A few weeks back I shared how to make the best choice of safe cookware for your family, and today I would like to share on the options for safe bakeware. Why should you evaluate your bakeware options? Consider that most bakeware available on the market is attractive because of the “non-stick” claims! Could this harmful in some way? Non-stick coatings are being proven hazardous for both humans and the environment.
According to Renee Loux’s research in Easy Green Living, “Teflon is widely believed to be carcinogenic, bioaccumulate in tissues over time, and persist in perpetuity in the environment because there is no known mechanism to break them down. Nonstick chemicals have consistenly been linked with developmental disorders, birth defects, and cancer, and have been shown to be highly toxic to the liver, kidneys, and blood.”
What are the alternatives?
Glass
Glass is both nonreactive and conducts and retains heat effectively. Pyrex glassware is very reasonably priced and works especially well for casseroles, quick breads, and the like. Clear glass can be recycled in case of breakage. I have several pyrex pans, including a 13×9 casserole, 8×8 casserole, pie pans, and currently have a loaf pan on my to buy list (for quick breads, meatloaf, etc).
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is another excellent choice. It is durable, resistant to scratches and dings, does not corrode, and can last a lifetime. Norpro Stainless Steel Baking Sheet is my favorite for cookies, pastries, and other similar items. I also utilize stainless steel for pizza pans.
Silicone
Silicone bakeware is an interesting new addition to bakeware. It is one I have not used yet, but am definitely intrigued. It is strangely rubbery and contains no chemical coating to make it non-stick. So far the verdict is that it is perfectly safe. It is made basically from sand, and is nonstick, nonreactive, it retains no odors or flavors (although some have said the first use can add a strange flavor to the finished product), it’s stain resistant, it distributes heat evenly, and it’s dishwasher safe. It would be a good choice for muffin tins, and bundt pans. Not recommended for bread baking as it does not provide proper support. Recommended brands include: Calphalon, KitchenAid & Lekue Silicone. Another good choice is to use Silicone Spatulas!
Stoneware / Ceramic
Stoneware and ceramic are excellent but a more expensive choice for bakeware. Just like glass, they are nonreactive, and conduct and retain heat well. Stoneware is made primarily from fired clay. Make sure you choose a stoneware that is free of a lead based glaze. I understand that Pampered Chef products are unglazed. Good uses for stoneware include Pizza Stone, muffin tins, and bread pans. Best brands being Pampered Chef (they have reasonable outlet specials) & Le Creuset Stoneware.
Hope that helps you make wise bakeware choices for your family!
Have you used any of these choices? What do you recommend?
I just wanted to say that I LOVE my silicone bakeware! I was able to find a great deal on the Kitchen Aid ones and so far my collection includes 2 heart pans, 2 square, 2 round, and a tube pan. I just got 2 muffin pans(they came with the metal support frame) and I have 4 cookie sheet liners. I love the easy cleanup with them, but you do have to watch for build up of the non stick spray. I am going to try using butter or crisco next time and see if it helps, as I think the build up would be gone with those options. What totally sold me was making Monkey Bread and it slid right out of the tube pan and I even challenged it by letting the pan sit so the sugars and stuff would harden up and it cleaned up with no effort! Another advantage…you can squish them in small spaces!
We just got the Les Creuset cookware line (or several pieces of it) for Christmas for ourselves and although it is certainly expensive if you buy it from Williams Sonoma you have a lifetime warentee and can bring it in and get a replacement if for ANY reason it gets scratched or ruined. That is why my husband wanted us to get this brand since he thought that over time we will save money. My daughter calls it the “grandkids cooking stuff” because I told her our grandchildren will use it someday!
We also got two of the loaf pans for baking bread and I really like them. I am still getting used to the bit smaller size and have found that coconut oil works better than olive oil to grease it with but overall really like them. I spent 10 dollars each on aluminum loaf pans six months ago the of the four I bought 3 are already starting to peel. So that makes it worth it to me the 25-30 dollars the one Les Creuset pan costs. Although these I got from Amazon and don’t have a lifetime warentee. I hope to buy a couple more in the next few months.
I was wondering about silicone. I have a cake pan and some muffin cups (like the paper, but scilicone.) But, I was a bit nervose using them, just not knowing. I also use glass, but I really love my stoneware pizza sheet, casserole dish and bread pan. They rarely stick and when they do a quick soak and rinse takes care of it. Thanks for the info.
Most all of my bakeware is Pampered Chef Stoneware…I love it so much and most of the pieces I have had for 10 years. It bakes beautifully and evenly. I also keep 2 Pyrex 9×13 pans (with lids) and smaller Pyrex containers for leftover storage and for freezing. I know Pampered Chef sells their Stoneware to customers at least one or maybe two months of the year at 20% off so it’s good to ask a consultant to keep you posted on that so you can take advantage!
I received a 8×8 pampered chef square as a gift and I want to bake brownies in it. Do I grease the stoneware and follow the directions on the box? What’s the secret in baking with this type of stoneware?
There’s really no secret. I just use them as I would any other container. Grease it well until it becomes non-stick with use.
I have used glass, stainless steel and silicone bake-ware. I have to say, I am a little suspicious of the silicone. It just feels wrong somehow.
The stainless steel baking sheets and bread pans are super.
But my hands-down favorite is my rectangular Pyrex casserole dish with blue plastic lid. I have enormous confidence in glass but my favorite feature is it’s genius design. That dish really holds a lot of food. but it also is a space saver in the fridge and in the cupboard. Very smart design.
Oh, I also wanted to mention that I featured you and your condiment recipes on my blog today.
I have a silicon mini-muffin pan and like it, except cleaning it. I’d rather use muffin cups.
I also have a silicon bread pan and only used it for banana bread. It didn’t keep it’s shape well (bulged in the middle). Yeast bread would probably do better in it, just not made any in it yet.
I use glass, stoneware, and ceramic-covered stoneware. (I need to check on the lead-based glaze issue!) My all-time favorite is ceramic-covered cast iron. It’s also the most expensive, so I’m adding to my collection slowly. TJ Maxx sometimes has some good deals in their home section. I haven’t tried the silicone … although it may be safe, the fact that it is rubbery makes me sceptical. Waiting that one out for a little while.
I just wanted to make a quick suggestion for your loaf pan! Go smaller, as the bigger pans make a loaf of bread that you cannot freeze in a gallon size ziploc. I have 5 loaf pans. (3 glass, 2 nonstick), but the nonstick are just too big, and 2 of the glass are also hard to squeeze in a baggie. The 3rd (I think it’s the Anchor brand) is perfect. Just thought you might want to freeze your loaves! I guess you could wrap them in foil too, though!
Most of my bakeware is glass, but I do have some stainless steel, 1 nonstick 9×13, 1 silicone 8×8, and 1 stoneware pizza pan. I have to say that the glass consistantly out performs all the others. I’m about ready to toss the silicone pan. It really overcooks the edges of brownies but the middle doesn’t get quite done. Definitely would not recommend silicone. Also, Home & Garden Party sells stoneware that is of equal quality as Pampered Chef, but less expensive. And they’re a Christian lead company.
I use a smaller silicone bread pan for my whole wheat bread and think it’s wonderful!! Pops right out with out putting any oil or anything on it. I also really enjoy the flat sheets to line my pans with, another non-stick option where you don’t have to use oil. I do cookies and biscuits etc. on them. They also work great for rolling out dough on.
I noticed the links for your recommended brands for silicone didn’t make it. I’m interested in checking them out when you get them put on:)
I have the glass Pyrex containers pictured that I use for leftovers. They’re great, but the lids will shrink somehow and won’t fit if you put them in the top rack of the dishwasher (and they say dishwasher safe!)
I’ve been replacing them with these
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?searchId=18642091&itemIndex=3&CATID=74063&PRODID=10015932
from the Container Store
I love those Pyrex containers too! I use them for food storage, make ahead meals for the freezer, as well as a handy leftover container when you’re done. I have found I’ve had fewer dishes to do as well since they are so versatile! The plastic lids are made without BPA, and you can recycle the glass containers if they break. I haven’t noticed my lids shrinking – maybe my dishwasher is too old and doesn’t get hot enough!:)
I have used nonstick metal, silicone, and glass loaf pans for baking bread. I find that the silicone does retain odors and flavors…if I bake a dill or banana bread, I can smell it the next time. And I tried putting it in the dishwasher once – that was a mistake, since I was tasting detergent through the next several loaves of bread! I recommend hand washing silicone bakeware, and be careful about putting anything on top of it…one of my loaf pans cracked on the side, and the crack continued to grow until it became unusable.
I’m in the process of getting rid of all my non-stick bakeware. I just recently bought some silicone muffin “pans” which I totally LOVE! I also bought new stainless cookie sheets, which I usually use along with my silicone Silpat’s – totally awesome combo! Just make sure that you get the right sized cookie sheets to go with your Silpat otherwise you’ll curse both for not working together as they should.
And I also love my glass baking dishes (9×13 and 9×9)!
I absolutely love my pizza stone. I have had it for about 6 years and it is so wonderfully seasoned, it’s a very dark brown now! I use it for cookies, pizza, rolls. I also like my ceramic casserole dishes (similar to Corningware). They are very old hand-me-downs and are glazed, but I’m not sure what’s in the glaze….. I also have a Pyrex 8×10 that I use frequently. I’m trying to get away from using standard bakeware – I had one 9×13 pan that the coating started coming off of and ended up in our food – ICK and scary. If I have to use standard bakeware I ALWAYS line it with something – parchement/foil, etc.
Just to note: before you recycle your Pyrex dishes (and other glass-ware), make sure it’s glass! Some of those products are actually a clear ceramic that can ruin a batch of molten glass when being recycled!
I have two sets of silicone cupcake/muffin cups that I love. Instead of a muffin pan, they’re shaped like the paper cups some people put into their muffin tins to bake, but more substantial. I place them on a cookie sheet or pizza stone to bake. They don’t need greasing or anything, and then when the baked goods cool, you just pop them out. I also have some traditional Polish pottery (Boloslawiec; a type of glazed stoneware I believe). The last time I saw the Polish pottery for sale, it was advertised to be lead-free. Mine is a bit older and had no such advertisement, but I don’t think the stoneware has changed. I think they just started publishing the information when it became more of a public concern. I just e-mailed the co-op it comes from to be sure. Does anyone here use it and know? Anyway, it’s beautiful and practical (hand-painted, even) but not local and pretty pricey when purchased in the States. (You could always go on a mission trip there and bring some back!) I also have glass. I need to get a stainless steel cookie sheet. I haven’t used a non-stick pot or pan in almost ten years, but still for some reason only have a non-stick cookie sheet. Go figure.
The glaze has always been cadmium- and lead-free. They just didn’t make a point of communicating that until recently. It was a pretty quick response time for my enquiry, too.
Polish Pottery is the PERFECT vessel for cooking and the cleanup is like nothing else. I have been able to cook scalloped potatoes again without the hassle of scrubbing. It has always been and continues to be lead free (and cadmium free). I even featured on our site a banana bread recipe using that cook in.
I like using glass and stainless steel. I’ve had one silicone bread pan given to me, and I’ve only used it once – I was suspicious of it, and when I baked quick bread in it, the loaf was very misshaped. The “stand alone” muffin cups sound really cool (I hate washing muffin pans!), but are you quite sure silicone is safe? Maybe I’m just too suspicious.
I would like to add cast iron skillets and pots to my collection. I’ve heard great things about cast iron. Do any of y’all use it?
Stainless steel cookie sheets sound very attractive. Right now I have 2 baking stones, but I most often opt to use aluminum cookie sheets, (even though I know they’re not the best!) because that’s what I’m used to. Oh – and does anyone know if Kitchen Aid stoneware is unglazed?
Yep I am a big fan of the Pampered Chef Stoneware too, the blacker the ware the better it bakes
I hated my silicone muffin pans because they cracked and broke rather quickly under heavy use.
My faves are my cast iron skillets, and my stones. After that comes anything glass or pyrex.
I can totally do without the metal stuff and non-stick makes me nervous.
Try cast iron! We just got cast iron loaf pans and they are working great for baking yeast breads and quick breads. We’ve even baked some cakes in our cast iron skillet. I’ve heard it ups your iron intake to use cast iron, too. I have been using a stoneware Pampered Chef muffin baking pan as well–found it at a thrift store, believe it or not! It is great and is getting smoother and more “naturally non-stick” as I use it.
I love all your choices except silicone. I worked for several years at a high end kitchen supply store (think the prince of england and a beautiful california community) We frequently would get silicone pans for holidays and almost always got a ton of returns. They don’t brown well and they stick unless you spray the heck out of them. I own a few and dislike them all.
I dislike the silicone, food always tastes/smells funny to me when baked on my silicone cookie sheet liners.
I love these kind of practical posts. I will be 48 next week and have only been reading your blog for a couple of months, but I learn so much from you, even tho’ I could be your mother.
I have the Pampered Chef bread pans (stoneware) and cookie sheet/pizza stone. I can recommend them.
I haven’t read through the comments yet so this may have been mentioned, but a way you can tell if a product is stainless steel is to try and stick a magnet to it. If it sticks, it is true ss. I used to carry a small refrigerator magnet with me to my local Salvation Army store when I was looking for used cookie sheets. Some thins look like ss but aren’t. If a magnet sticks to it, it is okay. I think I learned this trick from Martha Stewart.
Love your blog Lindsay.
p.s. At your suggestion, a couple of weeks ago I bought some glass pyrex dishes at Target-the small ones with blue lids to keep leftovers in so I can get away from plastic as much as possible. I LOVE them! I plan to get more.
When my husband and I got married, a lot of my mom’s friends threw us a Pampered Chief wedding shower. We received various pieces of their stoneware, and I love it. I use it to cook everything from pizza to cookies to bread – just about anything that goes into the oven. I feel quite spoiled now, honestly.
One of the nice things about stoneware is that it doesn’t burn food. It cooks everything so evenly that you never have any black spots. One time I left cornbread muffins in the oven almost an hour over what they should have been in for (I forgot about them). When I took them out of the oven, they were not burned! They were very hard and dry, but we just ate them with some soy milk on them and they were just fine.
Oh the joys of stoneware!
I have to also say that i have pampered chef stoneware–pizza stone, bread pan, muffin pan, i really like them. Anything i can put on the pizza stone i do, i hardly ever use my cookie sheets anymore. The only bad thing is that i only have one pizza stone!
Great investment and pretty affordable really.
big fan of Pampered Chef stoneware! My mother was a consultant when I was younger, and she gave me her entire collection not long ago….it’s ALL I use. three cheers for stone ware!
Stoneware is my best friend in the kitchen! All my stoneware is Pampered Chef and I got most of it free from hosting a show and the rest was at a discount (like the 20% off that Aimee mentioned above..I am pretty sure one of mine was even 60% off). I absolutely love how it creates a naturally non-stick surface the more you use it. How many material things in this world get better with time? By the way, Pampered Chef is also a Christian-based company – it is in their motto!
I only use metal pans for the broiler. I am such a stone-addict – I use it for everything else…even in the microwave (though I’m not a microwave fan).
I am a huge fan of PC stoneware. I have 2 baking sheets and a bar pan. I’m looking into getting a muffin pan as I have a nonstick pan I want to replace. I got a gift certificate for Christmas, so most of it won’t be coming out of my pocket anyway.
I also have a pyrex 13×9 pan and 3 pyrex loaf pans I use regularly. The glass loaf pans work great for bread (when I’m not using my bread maker).
Personally, I am still nervous about silicone. I know they say it’s safe, but they’ve also said that about artificial sweeteners, msg, etc. I’m going to hold out a while longer. I don’t like the idea of using a plastic of sorts, at high temperatures for such long periods of time.
I’ve been working to shift over towards stoneware and glass, myself. I am bit by bit adding to my collection, and as I get new items, I get rid of my old, cheap baking sheets and pans. So far, I really enjoy using the stoneware and am happy with the results!
Our Kroger sells Hartstone Pottery, an organic stone bakeware made in the USA. The company is based in Zanesville, Ohio. Their prices range from $28-35, so fairly comparable to Pampered Chef.
Here’s the link: http://www.hartstonepottery.com/store/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=61&cat=Organic+Dishwasher+Safe+Baking+Stones+
You can also find them on Ebay, for a fraction of the price.
I would like to insert a word of caution in the use of silicone bakeware. During a surgery about 10 years ago I found out that I am allergic to latex. Over the last ten years I have done a lot of research into the allergy, where latex is found, and the cause of the allergy. Current research is showing that latex is a contact allergy. This means the more you are in contact with it the more likely you are to develop an allergy. Some pediatric hospitals such as Boston children’s Hospital have become completely latex-free for this reason. Silicone contains latex. I would not recommend using them. As someone with the allergy I can tell you how hard it is to live with this allergy. I carry an epi-pen and have to be very careful with everything. On an everyday basis you are exposed to lots of latex items (toothbrush, elastic, non stick coating, just about all plastics….)
There are so many glass, metal, and ceramic options…. please stick to those.. Especially if you are cooking for children.
Do you have some sources you could quote showing that Silocone contains latex? I tried looking on-line but was having a hard time finding info. Thank-you!
I’m disappointed that you did not include cast iron in your article. I bake almost exclusively in cast iron. Many times you can pick these items up in thrift stores or garage sales….my collection includes loaf pans, muffin pans (even some cute shapes), cornbread pan (although a skillet works well for this purpose), bundt pan, pizza pan, etc. I tried stoneware baking and went straight back to my trusty cast iron.