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Batter being poured into a Yorkshire pudding

Yorkshire Puddings – silicone vs tin

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Not Delia
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A silicone Yorkshire pudding tray[Here’s a link to the recipe, method and photos for making Yorkshire Puddings]

I bought a new silicone Yorkshire pudding tray recently, and asked around to see if anyone had used such a thing. Not many people had, but of those few, the comments weren’t very favourable. Mostly they complained that the puddings stuck or the silicone tray was difficult to handle because it was too floppy. I overcame the latter difficulty by placing it on a baking tray, which made it easy to move it in and out of the oven.


A traditional Yorkshire pudding tinI decided to do a “silicone versus tin” challenge. Here you can see me pouring batter into the trusty old tins. (Remember that the oil must be smoking hot before you put the batter in.) Next I followed suit and poured the batter into the silicone tray. Then I put both side by side into the oven.


A Yorkshire pudding used making a traditional tinHere is the result of the tin’s Yorkshire puddings. A nice enough shape, albeit a little bit squint. Unfortunately I’d had the tin at a slight angle so that I could also accommodate the baking tray which was supporting the silicone alongside it. The pudding had a nice texture and was pleasantly crisp around the top.


A Yorkshire pudding made using a silicone trayAnd here’s the result of the silicone tray. At first it looked very promising, although it did seem to have mushroomed out somewhat on one side. It looked quite appealing but the pudding itself was, well, puddingy.

Notice how the tin tray had wide but not very deep cups and the silicone tray had much deeper ones. So perhaps the tins were a more suitable shape and I wasn’t really comparing like with like. At least the puddings didn’t stick.

I would use silicone baking trays again but for Yorkshire puddings I think I’ll stick to the tins or try different sizes and shapes of silicone.

What’s your experience of silicone bakeware? Please comment!

PS: If you’re thinking of buying any new kitchen equipment, why not have a look at Not Delia’s Amazon Cook Shops?



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Comments

13 responses to “Yorkshire Puddings – silicone vs tin”

  1. Luxury Travel

    I’ve used both and I found the silicone to be really handy for ‘turning out’ the Yorkshire puddings.

    However, I also found that if you do get some sticking to the silicone, then the dishwasher doesn’t seem to clean them properly and they can be a bit of a faff to clean properly afterwards.

    What I also found was that, after significant use, the silicone has a tendency to crack along the lines where you turn it inside and out.

    We bought some more trays not so long ago and we happened to opt for tin, but I find either does the job pretty well.

  2. Not Delia

    Thanks for your info, Paul. I think I might have been going about things the wrong way as I used oil in the silicone trays as usual. There was no need to turn them out, I lifted them out quite easily. Also there was no sticking at all and no need to wash them, just a quick wipe sufficed.

    I guess if the point of silicone is to cut down on the use of oil, then I missed the point. LOL!

  3. Man in Greasy Shirt

    I haven’t tried silicone baking trays, but I suspect that the suffer the same problems as many modern alternatives to traditional cooking equipment – they deteriorate in use. It doesn’t matter if an uncoated metal baking tray (or a pure cast iron cooking pot or frying pan) gets scratched – it still works just as well because you build the surface coating up as you use it. If you have a real disaster, you can even scrub it back to the metal and start all over again.

    Ceramic hobs are an example of modern technology that doesn’t work. If you spill and burn stuff on them, they are exceedingly difficult to clean (I end up flooding them with a strong cleaner and leaving them to soak for an hour or two, because a hard scrub has much the same effect as using old-fashioned vim on an acrylic bath). And I accidentally dropped a pot on our hob and cracked it – so now if something boils over it short-circuits and trips the power and I’m reduced to two out of four rings for a few hours, until it dries out.

  4. Not Delia

    Yeah, sometimes old-fashioned is the best. I’ve had some of my pots and pans for years. They’re heavy old things and I love them to bits. Goodness know how old some of them are now. The Le Creuset especially is a real old friend. Expensive to buy, but lasts for ever.

    On the other hand, I bought a silicone oven glove and that’s a nifty piece of kit. Gotta try new things too.

  5. Man in Greasy Shirt

    Care to write a review on that?

  6. Not Delia

    Yeah, I’ll probably do that. 🙂

  7. dave

    Hi Kay, firstly on your soggy puds i suspect your smoking hot metal trays would have given your tin tray cooked puds at least a three minute start on the silicone puds as silicone is,nt as good a heat conductor and would have cooled before entering the oven, i am a traditionalist when it comes to my tin trays and stick by them whatever but i did find the newer tech. a great substitute and maybe more hygienic as my trays were always banished from entering the sink for a cleaning for fear of rendering them useless forever. however me, even after all those years i,m still in preference of wooden chopping boards and still not convinced on the polyethelyne chopping boards are not blunting my knives.

  8. Not Delia

    Hi Dave, thanks for your comment. I expect you’re right about the tin trays getting a start on the silicone. The tins also had perhaps an unfair advantage as I’ve been using them for years and this was my first attempt with silicone. LOL!

    My tins are also banished from the sink, as are some of my woks and frying pans. Obviously you have to make exceptions for some of the pans – especially the one I use for frying fish. But they all have their own purposes and I know which one does which job (and which ones rarely, if ever, get washed).

    That’s an interesting point about boards, thanks. I’ll pick up on that and write a posting. (I use pro colour-coded boards.)

  9. dave

    Me too, but only as it is a legal requirement in catering establishments these days or i would,nt go near them, at home i always use wood, if cleaned properly after each choir there is practicaly no danger. i suspect the plastic boards probably harbour more germs in the deeper cuts, they certainly don,t clean up as well.

  10. Not Delia

    Hi again, Dave. I’ve done a posting now on chopping boards. Please have a look:

    http://www.notdelia.co.uk/chopping-boards-plastic-or-wood/

    Looking forward to your comments on there.

  11. Yorkshire Puddings | Not Delia

    […] Try to avoid washing the tins if at all possible. Well-oiled tins will prevent the puddings sticking. After use, clean any debris off tins with kitchen roll or a dry washing-up brush, or whatever you have. If you have to wash the tins, rub cooking oil over them afterwards. (Of course, this doesn’t apply if you’re using a silicone “tin” – but you can read more about the respective merits of silicone and metal in my comparison review, Yorkshire puddings – silicone vs tin.) […]

  12. Alan

    Where did the metal yorkshire pudding tray with SIX holes come from? All I can find is 4 hole versions.

  13. Mr Not Delia

    Hi, Alan. I think it’s probably a size thing – the tins with the bigger holes (or whatever you call them – cups? indentations? recesses? Anyway, you know what I mean) do tend to come in fours. The holes (or whatever…) in ND’s tin here are a bit smaller and deeper.

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