Silpat
For anyone who bakes, discovering the Silpat can feel a little like getting blessed by the pastry gods. The silicone mat fits into the bottom of a baking sheet and helps foods brown evenly without sticking; thinner, more delicate types of pastry are easy to slip off the sheet without breaking, so home cooks can successfully tackle advanced recipes like tuiles and petits fours. Both amateur and professional pastry chefs have long used parchment paper to similar effect, but the relatively costly parchment sheets can be used only once or twice, whereas a Silpat can be used up to 2,000 times. Silicone baking surfaces first came into use in the 1960s in France, and the Silpat was introduced in that country in 1982, making its way to the U.S. eight years later. Today, there’s an abundance of silicone bakeware on the American market, but so far it seems that serious home bakers haven’t taken to it the way they have to the Silpat.
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