Someone gave me silicone mat for use in baking stuff.
It seems a good idea but, on the strength one use, I’m not seeing it. Of course, one use is hardly a good sample.
It did what it is advertised on the tin so no complaints but cleaning it was weirdly fussy and kind of a pain. Apart from saving the planet not sure why aluminum foil with a touch of spray-on grease isn’t a better choice.
Totally willing to have my mind changed though.
My daughter, who is an accomplished baker, swears by them. She washes them with a sudsy dish brush.
I’m in your school of thought. Aluminum foil with a spray of generic store brand Pam.
What’s wrong with saving the planet?
I throw them in the dishwasher.
They help insulate against the metal with baked goods like cookies and cakes.
You don’t have to keep buying foil.
Nothing wrong with saving the planet.
How do they manage in a dishwasher though? I wanted to put mine in but either I curl it so it stands upright and interferes with the upper-rack spinner or I lie it flat and it covers 3/4 of the rack.
I curve it over 2 or 3 rows.
This is genius! I will have to try it.
I love my silicone mats and you will have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands. I hate using disposable things like aluminum foil unless they are really the only solution. Among many other things, I make giant batches of granola every 2 - 3 weeks on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat, and nothing burns or sticks. I just wish I could use them under the broiler without ruining them.
My wife uses a few silicone baking dishes. She loves them and has no problem with washing them with the rest of the dishes in the kitchen sink. We don’t have a dishwasher in our apartment.
I dunno if we are talking about different things.
You said dishes, I said mats.
My mats are as in the picture in the OP. Thin and flimsy…which is fine. But cleaning them is a bit of a fuss. Since they are so thin and flimsy they are hard to scrub. It makes one think throwing out some aluminum foil would have been much simpler.
One of the dishes is a silicone mat she uses for baking cookies.
I clean them by laying them out over a hard polyurethane cutting board and washing them with running water. As only one side gets dirty (and not very much) it is easy peasy to scrub lightly with a little soap, let dry and store.
I quite like this silicone material for baking, freezing and microwave cooking.
Silicone mats are meant to replace parchment paper, not aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is significantly stickier and if all the things your baking don’t stick to aluminum, you probably don’t need the non-stick properties of silicone.
Also, silicone mats are meant to be stored slightly greasy, the grease impregnates the mat and add to their non-stick qualities. I never use soap to try and clean my mats. If it’s just got something dry on it like crumbs, I’ll just brush them off and then store it. If it’s got something wet like a sticky sauce, I’ll rinse it off under hot water and then let it drip dry and store it. Takes no more than 5 seconds to clean a silicone mat.
They’re a useful gimmick. I made zucchini bread yesterday in a silicone loaf pan. I didn’t really wash it, just a quick rinse.
We have silicone mats used as liners for cookie trays, and I don’t think they are worth the bother. For most cookies I prefer just cooking directly on the pan, and for ones that are actually hard to remove intact from the pan (meringue cloud cookies) I prefer using parchment paper. I use the same sheet of parchment paper a few times, until it doesn’t seem clean enough. But parchment paper is resource-cheap, so I don’t worry about throwing it out.
I’ve started using a silicon mat for rolling out pie dough, though, and it’s great! I use it for anything that needs a rolling pin. I used to use a flour-impregnated cloth, and this is much easier to clean, and is marked to help me judge if the dough has been rolled out enough.
I wash it by hand in the sink, soap and water, and just drape it over the whatever is in the drying rack. Not as easy as shaking the crumbs off the parchment paper and tucking it into the baking pans under the stove, but not a big deal, either.
These Grill Mats are made for use on a BBQ grill, so might be OK under the broiler.
I don’t do a lot of cookie baking but what little I do I always use parchment paper. Works really well and the cookies are (if I do say so myself) awesome.
Any chance of posting your recipe please? I’d need it to be extremely energy dense and mechanically strong so that it does not fall apart when subjected to lenghty periods in a cycle jersey back pocket
I have a thin metal spatula that works nicely for removing cookies from the baking tin. That seems to be fine for all but the most delicate cookies. But yeah, for delicate cookies, letting them cool a bit and then gently peeling the parchment paper off the bottom of the cookie works brilliantly. It’s not only less resource-intensive than aluminum foil, it works better, too.
I have never carried it in a pocket, but more or less:
6 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1 T cardamom
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1 t salt
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 T vanilla extract
2 cups dried fruit of choice (raisins, cranberries, blueberries, apricot, etc.)
Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Mix vanilla extract into melted coconut oil. Drizzle oil over dry ingredients and mix until coated evenly. Spread onto baking tray covered with silicon mat and bake for ~ 40 minutes in 350 degree oven, stirring every 15 minutes.
Oops - the fruit doesn’t go in the oven, it gets added at the very end.
I have a silicone mat for a half sheet pan I use for reheating things like pizza or frozen foods, so it’s got permanent grease stains that absolutely don’t come out. If I were ever planning to bake cookies, I’d get another one for that purpose.
