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Silicone Molds: Selecting, Cooking and Baking With


Kim WB

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Hello all, please indulge a novice baker. Today is my 40th b-day ( having a big bashe in two weeks!) and last week, in preperation for making my b-day cake, I treated myself to a silicone baking dish..scalloped tube pan, red kitchenaid, to be exact.

I am not a baker..to the point where I need to remove my pasta or grinder attachments to the stand mixer in order to dig up the pastry whisk thing. I do Christmas cookies, an occassional tart shell for savories, and a cake or two each year. One of my standards is a lemon pound cake with lemon glaze..can't get much simplier than that...anyway, I made it today...yikes!

1. Cooked it 10 minutes longer than in my regular tube pan...undercooked in the middle.

2. Nothing sticks? This cake stuck and ripped of the entire bottome...was that due to undercooking or what? I let the cake cool in the pan.

3. Cakes, to me, need form. there is just no form to these pans.

I'm ready to say I'm unimpressed, but I know my lack of baking skills might contribute...comments?longer?

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Just this past week, I received the whole line of Kitchenaid's new silicone bakeware to play around with. Unfortunately, I haven't touched them yet, and likely won't get to it all that soon. I don't bake much in the professional grade flexipan-type forms (I use them very little, and when I do, it is primarily to mold and freeze gel, cream, or mousse mixtures), but I have noticed longer baking times and less caramelization than baking in conventional metal forms. While these Kithchenaid products are of sizes and shapes that don't lend themselves to my restaurant work, I'm eager to give them a go. How long have these been on the market? I was under the impression that some us were getting a sneak preview!

Michael Laiskonis

Pastry Chef

New York

www.michael-laiskonis.com

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Hi Michael...

I saw clear-ish tinted ones at Linens and Things at the middle of August, and saw these pretty red ones this past week at Bed Bath and Beyond. The tube pan retails at $21.99, I also got the loaf pan for $16.99.

Further observation, the scallops on the tube pan had cake all stuck up in them, and whilethe center was undercooked, the outer rim was TOO golden brown.

I'll give them another shot, maybe more if I hear good suggestions here, but otherwise I'm back to my Calphalon baking pans.

*edited to add that I am actually a COOKIE baker, but not a cake/pie /bread baker...just to clarify my origiginal post.

Edited by Kim WB (log)
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been cooking with a silicone madeline mould I got at the weekend ( marketed by L Creuset here in Britain). I do find its wobbliness very disturbing and unattractive compared to a proper metal tin; but on the other hand, the madeleines were just delicious, and they came out with no sticking at all, after maybe a couple of minutes longer than I would usually give them.

Maybe silicone is better for smaller cakes than bigger ones?

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  • 4 months later...

One of these multi-compartment silicone molds is ostensibly for mini-kougelhopfs (choose your own spelling of that one). Has anyone used a flexible mold for a yeast dough? When it rises in the oven, would it not distort the mold? Then again, madeleine batter rises too - though that's a flatter form.

Any experiences here?

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If I use flexipans I place them on two sheet trays. The double trays help with heat distribution. I really don't care for them much- as Michael does I use them more for freezing/ refrigerating. I don't care for madelienes baked with them at all. They turn out like flat cakes (no crispy/ chewiness), and never any hump. I like metal madeliene pans (if I spray- flour- spray, they come out easily).

I think that a good heayweight cake pan is a much better investment.

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I have three now, and like them. I have a fluted bundt pan, a mini-fluted brioche and a heart shaped mini-cake pan. Even though they are "non-stick" you still have to butter/flour them pretty well. I made heart shaped mini-chocolate cakes for V-Day and they were a big hit. I use butter/cocoa on the bundt pan for a chocolate bundt cake. The only one I am not totally happy with is the brioche. It didn't brown nicely. Of course, since they are flexible you have to be pretty careful. Obviously you need to put them on a sheet pan before you pour in your batter. The nice thing is that for delicate shapes like hearts, they unmold very easily. I made 3 dozen heart cakes and they all looked perfect.

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I've got the mini muffin one with sled. I haven't used it yet and was wondering how it would work for some really mini sized cheesecakes. I thought it might do pretty well with the unmolding part and would produce the perfect finger-food sized dessert bites. Will report back when I attempt this. :raz:

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Here is an eGulletified Amazon link for the KitchenAid Silicone Bakeware products:

KitchenAid Silicone 12-Cup Muffin Pan, Red
KitchenAid Silicone 24-Cup Mini Muffin Pan with Sled, Red
KitchenAid Silicone 6-in-1 Loaf Pan with Sled, Red
KitchenAid Silicone Heart Cake Pan, Red

Most of these are available in blue as well, but the blue pans are usually more expensive.

There are many more shapes of these pans available, some with or without sleds. Just check the "You may also be interested in these items" list at the bottom of the linked pages. Please support eGullet by making Amazon links that give eGullet a commission. Click here for instructions. Thanks.

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  • 3 months later...

I saw these neat looking Kitchenaid silicone round cake “pans” at the store the other day and was wondering if anyone has any experience with them. Are they worth the $20.00 price tag? They just seem so convenient to use, especially in the unmolding the cake part after baking. The little sticker on them claimed they are non-stick and will not need any buttering and flouring,…

Any advice as I am looking to buy one or two cake pans?

Elie

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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Bought a silicone-lined tube pan to make spongecake last April .. $20 ... when I went to remove the cake, there was no appreciable difference to warrant the extra expense ... just my personal opinion .. I had expected much better results ... :sad:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Bought a silicone-lined tube pan to make spongecake last April .. $20 ... when I went to remove the cake, there was no appreciable difference to warrant the extra expense ... just my personal opinion .. I had expected much better results ... :sad:

The ones I saw were entirely made of silicon (I think). So they were very flexible, think "rubber pans" that can be twisted and manipulated. That's why they seemed like a good idea, if they are flexible getting a cake out of them might be a lot easier. Are those the one you bought?

Elie

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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I have a few of the silicone pans, mostly for small muffin type, however I do have a "Bundt" type silicone.

You have to put them on a sheet pan before you fill them.

Baked items do come out easily, totally non-stick.

To me they are a novelty, I don't need them but they are rather fun to play with.

"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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I don't have any of the silicone pans, but I do know some people who have them and they complain that they flatten out with the weight of the batter, so shaped items end up a little flat on top...and you do have to place them on a cookie sheet when you use them.

I just keep my gazillion different cake pans in a milk crate in the basement...which doesn't help if you live in an apartment....

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I have some of silicone muffin moulds and have baked in them. I'd still prefer my metal moulds, because they brown better on the sides than the silicone moulds.

But the silicone moulds are excellent when you freeze mousse or bavarois-type desserts in them. They turn out quite easily, being flexible.

I haven't put them through a steaming trial though.

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  • 1 month later...

While I love the convenience of my silpat baking mats, I'm not equally thrilled with all the silicone bakeware I've tried.

I still have to grease my muffin tins, but with that caveat find that the muffins bake and come out well. However, despite trying plain, greased, and grease & flouring, I can't get my cakes to come out of the more intricate bundt-shaped tube pan or the miniature versions thereof. The cakes bake beautifully, then when I try to remove them, the bottom of the cake falls separates from the top third or top half, which sticks and crumbles.

I've had the same problem with different cake recipes, so I'm wondering if there is a trick I'm missing elsewhere: a particular time after removal from the oven when they'll come out cleanly; a different release agent (I use the 2:1 canola oil:liquid lecithin formula from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book); some special technique of flexing the pans; or perhaps they're not getting clean enough between uses and something is building up on their surfaces (they do seem to stay a little greasy feeling despite copious soap and hot water; or might they be getting scratched from over-vigorous washing (using only a brush with nylon bristles or "non-stick safe" scrubbie sponges)?

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Silicone itself will have a bit of the "greasy" feeling you mentioned. Maybe you are cleaning them too well? Maybe the batter needs to be a bit stiffer? Or they are baking at too low of a temp... All theories, no scientific proof.

In the end, they are kind of like brooms. The more you use them, the better they get. If it doesn't get better, try another one. It is possible to get one that didn't cure or cook properly during manufacturing.

Screw it. It's a Butterball.
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The greasy feeling I mentioned comes along with the distinct smell of whatever was greasy about what I last cooked in the pan....so I think it's not absolutely clean. Baking at too low a temp....that's an interesting point. Do you change the temp at all for the silicone pans? Maybe a hotter start would crisp and strengthen the crust to help removal?

Stiffness of the batter? Hmm....I wonder if I've gone too low-gluten with soft wheat flour for some of the recipes, or am beating in too much air with the Kitchen Aid.

Darn....I guess I need to bake another cake this weekend, maybe a little hotter oven, try to increase the gluten a little, find some volunteers to help me eat it.

Such a good problem to have.

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I just made some giant muffins in a silicone pan, and they came out fine. I greased the pan with my magic grease (equal parts oil, flour, and shortening, with a big blob of liquid lecithin), and let the muffins rest in the pans for five minutes before dumping them out.

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Until recently I've used fexible pans mainly for molding or assembling, I then freeze and release. But I just bought some individual size fleximolds and I'm just learning how to bake in them.

I made a coconut cake in my semi-speres and couldn't get them to release. I didn't spray the molds prior to baking. So I popped them in the freezer for 1/2 hour and they came out perfectly. I think it's all going to depend upon what item your baking as to how easily it releases with-out freezing. I think it could be easy to over-bake items as a crutch for releasing.

I'm not an expert on these pans.........but I'm pretty sure they aren't meant to be sprayed or greased prior to baking.

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