The Joys of Silicone Baking Pans

Today it might be difficult to imagine a world without silicone.

It is an industrial lubricant, it is used in almost every manufacturing process, and it is even up in outer space where its durability is put to work in satellite equipment.

Interestingly enough, silicone has actually only been in existence since the 1930s. This means that in less than one hundred years people have explored where and how to use this wonderful material.

It is being used as a substitute for many traditional materials including everything from the viscous fluid of the eye to rubber in many children’s toys and balls. It is also used in our kitchens, and silicone baking pans and kitchen equipment is fast becoming the standard for savvy chefs,

cooks and bakers.

Why would people opt for the “floppy” baking cups, sheets and pans that silicone baking equipment provides when they could continue to rely on the old-fashioned tin, aluminium and coated metal pieces instead? Well, consider a few of silicone’s many wonderful properties, especially in the context of the kitchen. It is:

· Entirely non-stick

· Non-reactant with many other chemicals and foods (including acids)

· Thermally stable – meaning it is secure at extremes of heat and cold

· Repellent to water, ultra-violet rays, oxygen and ozone

· Of very low toxicity, yet does not allow microbial growth

These all translate to some pretty nice features for silicone baking equipment and kitchen gear. Let’s first look at a scenario faced by almost anyone who has baked a cake. You take the time to make the batter, prepare the metal pans with butter or grease and then flour them to ensure the cake pops out when it has cooled and then you pour the batter in and slide the pans into the oven. After a while you know that your cakes are close to being done, so you open the oven door to have a peek…and what do you see?

One or more of the cakes are distinctly lopsided!

This is the result of uneven heating in the oven as well as the lack of proper heat conduction in the pan. If you had used a silicone baking pan this could not have happened. Why? Because of the chemical properties of the silicone, the entire silicone baking pan would receive and distribute the heat evenly. There can be no “hot spots” for those using silicone baking pans and kitchen equipment.

Another common problem occurs with bakeware that is already coated with a nonstick finish. Though this finish makes baking convenient and easy, over time the nonstick coating begins to flake and peel, and where does it go? Into the food of course and this is unappetizing and usually inedible. A silicone baking pan remains nonstick throughout its entire lifespan. It will never require the addition of cooking spray, grease or butter or a coating of flour. Even the stickiest of sticky buns will pop out of a silicone baking pan.

Many bakers are concerned about reactions between the silicone and the ingredients, and that is a final “plus” in using a silicone baking pan, it has absolutely no capability for interacting. This means that, unlike a traditional pan, the pie, cake, cookies or muffins prepared in a silicone baking pan will have only their own natural flavours every time.