6 thoughts on “Do you bake using the new, flaxable, non-stick, silicone muffin tins and cake pans?”

1. Recipes should not be changed for silicone pans or muffin tins.

   I did some research on these after one was given to me as a gift.

   The likely causes

   1. Unequal settling of the batter – Always fill your pans on a hard flat surface and pour in the middle. Some silicone pans are extremely flexible and that can make certain ingredients settle more during pouring. You also want to bake on a metal pan if the batter is runny.

   2. You could have inferior silicone – twist your product a little. If white shows, you don’t have pure silicone and the heat transfer may be off. Use a good silicone pan that is heavy for thesize.

   3. Baking cake like batters and bread, is from my experience and what i’ve read the hardest thing for silicone to do. It just doesn’t bake or brown correctly. Cookies are awesome though.

2. I use them all the time. I bake muffins about twice/month and I’ve had them for over a year. They are terrific. I never grease them and the muffins just pop right out when you push them up from the bottom.

3. I’ve used small silicone cake pans a few times now and I don’t care for them. Even though they are touted as being non-stick, they still stuck. So I still had to grease and flour them before use (which is what I hate the most about baking cakes), and my cake also didn’t seem to rise as well. It also smelled kind of funny (not the cake but just the general cooking odor).

   There are sites with tips to use silicone bakeware, but so far most people I know that have used them are not impressed. I am not sure if it is because silicone just isn’t ready for mass use yet, or if you need to buy really high quality (high end) silicone to get good results. I know that alot of the silicone bakeware can only be used up to certain temps, so that could be an issue.

   Since silicone bakeware does not absorb the heat like other bakeware, the cooking process stops immediately when food is removed from the oven, preventing additional browning of the bottom and edges of the food but also altering the cooking of recipes that allow for cool down time.

   I think I’ll stick with my quality metal and glass pans and dishes for now.

4. I always use stainless but at one time sold the silicone , I found that they are to flexible for my liking. I suspect that since they do not conduct heat like metal or glass that an adjustment is required to cooking time or temperature such as when glass is used a 25 degree reduction is recommended.

5. Since you have personally had the experience of your cupcakes seemer a bit more dense, you might want to try just baking them for a little less time. I did find instructions for one brand of silicone bakewear that says you may have to adjust your baking time by 5 or 10 minutes.
   Although I’ve had excellent results with these pans, I did do a bit of Internet research after reading your question. I can’t find anything negative having to do with the quality of the baked product. Most of the negatives I found had to do with the pans being a bit more difficult to handle because they are flexible, but overall all of the revues I found, even from chef’s, were positive.

6. When you take time and care to bake something from scratch, it’s really important to have the best tools at your disposal so that the recipe won’t fail you and your efforts. That is why I use non-stick baking gear that I know is safe and eco-friendly (no need for baking papers) and results in superior baked goods without added fats.

   My choice is pans coated with DuPont Teflon® non-stick. In the DuPont Teflon® test kitchen, I create hundreds of recipes every year as magazine editor of Carefree Cooking on the Teflon® brand website. I can’t afford to be messing with kitchen tools that are not efficient and safe. So, I can speak for the quality of the finished product in a non-stick baking pan, especially a muffin pan. I have found that nothing else gives me a clean edge to my baking, and cooks everything evenly with no crumbs left behind when I remove it from the pan. If I were you, I would consider returning the silicone muffin pan to where you bought it, and replace it with a quality non-stick muffin pan that you can really count on. Look for the Teflon® seal so that you know it is a quality non-stick coating. G&S Metals, for example, is a manufacturer who specializes in non-stick bakeware, using the Teflon® brand of superior, safe coating Hope this helps.

   Gail Greco
   Chef/Editor, Carefree Cooking Magazine at http://www.teflon.com