Cooking with silicone

Jeff and Anne on s/v C'est la Vie was talking the other day about the virtues of using silicone cupcake cups for baking on board, and that got me to thinking...

I decided I really wanted some muffins. Craving them infact. Ever since we were in titusville and passed a bakery. I almost got some scones at the farmers market but restrained myself as I have all that aboard. I just need to get over it and do it myself, kindof. To keep my sprirts up first time baking on this trip I bought a mix. I am not certain if my plan will work but I purchased silicone baking cups and I am going to use them instead of a muffin tin. I am sure many people have used these and have been successful. My worry, will they really release so that I don't have to use my precious fresh water to clean them. Can I use the salt water to wash them and the a fresh water dunk? Will it be perfectly easy and then I will be forced to enjoy muffins all the time??? The horrors

I decided today was the day to make the lemon poppyseed muffins. If these work out I have ripe bananas for tomorrow to make into tasty treats!

So, I don't carry eggs aboard but I do carry yogurt so I will sub yogurt and a bit of ripe banana for eggs. I don't carry milk but I do have powdered buttermilk and powdered skim milk. I also carry rice milk but have not found that I like using that for baking.

Also, I don't have the box the mix came in. Why?? Well I HATE cockroaches and they are attracted to the glue on cardboard boxes. We remove packaging material asap when we transfer food on board. I do not want bugs on my ship! 

The most difficult things so far has been baking heeled over and waiting for the oven to get to temperature. We are sailing right now and thank goodness for a gimbled stove! I have a nagging feeling, guilt maybe? I feel like I am wasting resources waiting for the stove to heat up. I am just using the propane without any net result. Oh well C'est la Vie.

The recipie called for 425 for 15-20 minutes after 10 min I turned off the propane to the oven and will check it at 15 and then again if I need to in 20. There are not any eggs so if they are not fully cooked no harm will come to us. The recipie also says to cool 5 min before removing from tin. I wonder if I follow that for my silicone cups...

Yes. Cool them and then wow! they come out with nary a crumb on the cup! I am so excited!!

But there are many more silicone cooking containers and utensils available... all of which stand high heat and should all be a snap to clean up. Here are some examples:

• Cupcake cups
• Muffin pan
• Cake pan
• Bundt pan
• Cookie sheet liner
• There are even entire sets available

And all of these items share the virtues above.  Do a search yourself... I think Jeff and Anne have done us all a favor by pointing this out.