I am Bani Nanda, the founder and head chef at Miam Pâtisserie. I started Miam from home in 2015 in New Delhi, India. I have been a part of the industry for almost 10 years and I wanted to impart some helpful tips via this blog! Alongside running a pâtisserie, I also conduct plenty of workshops. My students are primarily aspiring pastry chefs and home-bakers.
Lately, I have faced a lot of queries pertaining to baking surfaces. I did an experiment with cookies just to clear out different parameters!
I lined 4 trays with-
1. A perforated silicon mat ( brand : Silikomart )
2. A plain silicon mat ( brand : Silikomart )
3. Parchment / baking paper ( brand : Kitchenette )
4. Aluminium foil ( brand : Freshwrapp )
Firstly this blog post is about different baking surfaces and not about the cookies so I hope you don't expect a recipe! Ha! I made a large batch of double chocolate cookies and baked 100g balls ( 4 on each tray ). I baked all the trays together in my Unox oven ( model XBC405E ). The oven environment was maintained evenly
( 160 degrees Celsius and fan speed 2 ).
OVERVIEW-
PERFORATED SILICON MAT AND PLAIN SILICON MAT
Both the silicon mats gave great results. I have been a long term advocate of these silicon mats. They are easy to assemble on the tray and are easy to maintain. They are not all that pocket friendly but they're definitely a one time buy. The cookies baked evenly for 12 minutes on both the surfaces. The cookies on the plain silicon mat expanded a little more than I expected. This is because there is very less friction due to the slippery nature of silicon. The perforated silicon mat on the other hand has a rough surface and the small holes result in better heat dispersion throughout the cookie surface. The cookies expanded the right size!
PARCHMENT PAPER AND FOIL
I was overall let down while using parchment paper and foil. I would first like to complain about how annoying they are to line. I have NEVER found the right size for my trays. I spent ages cutting them and lining them. I ended up cutting two strips each that I placed in an overlapped fashion. When I placed the trays in the oven, my oven fans blew them around violently. I ended up placing some rings as weights which eventually smashed into the cookies. RESULT- lopsided oval shaped uneven cookies. The cookies were easy to peel off from the parchment paper but I struggled a bit with the foil.
If you were too lazy to read that, I made a table too!
| Baking Surface | Shape | Heat Regulation | Behaviour Inside the Oven & Tray Prep | Removing after Cooling |
| Perforated Silicon Mat |
Perfectly round & even spreading. |
Very Good | Stable/ Easy to prep. | Easy |
| Plain Silicon Mat | Perfectly round but extra spreading. | Very Good | Stable/ Easy to prep. | Easy |
| Parchment Paper | Uneven ovular shape. | Good | Flew around while baking / took sometime to prep. | Easy |
| Foil | Uneven ovular shape. | Not Good | Flew around while baking / took sometime to prep. | Not as easy |