Parchment Paper vs. Silicone Baking Mats

There are so many wonderful tools for the kitchen that help make my life easier. There are mixers and dough boards, baskets for straining, every type of cutting utensil you can imagine, and even stencils for decorating cakes and cookies, the list goes on. Of course, one of my absolute favorite kitchen tools is parchment paper. 

Baking directly onto any surface is always daunting, as anyone that works or plays in the kitchen can attest. When I am cooking or baking, I always find it most beneficial to cover my baking pans. First, for the obvious reason of avoiding anything sticking to my pans, but also to minimize clean-up as much as possible!

Some bakers prefer to do their baking on silicone mats rather than directly onto their baking pans. Mats come in a variety of shapes and sizes designed to fit within standard sized baking pans. People generally like to use silicone mats because they can be washed and reused and reduce waste. 

Parchment paper sheets are another favorite of culinary artists, both because they keep baking pans clean (much like silicone mats), but also because they can be trimmed down to size to fit all shapes and random sizes of baking pans that might exist (and rumor has it that Zenlogy has a whole bunch of new parchment sizes coming real soon)!

Parchment sheets are also a hot commodity for professional bakers and cookie artists because they make it easy to line dozens of baking pans at once. Oftentimes professional bakers are fulfilling multiple cookie orders at once, and so are having to line dozens of baking pans at a time to fulfill their demand. Parchment sheets lend themselves more easily to this than silicone mats because more pans can be lined at once instead of having to wash a mat between every few batches of cookies. 

 Zenlogy parchment paper is especially popular with chefs and bakers because, unlike other parchment paper brands, Zenlogy parchment sheets can be reused a number of times before they need to be disposed of. 

Parchment paper is also a wonderful alternative to silicone baking mats because they are more malleable and easier to remove icing transfers from than the thicker silicone baking mat. Once my icing transfers have dried and are ready to be taken off of the surface they were applied to, it’s much easier to fold the parchment paper away from the transfer and essentially peel them off of the paper. Icing transfers applied to a silicone baking mat to dry run a bigger risk of getting stuck to the surface or breaking when being removed because it is more difficult to pry them off.

 

Concerning the debate of parchment paper vs. silicone baking mats, we can’t help but to vote for parchment paper. There is simply so much more that can be done with parchment paper in addition to lining my baking pans. It’s hard not to choose an option with so much more versatility than the alternative! Zenlogy parchment paper really is fantastic!