was thinner than the regular parchement, so it did not work well for pizza dough. I use it for lots of other stuff though. I paid two dollars for 1,000 sheets of bakery sheet cake size so I have to cut it in half (at least!) to use it.

The roll of parchment I have now says not to use with temps higher than 420°... the one previous said not higher than 450°.

Stacy, one of the Cooking forum members had parchment catch on fire in her oven. User beware!