The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

silicone bake ware

qahtan's picture
qahtan

silicone bake ware

just curious, what do you think of the silicone bake ware, no I haven,t seen bread pans, but i mean for cakes ect..

 qahtan

nicodvb's picture
nicodvb

uhm, that stuff depends a lot on the quality of the single piece. Better avoid cheap stuff and buy well known brands or you'll repent bitterly.

 

qahtan's picture
qahtan

 I was curious to see if others thought like me,,, that it"s a load of junk....

 One has to be really carefull when using it.....

 Myself I prefer a good quality pan, might cost more but far better......or even antique pans as you can see some of my previous postings, qahtan

Kitchen Barbarian's picture
Kitchen Barbarian

I'm with you, no matter how much it costs - it's a load of junk.  It doesn't hold correct form - it will bell out and bulge when filled with batter - and if it comes to you smashed (rolled up, folded, or otherwise "compacted") it will never revert to the shape it's supposed to be.  I was also totally unsuccessful in cleaning it after use.  I hate the stuff. 

Get some Pan Pal pan liners (thewebstaurantstore.com carries it) or super parchment (or other similar "reusable parchment" films), cut to size for regular cake or loaf pans or what have you, it's much easier - and the liners can be cleaned easily by wiping with a damp sponge (submerging allows moisture into the center and will cause discoloration).

loafette's picture
loafette

When the silicone bake ware first became popular, several years back, I purchased two different pieces, one a narrow loaf pan, and, a bundt-style cake pan. I believe both were made by Kaiser, and I'd found them at Tuesday Morning, one of those 'discount' homegoods type of stores. Those worked beautifully, and I was quite pleased with the ease of depanning, and they cleaned up just fine. After that, I found a couple of Italian-made, and French-made specific pastry forms, like madeleine pans, financier sheets. Those were great, as well.

Like everything else, soon after, the products flooding the shelves of we unlucky consumers, distributed/made by what used to be trustworthy names/companies, were evidently not produced with the attention, nor the proper materials, of the original formulations, and didn't perform well, at all...a close friend splurged on a set from MallWart, and was hugely disappointed. Unless you're getting the very expensive, still, European pieces, it's gonna be manufactured in China, and made from heaven knows what. I don't even know that actual food-safe silicone is included in it's production, and I wouldn't take a chance on using it.

I agree with KB, the reusable 'pan liners' are great, can be cut to whatever size is needed, and work as promised. I've got a couple of packages of those, that I've been using for over 10 years! Or, plain ol' parchment paper, which I'm lucky to have a tonola of on hand.