Before talking about the best substitutes for silicone baking mat, I have to admit my love for them.
In my opinion, silicone baking mats are fantastic if we want to bake in baking sheets in a more sustainable way.
Thus, we use these mats made of silicone to cover baking sheets to prevent foods from sticking during baking. That’s their main purpose because they’re nonstick and they’re heat resistant up to a certain temperature.
These characteristics, non-stick and heat resistant, might remind you of a certain product, which is highly used in almost all kitchens: parchment paper. And that easily we’ve come across one of the best substitutes for a silicone baking mat.
However, the amazing thing about these baking mats made of silicone is that they’re reusable for years to come. If you’re into sustainable products for your kitchen, you’ll want to replace using parchment paper with using silicone baking mats as often as you can.
Once our baking/cooking is done, we can wash the mat, let it dry and then use it again and again whenever we need a nonstick medium for our baking sheets.
We can use silicone baking mats for everything, from baking desserts, cooking meats, roasting vegetables, baking pizza, bread, etc.
Table of Contents
Best Substitutes For Silicone Baking Mats: Top Picks
1. Parchment Paper: Reynolds Kitchens Unbleached Parchment Paper Roll
The absolute best substitute for silicone baking mats is parchment paper. It’s also a lot more versatile, it can be used for baking in whatever bakeware we want. We even use parchment paper in air fryers.
2. Non-stick oil spray: PAM Non Stick Original Cooking Spray
Oil spray, oil or butter are other substitutes we can use. However, there are certain limitations for greasing the pan. Sometimes greasing the pan won’t always prevent the food from sticking to the pan.
3. Baking mats: Silpat Premium Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat
If you’d still want to consider using silicone baking mats because they’re reusable and they can last for years to come, then those from Silpat are the best.
Best Substitutes For a Silicone Baking Mat
I’ve already revealed which is one of the best substitutes for silicone baking mats but let’s analyze our options in more detail.
Once we’ve covered all substitutes for baking mats, you’ll know which can work best for you in different baking situations.
1. Parchment Paper: The Best Substitute for Silicone Baking Mats
Parchment paper is the universal substitute for silicone baking mats and for greasing the pan.
This is the best substitute, without any doubt.
Parchment paper is even more versatile than silicone baking mats because it can be cut into different sizes and shapes.
And it can mold to different baking pans, baking sheets, Dutch ovens, bread cloche, baking stones, cake molds, and all that exists out there.
Moreover, parchment paper is flexible.
So, if we bake a loaf in a Dutch oven, we can use that parchment paper to easily lower the dough in the Dutch oven. And then to easily remove the baked bread from the Dutch oven.
Similarly, we use parchment paper when we’re baking a cake to prevent the bottom from sticking to the pan.
Moreover, we don’t have to wash the parchment paper after we’re done with it because we’re simply throwing it away.
On the other hand, we have to wash a silicone baking mat because it’s reusable. But the fact that it’s reusable means that we’re using a more sustainable product.
Which parchment paper should you use?
Before moving on to other baking mats substitutes, let me advise you on which parchment paper you should use in the kitchen if you care a bit about the environment. And if you make your own compost.
The thing is simple: buy unbleached parchment paper. You’ll know that it’s unbleached if it’s brown in color.
The white one is bleached and it’s usually not biodegradable and compostable.
Unbleached parchment paper (brown) is biodegradable and compostable. It will decompose in about 30 to 90 days.
If you don’t want to cut up large sheets of parchment paper to fit your cake pan, you can also buy parchment rounds.
2. Oil, Non-Stick Oil Spray & Butter
The second option as a substitute for a silicone baking mat is greasing the pan.
We all know all about how grease of all kinds can prevent all kinds of foods from sticking to the baking tray.
However, there are also exceptions where greasing of the pan is going to fail quite a bit.
For example, if you roast vegetables (celery, parsnip, asparagus, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, beets, pumpkin, onions, garlic etc.) in a baking tray that is not perfectly non-stick, even if we coat the vegetables in oil, there’s still a high probability that those vegetables are going to stick.
Well, if the food sticks to the baking sheet that doesn’t mean that it won’t taste delicious. It just means that cleaning that pan is going to take a bit of effort.
Oil, butter, non-stick oil spray, lard and other greases work very well for cooking and baking of all kinds.
It’s just that this option is not as fool-proof as parchment paper and silicone baking mats.
3. Flour
Flour is one of the most limited options that we can use as one of the best substitutes for a silicone baking mat.
We can’t use flour if we roast vegetables, cook meat in the oven or things like that.
While we use flour to make baking products, most of us are not going to use it as a substitute for silicone baking mats, parchment paper, or oil/butter/nonstick oil spray. By the way, check out my article looking for substitutes for spelt flour if you’re interested in learning more about different types of flour.
We can use flour if we’re baking bread or pizza but that’s pretty much about it.
One popular situation is to grease with butter and flour when we’re baking a cake.
In this case, we first line the pan with parchment paper and then grease the paper with butter and flour.
First, we coat the empty pan with butter. Then we add parchment paper and grease it with butter, too. Then we sprinkle flour over the greased paper. Shake and rotate until the entire surface is dusted and then dump the excess flour.
If you have baking spray, you don’t have to go through the whole flour and butter greasing.
4. Is aluminum foil a substitute for silicone baking mats?
I recently wrote an article talking about the best alternatives to aluminum foil. If you want to know about that, check out that article because it’s an in-depth guide.
However, let’s see why I don’t recommend aluminum foil as one of the best substitutes for a silicone baking mat.
The most important thing is that aluminum foil is not non-stick. Parchment paper and silicone baking mats are perfect for baking and roasting because they’re non-stick. Aluminum foil isn’t.
So, if you’re using aluminum foil to line your pan or baking sheet, you still have to additionally grease the tin foil, otherwise the food will stick to it.
Thus, aluminum foil doesn’t work at all as a substitute for silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Best Silicone Baking Mats
If you ever decide that silicone baking mats are a good investment for your kitchen, then let’s talk about which we can buy.
I should first mention that Silpat is the best brand on the market. They have a wide array of products made of silicone, including molds for baking a variety of products.
Silpat Premium Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat
We get to choose from different sizes: half sheet, medium, ¾ sheet, cookie size, and toaster oven size. Thus, it works for different ovens, which is awesome.
With the help of the Silpat Premium Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat we can turn any pan into a non-stick surface and save time cleaning up.
The mats are also freezer, microwave and oven-safe.
They can be used at temperatures varying from -40 degrees F to 500 degrees F. That’s a wide range.
On the other hand, parchment paper is usually heat resistant up to 400-450 degrees F.
The Silpat Premium Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat is made of fiberglass mesh and the highest quality food grade silicone.
That means that it provides consistent heat distribution and it promotes even baking and browning.
Other products we can choose are: Silpat Perfect Cookie Baking Mat and Silpat Macaron Baking Mat.
We also have the option to choose round mats: Silpat Perfect Pizza Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat, 12″, Silpat Round 8 Inch Baking Mat.
In the end, whether you choose to buy a mat or you end up using some of the best substitutes for a silicone baking mat, both options can work very well.
