It's hard to deny baking parchment is a great help for the baker. For the last few years my baking parchment consumption has been quite above average. Whenever lining a cake pan or a cookie sheet, I'd turn to my parchment roll (and a drop of oil). It certainly was an improvement from the constant buttering and flouring I used to do before. Up to a few weeks ago, at least. up to the day I bought a Silpat silicon baking mat from Demarle.
Now I'm not in the habit of sponsoring products, especially when I get nothing for in exchange (Demerle people: if you like this review could you send me a couple of flexipan moulds maybe?). I'll make an exception here because I'm really happy with my Silpat mat. I have seen a lot of these silicon baking mats and moulds lately but they don't really sturdy at all. Being these cheap imitations of the Demerle products, I decided to keep my eyes open for the real thing. As soon as I saw a Silpat mat on eBay at half the normal price I decided to give it a go.
This is by far the most useful kitchen gadget I've bought recently. I've baked rolls, cookies and even a few meringues (which for some reason sometimes stick even to parchment) on it and it works like a charm. Absolutely stick proof, no fat needed and very easy to clean, just a wipe with a moist cloth and it's ready for a new use. By the way, if you're wondering what those cookies in the picture are, they're Pierre Herme's chocolate sparklers. Delicious, as every recipe I tried from Herme's Chocolate book to date has turned out to be. These are the essence of a perfect crumbly cookie, and I'll definitely make them again when Christmas baking time comes.
Alberto,
What size did you end up getting? I've got 3 of them in different sizes and they all work great! I wondering if the sizes that are available in Europe are different than what we get here in the states.
Posted by: Reid | July 21, 2004 at 06:25 AM
Reid, I bought the smallest size 30x40 cm, but will probably buy the next bigger one too (40x60). Don't know what the american sizes are but here in Europe I've seen them in sizes up to 56x76 cm.
Posted by: Alberto | July 21, 2004 at 10:52 AM
I tried to make those cookies a few months ago. The dough just would not form. I did what I could and cooked some which tasted fine. Need to try again I imagine.
Posted by: Michael | July 21, 2004 at 07:45 PM
I recently purchased a Silpat too and LOVE it. I think old habits die hard with me though, because I forget that I own the Silpat and still use the parchment about 75% of the time, how silly.
Posted by: Deb | July 21, 2004 at 09:34 PM
Michael, the dough doesn't really come together, once the flour is incorporated in the sugar-butter mixture I got a very crumbly mix. Herme' says to stop here and that's what I did: I just pressed the crumbs a bit so they'd hold together and it worked fine. The dough remains quite crumbly, especially when you try to shape it into logs but I just pressed the pieces that fell off on the log and rolled till I had an acceptable shape. Does this help?
Deb, old habits or Ellie-caused forgetfulness ;-)? At least in my case, pre-kid memory was much better!
Posted by: Alberto | July 22, 2004 at 09:11 AM
Thanks Alberto. That sounds just like what happened to me.
Posted by: Michael | July 22, 2004 at 06:07 PM