Best Pans for Baking

Featured Pro: Curtis Stone
Category: Cooking
Time: 3:54


CURTIS STONE: Hey, I’m Curtis Stone. And in this next GMC Trade Secret, I’m going to give you some professional insight into baking pans. Come with me.

Now, I’ve literally emptied my cupboard for you. I’ve got every baking pan and implement that I have. So let’s have a look. There’s so many different things to bake on. I want to just walk you through a couple of the options.

Let’s start with this guy, commonly referred to as a cookie sheet. Now, it doesn’t have an edge, which means you can slide stuff straight off it. It doesn’t have this lip that other pans have. And basically it’s great if you’re making a pizza, cookies, even if you’re doing a crostata or something that you want to get straight off. So that’s a good one.

Then w have the baking sheet. Now, inside the baking sheet I’ve managed to put a little silicon mat. Now, what the silicon mat does is basically give you a nonstick surface, all right. So nothing’s going to stick to this, whether you’re doing cookies, cakes, your bacon. It’s a really good nonstick surface. So it’s kind of replaced parchment paper, if you like. That’s that.

The baking sheet itself is great. It’s a really multipurpose tool in your kitchen. You can roast potatoes on it. Of course you can bake cakes. You can stick it under the crumble if it’s going to be oozing stuff out. It’s such a good tool to have, and you’ll use it again and again and again.

All right, then we have all sorts of different shapes and sizes. Now, over here I’ve got these cupcakes or muffin tins. Now, they come in different sizes, so depending on how big you want the muffins to be. The thing I love about these is they’re both nonstick surfaces. You can get some that aren’t nonstick and you can run into a little bit of trouble turning them out.

Talking about nonstick, we just mentioned silicon. There’s also the silicon option, which some people are a bit reluctant to use. But the good news is it is oven-safe, so you can put it in up to 400 degrees. Always read your manufacturer’s instruction. But the great news is it’s nonstick and the stuff will come out really easy.

All right, then when you come to doing tarts or pies or anything like that, there’s a bunch of options as well. So this is your traditional pie dish. Now, the only difference really is the appearance. This has got a bit of another purpose, because you can look underneath and see how your pastry’s going and make sure it’s cooked through. This looks great, so you can take it straight from the oven onto the table.

When it comes to doing tarts, you want to go for something with a fluted edge, okay, as opposed to a straight edge. And you’ve got a couple of options too. This, of course, looks really good. Again, it can go straight from the oven to the table; great for a quiche. But when I’m doing a tart or I think it’s going to be a bit delicate, I like this, because it’s got the removable base. So it’s a little bit foolproof. You know you’re not going to get into a pinch.

We’ve got these great old-fashioned things if you’re doing a bundt cake or something; again, nonstick surface. That’s the key for me when I’m baking. And then over here I’ve got a bunch of different – I mean, you can use this for lasagnas. You can use them to bake cakes. You can use them for cannolis. There’s so many purposes again. If you want to see through the bottom, go for the glass. The tin’s going to cook a little bit quicker. So if you want something – maybe something’s got pastry on the bottom of it. Then you want this, because the heat’s going to transfer quicker. So that’s that.

When it comes to making a cake, you can go for the old-fashioned cake tin, which is good. And I suggest you have a couple of these, because if you’re doing a lad cake or whatever, they come in so, so handy. But you can also go for this guy, which is my favorite, the springform pan. It’s got the buckle on the outside that unclips, and literally the sides come off. So if you’re worried that you’re making a cheesecake and it might stick to the side and you don’t want to turn it over and go through all that nonsense, just take the sides away. It’s so much simpler.

There’s so many options when it comes to baking. And to be honest, a little bit of experimentation goes a long way.

I’m Curtis Stone, and that’s your GMC Trade Secret.