The Best Baking Mats for Anyone With an Unpredictable Oven

The Best Baking Mats
What to Consider
1) Perfect Cookie Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat
2) Extra Large Silicone Baking Mat
3) Silicone Baking Mats (Set of 5)
4) Silicone Baking Mat
5) Silicone Pastry Mat

There’s an endless array of kitchen gadgets out there, but when it comes to baking, there are very few that actually make your life easier. If you have a stand mixer (or hand mixer) and kitchen scale, you’re already cutting out a lot of tedious mixing and measuring. So, why not complete your easy-baking arsenal by getting a silicone baking mat?

Baking mats are flat silicone sheets that line the surface of your cookware. While they won’t replace your parchment paper for every baking need, they are an endlessly reusable, eco-friendlier alternative that helps prevent the bottom of your baked goods from burning in the oven.

The Best Baking Mats

What to Consider

Material

If you frequently bake, you’re probably used to oiling your sheet pan with nonstick spray or lining it with parchment paper — doing this creates a barrier between your ingredients and the metal tray, which prevents things from sticking to it (and burning).

However, this barrier is quite thin and can be quickly compromised if you leave your ingredients baking for just a minute too long. This is where a silicone baking mat can be incredibly helpful — it’s harder to completely burn the bottom of whatever you’re baking when you use one. Silicone is a non-reactive and durable type of rubber, and this material provides even heat distribution and a more substantial barrier than parchment paper or oil. These mats can be used in ovens up to 450 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since sometimes you do want things to be a little crispy, we suggest swapping in a silicone mat for making desserts and baked goods. We recommend sticking to parchment paper or oil when you’re roasting veggies or meat so you can retain that pleasantly caramelized or crackly finish that you want.

Size

Silicone baking mats come in a variety of sizes to fit perfectly atop round cake pans, half- and quarter-sized baking pans, and even pizza stones. Some wider mats can even be used on your countertop to give you a prep surface that makes cleanup super easy.

The best baking mat size for you all depends on the type of bakeware you use the most. Make sure you measure what you have before you buy!

Design

Although silicone baking mats all perform roughly the same function, we appreciate how their designs differ slightly from brand to brand. Some offer handy measurements and ingredient conversions, while others are illustrated with outlines to help you portion your dough to the proper size. These can be helpful if you like having visual guides to keep things evenly spaced on your tray.

Once you have a silicone baking mat, you seriously won’t know how you lived (and baked so many cookies!) without one. We’re breaking down all you need to know about the five best baking mats you can buy right here in our guide.

$27.30

If you simply want the best, snap up the Silpat Perfect Cookie Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat tout de suite.

Made of silicone and fiberglass mesh, this baking mat provides an even-heating layer for your cookies, and it even shows you exactly how to line them up to prevent crowding. Of course, you’re not limited to using this mat just with cookies — anything that you can bake flat on a half-sheet tray can go on here.

We’ve used this exact baking mat for over 2 years and counting, and it continues to be our go-to for every batch of cookies that we’ve made since. It results in chewy (not undercooked gooey) deliciousness by the baker’s dozen, and cookies slide off of it as though the surface were covered in butter.

We’re naming this silicone baking mat as being the best overall because we simply couldn’t imagine baking without it.

More: The Best Gifts for People Who Love to Bake

2) Extra Large Silicone Baking Mat

$27.99

Does rolling out pie dough on your kitchen countertop sound too messy to possibly be enjoyable? Make cleanup as easy as can be with this extra large fiberglass-and-silicone baking mat.

Available in three substantial sizes and detailed with cooking conversions and helpful measurement guides, this mat is sized to fit in a commercial bakery oven, which is probably not the size you have in your kitchen right now.

However, instead of using it for baking, you can use it to top your kitchen counter or table as a prep surface. When you’re done rolling out your dough or drizzling your chocolate, just shake off the excess in the trash and give its surface a quick wipe-down or wash.

This is very useful for any household, but particularly for those with extra small spaces who may shy away from more involved (read: messier) cooking projects.

3) Silicone Baking Mats (Set of 5)

$18.97

If you already have a full set of bakeware at home, these are the fiberglass-and-silicone baking mats for lining not just your sheet pans and cookie trays but your cake pans as well.

This set of five comes with two half-sheet mats, one quarter-sheet mat, one round 8-inch mat, and one square 8-inch mat. There’s even a handy spatula included to help you mix and scoop your dough.

Just keep in mind that the circles on the half-sheet mats are meant to be guidelines for making 30 macaron halves, not cookies!

4) Silicone Baking Mat

$15.00

We love a clean-line aesthetic, but the Five Two Silicone Baking Mat doesn’t have a gridded pattern for looks. Its inch-wide squares help you precisely measure and position your dough or ingredients to prevent everything from turning into one unevenly cooked wad.

This baking mat is just made of silicone — there isn’t a fiberglass core here. While the fiberglass gives most mats a bit more “backbone” and helps thin out the barrier for the most even heat distribution possible, this plain silicone can be cut to any size you need, in case you have an irregular pan shape that you want to line.

This perk, in particular, is why a lot of reviewers love this mat. As one person says, “I had to trim this little guy just a tad to fit snugly into my cayenne cookie sheet, and the grid lines made the job a snap. I use it constantly, then pop it into the dishwasher to clean.”

5) Silicone Pastry Mat

$18.99

When your hands are covered with dough, the last thing you want to do is get out a ruler to see if your pizza or pie crust is wide enough. If you’re working with the Tovolo Silicone Pastry Mat, that problem is solved.

This mat has the same handy grid as the Five Two Silicone Baking Mat, but it also features round measurements and conversations galore printed on its silicone-coated fiberglass build. As one reviewer says, “Perfect for baking and pizza making. Keeps the counter clean and washes up nicely.”