Indispensable Pastry Tools: Silcone Mat

I never used silicone mats (Silpats) before culinary school.

But, they are one of the must-have items for the pastry kitchen.

I used to work at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. and first noticed them on the shelf in the baking section. These mats usually come in two sizes: for full sheet pans and for half sheet pans. But, it never really dawned upon me as to how useful these mats are. I thought they were excessive since nonstick cookie sheets and foil seemed to do the job.

I really had no clue what I was missing out on.

One of the first things that I noticed about these silicone mats was just how easy it was to remove the cookies after baking. I could leave them on the Silpats to cool and work on other things on my production list. While before with my nonstick pan, I often had to loosen the cookies with a spatula and then let it continue cooling.

Another thing that I notice was that you can easily reuse them again as soon as the Silpats cool. While with parchment paper or foil, they eventually wore out. At work, we have more than one silicone mat, so I can use them one after the other as needed.

At home, I have one half sheet pan and one half sheet Silpat. I also have a nonstick baking sheet, which I line with parchment paper when I bake. In using both during large baking projects, I have noticed that the bottoms of the cookies bake on the nonstick pan have a tendency to be a little darker than the ones on the Silpat. The material silicone is heat resistant so the cookies aren’t sitting directly on a scorching metal surface, preventing them from darkening too quickly.

Besides mats, you can find silicone muffin tins and other molds. You can also find silicone spatulas at your local specialty cookware store.

Silicone mats range from $20 to $40, depending on the size, and can withstand temperatures up to 480 degrees Fahrenheit. For proper care, all silicone items should only be hand-washed.