baking pan materials is silicon the way to go?!

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I don't like silicon. They just don't cook the same and I don't like cleaning them. I like my metal cookie sheets and baking pans. For muffins and cupcakes- I use the paper liners. For cookies- I use parchment paper. I love parchment paper. No clean up and no need to grease or spray the sheet. I've also found that I can reuse the parchment paper. When I'm making cookies- I let a sheet cool down and move the cookies to a plate- then put more dough on the paper and reuse. I've reused up to 4 times. And the Reynolds brand from the grocery store works just as nicely as the paper from Wiliams Sonoma.

My sister gave me some silicone baking pans and I suppose they work okay. I used the loaf pan for a meat loaf and it cooked well. It was also easy to get the loaf out, because of the flexibility of the pan. I also used it for a banana bread, but it was kind of a pain when moving the pan with batter in it (I forgot to put it on a solid pan first). I would probably just a soon use a good quality, non-stick baking set rather than silicone. Although silicone cookie sheets look like the thing to use for some less common baking processes I see on shows like Iron Chef.

Benefits of Silicone Bakeware
No greasing or oiling of pans required
Pans heat quickly and bake evenly with no burnt or dark edges or bottom.
Removal from pans is super easy - a slight twist or gently pulling on the sides and roll out your baking.
They're freezer, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher and oven safe.
Bake, store, freeze and reheat right in the pans.
No rusting or staining.

At the end everything comes to how good chef is - I prefer stainless steel.

http://housewares.about.com/od/bakewares…

Have not seen silicon pans (though silicon spray is great for squeaky doors and such). I am happy with Teflon II and "Pam" spray.

I agree about stainlesss steel...and throw away all your aluminum pans, of course, as you DO NOT want any aluminum in your body. Aluminum intake has been associated with Alzheimer's.

Holistic doctor

I like the silicon pans for smaller projects or using them as molds. For larger cakes I use metal still. I used a silicon pan for cupcakes recently and the tops came off way too easily.

About the only thing I use silicone for is the flat one for when I make tuille cups. I also use parchment paper a lot. The clean up is a snap and it is so convenient.