Saturday, March 22, 2008

Rambling Thoughts on Silicone Bakeware

A few weeks ago, when I was preparing The Original Redhead's Birthday Dinner Extraordinaire, I got the chance to use silicone bakeware for the first time. I have a silicone pastry brush that I adore - it's so much easier to clean and use than my old bristle one (no clumps!). And I love silicone spatulas.

The bakeware, though, I was not as impressed with for one reason: I seemed to burn things.

I made the birthday cake, a vegetarian version of the chicken tetrazinni (which I guess would just be tetrazzini?), and a pan of dressing. While they were all edible - okay, they were all yummy - they all got very crispy on the bottom. The rest of it was seemed to cook at the rate of what I would expect from my regular bakeware.

Now, it is very possible that I might have been distracted from all the in-depth conversations of world peace and Other Weighty Matters such as which wine bottle should be opened next. But I'm a little hesitant to use silicone again, at least when I'm trying to impress other people with my mad cooking skillz.

Anyone have an opinion?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always have an opinion! I have several silicone bakeware pieces, and I've found that they work much better for casseroles than for baking. Baked desserts have a pretty precise balance that silicone seems to "unbalance", but casseroles are meant to be forgiving.

Sara said...

I like my silicone muffin pans, and I think you are right, they do seem to cook more quickly. Maybe because they are not at thick or solid? I don't know. I love my silicone spatulas too, and I have to get a basting brush! They are so cute.

Anonymous said...

I have a regular muffin pan and a silicone muffin pan and I frequently use them side by side in my oven. I was amazed at the difference in cupcakes and muffins from the exact same batter just baked in the two different pans. It seems like muffins and cupcakes rise better in the regular pan as opposed to the silicone pan.

Regardless I hate to wash muffin pans and I LOVE being able to toss the silicone one in the dishwasher.

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Laura Paterson said...

Eeek - how late I am in replying to this post!
Especially as I have nothing particularly useful to say... Apart from I was going to buy some silicon baking stuff this weekend - but now I don't think I'll bother, so thanks for the heads up!
(Though I do have a silicon brush and love it - yay!)