AirBake CushionAir Insulated Baking Sheets - Why I Kept My Mom's Gift
Written: May 27 '09
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Pros: Provides even baking. pizza stone replacement
Cons: holds heat out of the oven and can burn cookies if you leave them on.
The Bottom Line: Got 'em for mom, who loves 'em, but gave 'em back because she's used to her old stuff
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| naphtalia's Full Review: AirBake CushionAir 14" x 16" Insulated Baking Shee... |
When it comes to baking, my mother continues to use the tools she has always had. She still uses a measuring cup inherited from my grandmother. She still uses cookie and baking sheets she bought in college. They are worn and dinged. They have black patches that no longer come clean. She never works directly on their surface, but lines them with either aluminum or silpat mats.
We've bought my mother replacement sheets. This time, we got her AirBake CushionAir 14" x 16" Insulated Baking Sheets. They're a good size for her oven. They're heavy duty without being heavy. She still goes for her gross, dingy, dinged up baking sheets. She decided she doesn't have room for more baking sheets, so I should take the new ones. *SIGH*
The new pans are terrific. . The insulation guarantees no hot spots on the surface. Even when the oven heats unevenly (and what oven doesn't), the cookies at the back don't burn on the bottom while the rest aren't done. The surface on these pans is not non-stick. I still use a silpat or a piece of aluminium on them. The flyer that came with it says that AirBake and CushionAir's two-sheet construction maintains a consistent cushion of insulating air across the entire baking surface. The bottom of the baking sheets have a two-layer design to protect baked goods from the oven's intense heat. The top sheet is designed to guarantee consistent quality. It certainly works like that for me.
On the downside, because the pans are insulated, they hold their heat longer after they come out of the oven. Since I line them with aluminum, it's easy to stop the cooking by pulling the liner off the tray and onto the counter to cool.
These baking sheets have also served well when I wanted to make pizza and didn't have a pizza stone. Not a perfect solution by any means, but much better than just cooking on an ordinary baking sheet. I would get the pan very hot while I make the pizza, then I will transfer the pizza onto the pan to bake. I can even take it out to do the transfer.
Mom is still happily using her old corroded pans. She still turns the pans half way through baking to make sure everything cooks evenly. I don't have to do that. Using mom's recipes for chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies or snickerdoodles - I am getting better results than she does. I don't have to open the oven in the middle of baking. It certainly isn't that I have superior skills. I just have better tools.
Try as I might, I can't convince my mother to give up her decades old cookie sheets. I will admit that they have lasted and served her well. I, however, am going to stick with my pretty insulated AirBake pans....at least til something better comes along.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 20
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naphtalia
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Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the_circus has left town.
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