silicone baking sheets

[pamd]

Are they worth purchasing or should I stick to my regular cookie sheets? How do the bottoms of cookies turn out? Better/worse/no different???

[amokscience]

I have Exopats and they are great. No more burnt bottoms.

[shallots]

I'm also an Exopat fan. The cookie bottoms are simply excellent. Having done the cookie sheet with spatulas that have to be cleaned of sugar/flour/etc half way through, the Exopats are a delight.
Easily cleaned.
I also depend on them for cooking bagels just out of the water bath. Those used to stick unless I had the dough just right (which I seldom did.)

Searing beef chunks for stews is also a doable with Exopats and ALL the caramelized beef juice goes into the stew with minimal cleanup.

[Mother of four]

I have never heard of silicone baking sheets, are you sure that you don't mean silicone mats that you use with baking sheets? If so, I use mine all the time and love them, not always for cookies either as they work with many foods. Great for freezing individual raw cookie dough to add to a ziplock to pull out and bake when needed.

[Sooeygun]

I find my cookies actually turn out better on the bottom with Silpat. Because my electric oven heats from the bottom, the Silpat adds a layer of protection for the bottoms of the cookies while letting them get brown on top.

[rainey]

How much baking do you do? You can roll out on Silpats and then transferring pastry to the top of a pie is a snap. They are super if you're doing a lot of cookies. They're wonderful for working with chocolate and hot sugar. But they're expensive and they're not right for every cookie -- it you want crispy bottoms or very thin cookies parchment will do a better job.

If you do decide to get a couple as Zengarden suggests skip the cheap stuff and get the real goods with fiberglass reinforcements within the silicone.

[Zengarden]

I like Silpat but made the mistake of buying inexpensive silicon no name brands. Hate the no name ones. They are too thick and cookies never take on a brown colour.

[rainey]

I have Silpat and Canadian Exopats. Both are comparable. But I agree with you about the other wannabes.