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Springform pans


BettyK

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I need to replace my crappy springform pans. Should I get the heavy duty aluminium springform pans or

those cake pans with straight sides and removable insert?

According to the description "Unlike a springform pan, there is no buckle or clip to unfasten, and the

one-piece design holds its shape longer than a springform pan."

Anyone tried these pans?

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I have used the loose bottom pans and they work fine, but if I am baking cheesecakes in a water bath I like to use a regular heavy duty cake pan 3" tall. You don't have to worry about water leaking in and after the cakes are cold, they will drop out nicely if you invert them and warm pan with torch or hot towels. I also bake chocolate truffle/souffle cakes in the regular pans.

check out my baking and pastry books at the Pastrymama1 shop on www.Half.ebay.com

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I use Kaiser springform pans. Never had any troubles and they work effortlessly. Clean up is always a breeze. I highly recommend them! I've never tried the round pans with the loose bottoms... I don't even own one.

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I use the cake pans with the removeable inserts for just about everything. Mine are made by Parrish as part of their "Magic Line" of heavy-gauge aluminum pans. My old springforms never get used anymore.

I like how easy to wash these are, as compared to the springforms with their latches and rims.

I also like that these removable-bottom pans come in round, square, and rectangular shapes, a huge range of widths, and various heights.

I use these for layer cakes, for ease of removal. I never have to use parchment anymore.

I use these for brownies and other bar cookies, for ease of removal and for perfect corners.

A 3" pan placed inside a larger, say 10", pan makes a great tube pan, which I use when baking fruitcakes; thus I avoid having to line a pan with foil before greasing it, and the fruitcake comes out of the pan easily.

With cheesecakes, the removable bottoms without rims allow you to cut right on the bottoms. There's no need to transfer the cake. I use a plastic knife, though, so as not to mar the finish.

I have baked with these pans in a water bath, but only with aluminum foil wrapped around the base, which I would also have to use with a springform anyway.

I also like that Parrish sells the pans alone and the removable bottoms alone, so you can easily buy replacement parts.

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  • 1 year later...
I use the cake pans with the removeable inserts for just about everything. Mine are made by Parrish as part of their "Magic Line" of heavy-gauge aluminum pans. My old springforms never get used anymore.

I like how easy to wash these are, as compared to the springforms with their latches and rims.

My Kaiser springform pan has leaked on me for the last time. I threw it away in disgust. I was thinking of getting a removable bottom pan to replace it.

Is there any reason at all to buy a springform pan versus a removable bottom pan? Is there anything I just won't be able to bake without owning a springform pan? Springform pans are expensive, and I rarely bake.

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Pastrymama is right. Springform pans are a waste of money. They are flimsy, they break, they get lost, they lose their shape............ You can warm the bottoms of cake pans in a steamtable as well. Lining the insides of the 3 inch cake pans with plastic wrap also aids in removing cheesecakes and the like. Just make sure that if you are using a fan forced oven to wet or spray the outsides of the pans so that the overlap of plastic will stick to the outside of the pan and not get blown into the batter.

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Last February, when I first tried the Frieling line of springform pans, I immediately tossed out all my old Kaiser pans and replaced them with the Frieling and the new Kaiser leakproof pans.

I have used them with and without a waterbath and love them. They cost more but in my opinion they are worth every penny.

Buy one and try it, which is what I did, and see for yourself.

Chef's Catalog has them.

I bought the Kaiser La Forme leakproof pans at

Discount Cooking.

I also tried the Nordicware leakproof but it did leak, the only one in this line I use is the extra deep (5 inch deep pan)

I also bought the square and rectangular springform pans in the Kaiser La Forme line. They aren't completely leakproof but otherwise work well.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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All of mine are the Kaiser La Forme pans. I have round ones, square ones and mini round ones. Andie is correct, they aren't completely leakproof, but they do work pretty well.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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We use La Forme at my night job, in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are durable and work very well. Personally I have no preference between springform and slip-bottom pans, though as an occasionally clumsy person I have found that I'm more accident-prone with the unsecured removeable bottoms.

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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I'm in the group that totally doesn't use or believe in buying springforms. They all break, the metal rusts easily, and the metal can leach a metalic flavor into the sides of your cheesecakes (non-rusted springforms I have at work do this), I've had the weld's on them break frequently. At work the bottoms often get lost or thrown out. They also warp easily.

There's absolutely no reason to buy a springform pan other then fear that you won't know how to use a regular cake pan in it's place (do you know large manufactors of cheesecake use regular cake pans, not springforms). I'd be happy to walk you thru how you bake any item in a regular cake pan, if you like. I also agree with the previously mentioned 3" deep pans. They are the most versital pans for baking. I also use them to assemble cakes in and occasionally freeze a whole torte in too.

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I have tried getting a peach charlotte out of a regular cake pan when a helper assembled it in one by mistake. Not a pretty sight.

I use them for desserts that have ladyfingers or decorative elements around the sides that stay in place when the springform is eased away from the sides.

Some things just are easier to do with a springform and I like having the option of using them.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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For things in which the top crust can crack easily, such as Brownies and butter tart squares, the square springform pans can't be beat. And with the La Forme pans I can cut them right on the pan botoom

I will never use a regular pan for those items ever again.

:smile:

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I'd be happy to walk you thru how you bake any item in a regular cake pan, if you like.

Yes, please! I've just started producing cakes and the like for a couple of local restaurants, and I've got one tea cake (soaked in buttermilk and unbelievably moist and dense) that I wouldn't know how to get out of anything but a springform. I've been eyeing my aluminum pizza peel as a thing to resort to, but I'm afraid I'd end up smushing the whole cake beyond repair. :unsure:

I'd be beholden, that's sure.

Devlin

edit: I meant to say I'm eyeing my pizza peel as a thing to get this unbelievably wet cake off the bottom of the springform because even with the parchment paper I've been afraid to try to get it off, it's so dense and moist and heavy. Any help and encouragement would be a big help. As it stands now, I'm afraid to try.

Edited by devlin (log)
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Releasing baked goods and cutting them is a seperate topic then talking about springform pans......so please look for a seperate thread I'll start on that topic. I want to make sure we get all our members chimming in on their tips for that issue.

Okay, thanks, I'll look for it.

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My Kaiser springform pan has leaked on me for the last time. I threw it away in disgust.  I was thinking of getting a removable bottom pan to replace it.

Is there any reason at all to buy a springform pan versus a removable bottom pan? Is there anything I just won't be able to bake without owning a springform pan? Springform pans are expensive, and I rarely bake.

Marie-Louise, I bought some cake pans with removable bottoms and I was not very impressed.

The bottom was already a little warped when I received them. In hindsight I should have returned them but I didn't. I didn't think it would be a big problem but it was. When I tried to remove the cake it was a PITA because the warped disk was stuck. Go with springform pans.

I just bought some aluminium Wilton Professional springform pans but haven't tried them yet. They look much better than the old tin ones I had, that's for sure.

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Count me in the "anti-springform" bunch, as well.

My specialty, as far as the family is concerned, is various types of cheesecakes. And every time I bake one in a springform pan, it turns out soggy. Springforms leak. They leak bad. Seriously. Buy a good nine-inch cake pan (or whatever size you might buy in springform) and teach yourself how to cut a parchment paper lining for it. You will never, ever have to worry about leakage, even when cooking a water bath -- as you should -- and after the first two pies/cakes, you'll learn how to turn them out without incident and with a perfect top "crust".

I'm anti-springform, all the way. Show me a springform that doesn't leak, and I might convert. But every one I've tried does leak, so I ain't sold.

Don Moore

Nashville, TN

Peace on Earth

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For both pro- and anti-springformers: I found some Kaiser La Forme 4 1/2 inch diameter springforms at TJ Maxx for $2.50 each. Seems inexpensive for any kind of pan. So are they worth getting, if so what do you use them for? They seem a little large for individual cheesecakes, but maybe okay for cheesecake for two. About the right size for an individual cake? But is there so much of a leaking problem to make that a problem?

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? And why?

Thanks,

Richard

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Richard I have a set of these and I love them. I use them for individual molten chocolate cakes, although you are correct, for the smaller appetite it would be a cake for two. I also use them for something called Garlic Peppercorn Cheesecake which is actually not a dessert. I'll likely make these for my dinner party this week, and will post pics when I do.

I've never had any problem with them leaking either.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I use the individually sized springfrom pans for it's size and bake or mold anything I want in them. To my knowledge I don't think there is a flexipan in that size and shape.............and anyway I don't own that size yet, but I do have those springform pans.

The issue of leakage should be about water penitrating your pan when the item is baked in a dirrect water bath. If your batter is leaking out of your springform, it's time to pitch it in the garbage. Leakage can be solved by double foiling the exterior of your springform pan. BUT that's the reason why springform pans are a pain and not worth the hassle......a standard cake pan is a better tool because it doesn't leak ever.

The time spent double foiling mini springform pans..........eek! Thats not for me. Instead if you want to bake cheesecakes in them don't set them in a water bath. Learn how to bake a cheesecake with-out a water bath, it can be done quite successfully.

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... If your batter is leaking out of your springform, it's time to pitch it in the garbage...

Yes, it was batter that leaked out of that (10-year old) Kaiser springform pan that I threw away in disgust. I was making Patricia Well's Apple Lady Cake recipe. I wrapped the pan in foil so it didn't make a mess of my oven, but the batter still leaked into the seam and out onto the foil.

Has anyone had any problems with the removable bottom pans leaking? I bake a few times a year, so IF they work, it seems like a more fool-proof solution than learning how to unmold things out of a regular pan. (At least for an occasional baker like myself.)

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... If your batter is leaking out of your springform, it's time to pitch it in the garbage...

Has anyone had any problems with the removable bottom pans leaking? I bake a few times a year, so IF they work, it seems like a more fool-proof solution than learning how to unmold things out of a regular pan. (At least for an occasional baker like myself.)

I have two of the removable bottom pans that have the silicone rims which work pretty well without leaking, however they are not deep enough for most of the things for which I use the springform pans.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I bought new pans earlier this year and have had good results with the leak-proof round ones.

For the square and rectangular ones I discovered that with a little tweaking, I can seal them pretty well, without using foil.

I buy the roasting bags that are made for use in the oven - they look like plastic but are obviously something else - cut the material into 1 inch strips and put that down in the depression in the springform pan bottom so the sides rest on it and when it is snapped closed, it presses tha part on the inside tightly against the inner rim. I test it by running water into it, sometimes have to adjust it a bit but if the pan will hold water it will hold the custard in and keep the water out.

I am sure I could fool around with a regular pan to substitute for the sprinform but if one is available and makes my task easier, why not use it.

In the bakery we baked cheesecakes without a water bath and they were in regular pans and were frozen prior to being removed from the pans, however we had other tasks to do.

I don't want to have to freeze something to get it out of a pan. For one thing, my freezers are usually full and when I am on a roll with something I want to move things along and get it done, not have to wait for it to freeze before I can continue with preparation.

Anyway, try one of the leak-proof springforms and see how it works for you. I think for the ordinary home cook they are easier to use.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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For the square and rectangular ones I discovered that with a little tweaking, I can seal them pretty well, without using foil. 

I buy the roasting bags that are made for use in the oven - they look like plastic but are obviously something else - cut the material into 1 inch strips and put that down in the depression in the springform pan bottom so the sides rest on it and when it is snapped closed, it presses tha part on the inside tightly against the inner rim.  I test it by running water into it, sometimes have to adjust it a bit but if the pan will hold water it will hold the custard in and keep the water out. 

I use the oven bags differently with my springform pans, using them outside the pan in place of double foil. I have not had any leaks with them. I cut the top off the bag because they are HUGE, put the pan in the bag, scrunch down the edges, and sometimes use a rubber band or wire to keep the bag close to the pan edges (if the bag is really large). No seams for water to seep through.

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