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Sheet extenders rock -- professional style baking questions

 
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AaronTraas



Joined: 26 Dec 2006
Posts: 4
Location: New Jersey, USA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:39 pm    Post subject: Sheet extenders rock -- professional style baking questions Reply with quote

(I want to preface this with the fact that I've never worked in a professional kitchen, but was introduced to professional kitchen supply stores via Alton Brown.)

I just had a success with making brownies for a bake sale; rather than standard baking pans (of which I own none), I purchased 2 half-size sheet pan extenders for my half-sheet pans. I put parchment in the pan, lubed the extenders with cooking spray, put the extenders on top of that, and poured 3 batches of brownie mix in the pan, and cooked as normal. When they were done, I cooled the entire pan, pulled off the extenders, lifted all the brownies at once (I had the parchment going about 4 extra inches on each side of the pan, which I used as a sling), moved to a cutting board, and cut with a pizza cutter. I then lifted off groups of six brownies into the packaging to be sold at the bake sale.

In other words, stupidly easy, consistent brownies. The one change I want to make next is purchasing a small plastic T-square to make cutting the brownies evenly easier.

Now, for my question: I've been seeing online devices called cake rings. I'm assuming, as I don't know and can't find instructions for these, that these are used similar to sheet extenders -- you line a sheet pan with parchment, lube the cake ring, put one or more rings on pan, pour cake batter into rings, bake, cool, remove rings, and viola -- super easy cake baking and extraction.

If I'm incorrect, can someone please correct me? If I'm correct, what are the disadvantages to cake rings vs. cake pans? I don't own cake pans, so it's not like I'd be replacing them. It seems like cake rings would appear to be useful for things like cutting a perfect round piece of puffed pastry or pie dough, and smaller ones could be used for ring molds on a fry pan, etc.

Also, which would be a better multi-tasker, cake rings or cake pans? I'm a bit of a cooking minimalist; I don't like to have too many specialty tools that clutter up my kitchen.

Thanks in advance.
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SirShazar



Joined: 30 Jul 2007
Posts: 89

PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It really depend on how good of a baker you are and how good your oven is at baking cakes. To do this successfully, you'll need to handle the pan VERY carefully so it won't spill, and some cakes might lift the extender and cause it spill. You also won't be able to rotate the cake, which in some ovens is a problem.

I think the cheap wedding aluminum cake pans you can find at walmart make for great multitaskers, and you can get them pretty cheap and in a wide range of sizes. With some simple origami, you can line them up with parchment.

I use the kind where the ring has a clasp which closes on the base, and I've rarely had a problem with them (some defective ones can leak if you put something very liquidy in them).
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