Cutting Edge Baking Technology

There is a Bed, Bath and Beyond right by my house and I like to go there and wander around and look at the tantalizingly cool house stuff. A couple of months ago, I spied the coolest thing ever: brightly colored silicone baking pans. I wanted one really bad, but I didn't buy one until two days ago (I conveniently left my muffin pan at Ed's house over Thanksgiving, so that I would feel justified in buying a new one). Check out its cool floppiness:



Last night I initiated my new pans with a batch of rolls.



Here is my consumer review of the pan's features:

Floppiness: Extremely cool when the pan is not in use. Enables pans to be stored in tighter spaces. Slightly problematic when pan is full of dough - requires either the use of both hands or a gentle flip of the pan to get it onto the oven shelf. It is unclear how the floppiness would affect the structural stability of a cake pan full of batter. The store did have red 12-muffin pans with a removable metal support frame so that they could be handled more easily, but the little blue ones were cuter.

Price: These were $9.99 each. The 12-muffin pan with metal frame was $29.99.

Convection: They seemed to cook very evenly. The bottoms and sides of the rolls were slightly more golden than the top. The pan's edges were cool to the touch in a minute or two after taking them out of the oven. I thought I could detect a funny taste when I first took the rolls out, but they tasted fine the next morning. Next time I'm in the roll-baking mood, I'll bake half of them in the floppy pan and half on my baking stone (which cooks things like cookies and rolls perfectly - except that the rolls come out as formless blobs.)

Other Features: Dishwasher safe and oven safe to 500°.

Recommendation: Jury's still out on this one. I'm not planning to buy any more right away. Here are some of the other pieces that are available.