Silicone Molds: Selecting, Cooking and Baking With

[brokenscale]

Talk about being way off i found them...they are italian and it starts with a p. I ordered my molds today. If anyone is interested in looking at them they are amazing http://www.pavonitalia.com/pastry/frameset.htm?/pastry/default.asp?language=en

[J.Stevens]

siliconemolds.com has a few good ones for real cheap !!!

[CanadianBakin']

Talk about being way off i found them...they are italian and it starts with a p. I ordered my molds today. If anyone is interested in looking at them they are amazing http://www.pavonitalia.com/pastry/frameset.htm?/pastry/default.asp?language=en

They do have some beautiful shapes! How is the pricing?

[CanadianBakin']

I have these lovely silcone bordelais molds that I bake lemon pound cake in. It gives the effect of a mini bundt.

If I remember correctly, the first couple times I used them they popped out fine but now I always have to freeze them first. This isn't very efficient and I'm wondering if this is common or does anyone have suggestions?

The other problem is that the center ones rise evenly but the outside ones all rise higher towards the center of the pan and then I have to even them off individually. Again, another waste of time.

[brokenscale]

i ordered them from a reseller, what killed me was the shipping. The molds themselves were very reasonable

[Ibake]

Demarle out of France, catalog is on line

[prasantrin]

Ouch!

Not cheap, that's for sure, but beautiful. Before I saw the pries, I thought they'd be nice to have for my mango pudding, but for home use, they're a bit too much.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I have a problem I don't see addressed on this thread that I'm hoping you can help with. I just got the mini Bordelais mold for baking little pound cakes in. I'm using 5/8 oz of batter to get the height I want and they are baking unevenly. The center row rises straight up and down but the outside rows rise higher towards the center of the pan. How can I fix this? I tip them upside-down to serve and 2/3's of them sit crooked. I tried putting it in a 9x13 cake pan to see if the higher edges of the pan would help but it didn't. Any ideas?

edited to add: I'm recipe testing at the moment so I'm using my conventional oven at home. Would this problem be corrected or less obvious in a commercial convection?

Canadian Bakin', what is your batter consistency like? If it's stiff enough to play with it a bit before you put the molds in the oven, you can try pushing it towards the edges of the molds - this seems to help me when I've got something that tends to dome (some of my cake recipes are terrible for doming, and I end up having to cut the tops off the cake before I can layer them... Meh, it's another story entirely.)

The other thing you can try is reducing your leavening a bit and then filling the molds a bit more than you currently are, say 2/3 - this will slow your rise and should help eliminate doming.

If you're seeing uneven rising, it might be as a result of your oven. Or, it might be the pan you're using to support your molds (I'm assuming you use a cookie sheet or something similar). If your oven rack permits, try doing away with the base pan - if it's part of the problem, it's because it's causing an uneven distribution of heat across the silicone - which would make sense if you're seeing the most warp in the edges of the mold.

Edited April 27, 2011 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[kayb]

Question from a silicone newbie.

I just purchased my first silicone mold, from Paderno, a "Dolce Stampi" mold with 16 oval shaped wells. I wanted that partular size/shape, and silicone was the only one I could find. My questions:

1. Should I put the mold on a cookie sheet for filling and baking?

2. Any adjustments to make in temperature?

3. Can it go in the dishwasher?

I bought the thing because I want to make gluten-free pigs in a blanket, and the wells are the right size and shape. Gluten free breads, in my limited experience, are not thick enough to work like a dough and wrap the sausage, so my plan is to layer batter, sausage, batter. They're probably the only use the pan will get.

[Pierogi]

Question from a silicone newbie.

I just purchased my first silicone mold, from Paderno, a "Dolce Stampi" mold with 16 oval shaped wells. I wanted that partular size/shape, and silicone was the only one I could find. My questions:

1. Should I put the mold on a cookie sheet for filling and baking?

2. Any adjustments to make in temperature?

3. Can it go in the dishwasher?

I bought the thing because I want to make gluten-free pigs in a blanket, and the wells are the right size and shape. Gluten free breads, in my limited experience, are not thick enough to work like a dough and wrap the sausage, so my plan is to layer batter, sausage, batter. They're probably the only use the pan will get.

Kay, I have a silicone cannele pan. I feel its mandatory to put it on a sheet pan for filling and baking; it would sploosh batter all over if I tried to move it without the rigid sheet underneath. If you're not using it for a liquidy-batter application, it may not be necessary, but it doesn't hurt.

I haven't needed to adjust time/temp for the canneles, but the recipe I use (Jacques Pepin's) was written for the silicone molds. I think good rule of thumb for any new bakeware is to keep a close eye the first couple of times you use it, to see how it's going to work in your oven.

The instruction sheet for mine said no dishwasher.

Hope that helps.

[dcarch]

It is easy to make your own custom mold.

Just get food grade silicone molding rubber.

dcarch

[Kouign Aman]

I was just given a 9" diameter silicon cake mold shaped to produce a rose.

Its sagged to a narrow oval shape. Will it be harmed if I set it inside a metal ring to keep it round during baking?

[Felicia M Lazar]

There are a number of eGullet threads that touch upon silicone baking moulds, but I'm looking for some straight-up advice, hopefully with brand-names. I have a micro-bakery and make financiers, baby bundts and Madeleines. I'm old-school and love metal moulds, but am increasingly attracted to silicone; the only problem is I don't want to use something that's going to transfer flavour or gas me out (using the moulds over & over again and inhaling the fumes all day really concerns me). Is there anything that's been on the market long enough to give reliable health-related data ?

When I was training, my beloved pc instructor cursed in Italian every time anyone mentioned silicone for baking and that may be part of my bias against it, but this was well over 5 years ago. What are your experiences ? Any comments would be most welcome...

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Silikomart is my gold standard; I have a number of moulds from them, both smaller types (mini muffins, bundtlets, etc) as well as larger ones (full-size bundts, sunflowers, etc) and I love their silpats. Their stuff doesn't off-gass, transfer weird flavours, or discolour, even under heavy use.

[Felicia M Lazar]

Excellent, Elizabeth, thanks ! Which line(s) do you have ? They have various subsections in the professional range as well as their extremely colourful houseware line... I think I can get most of them here or online. A while back I looked into signing up on the professional site to purchase directly from Italy but the privacy policy was such a joke I gave up.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I have primarily their Classic line - the brick-red ones. They're pretty much all that's available in my country, in the shapes I use; there's also the added benefit that I can stack them side by each in the trays for baking, but then separate them for cooling. The smaller size (ie not 40-60 up) also makes them easier for me to wash.

[Felicia M Lazar]

Thanks, Elizabeth, I've been looking around for the classic line locally (you & I are compatriots, but I now live in Melbourne, Australia) and have found a few sources but they don't have the specific shapes I need. I'll just have to stop whinging and bring them in from overseas. Anyone want to weigh in on Lékué or Demarle/Flexipan ? Anyone ? Anyone ?

[LT Wong]

Hi

I've both Silkomart and Pujadas, and both are excellent.

[Felicia M Lazar]

Excellent, thanks for your input.