I saw them at my local BJ's too. I was tempted but I have such a lot of assorted cookie sheets already I didn't get them. Who knows I may give into temptation next time I go there. I avoid going because I want to buy everything I see! I just got their Cast aluminum fountain for my patio and hope to get it assembled this weekend. I am hoping it will last longer than the resin ones which never last more then a few years for me. Joann

1. Have you checked your oven temperature with an oven thermometer? That's how you KNOW when your oven reaches the correct temperature for baking - not according to any certain amount of time or a magic pre-heat beep from the oven. Many ovens are out of calibration. Just because the knob or digital read-out says 350F, doesn't necessarily MEAN that's the actual temperature. You need to check the temperature with the oven thermometer where the baking is going to be done (such as the middle rack in the middle of the oven). In some ovens the temperature can differ from one rack to another, as well as from the front of the oven to the back. Baking muffins in an oven that is too hot will create asymmetrically shaped muffins. If the oven temperature is too cool, the muffins will be heavy and not rise correctly. Most muffins bake at 350°-400°F. Those temperatures vary according to the recipe and the type of batter used. 2. If the silicone muffin pans aren't working for you, then I'd suggest using standard metal pans. If you don't like the clean-up, use paper or foil muffin papers to line the muffin pans (metal OR silicone). Did you spray your muffin pan with PAM or other vegetable spray? That can discolor silicone (as well as metal pans), especially any over-spray on the surface top of the pan. I avoid PAM for spraying ANY type of pan - it's just nasty, gunky, stuff that builds up on the surface and is difficult to remove. Did you place the silicone muffin pan on a flat surface (a cookie sheet) during baking? There are different finishes on different brands of silicone bakeware, and some work better than others. 3. How did you mix your muffins? Only mix muffins until the dry ingredients are almost completely incorporated (even a small amount of dry ingreients still visible is okay - over-mixing ISN'T okay). DO NOT use an electric mixer because that results in too much gluten development and poor quality muffins. A wooden spoon or spatula will work fine, even a dinner fork is a good choice for mixing quick batters. A Danish Dough Whisk is actually one of the best investments for hand mixing (yeast breads, quick breads of all kinds, etc.). Your problem may partially be your mixing technique, oven temperature, as well as the pan. Wait to mix and pan muffin batter AFTER the oven has completed pre-heating. You never want the batter to be waiting for the oven to heat (that goes for all batters that have chemical leavening - soda/baking powder - in them.) Due to the type of leavening (baking powder), you need to quickly mix, pan, and get it into a hot oven to get maximum lift out of the leavening. Baking powder reacts twice, once when it is mixed with the liquid ingredients, and again when it hits the hot oven. It will lose it's UMPH the longer it sits waiting for the oven to pre-heat. 4. Normally, a bread machine only needs "babysitting" for the first 10 minutes or so of mixing/kneading until you are sure the dough has the correct hydration. You have to do that with ANY bread making technique, not just bread machines. I use a bread machine for nearly all my yeast breads anymore (dough only). It does a better job than either by-hand or stand mixers. King Arthur Test Kitchen uses Zojurishi BM for all their bread dough making for just those reasons. Patience is still a virtue, even in this ADD/ADHD world where people choose baby carrots so they don't have to peel and chop whole carrots, salad in a bag, instead of choosing the greens, washing and preparing them, and a whole generation who only "cook" using a microwave. Slow cooking is a lost art. -Grainlady

This post made me smile because I have a lot of bakeware too. Cookie sheets and muffin pans go into a 12" wide base cab along with cutting boards: Most of my bakeware goes into the 36" wide base cab with pullouts at the far left side of this photo: And my serveware (including square/rectangular baking pans, lasagna pans, etc) goes into the cabinets above and below the MW: Also FWIW, I put in a baking center at the end of the island closest to the range (it doesn't really show in these pix) -- it's just a base cab lowered 4" to provide a comfortable height for rolling out dough and such. It's wonderful for a hardcore baker!

I don't ever remember my mother making bread....but my father did. Not often and when he did it was with much flourishing and lots of praise from all present. My paternal grandmother baked bread fairly often in my mempry...and her mother in law ( my grandfather's mother) baked bread almost daily I recall. She ran a boarding house, so likely my recollection is accurate. My father taught me the basic kneading motion...once you learn, you never forget. I made bread often when I was pregnant for the first child. In those days you had to quit work at 3 months. amd we only had one car and my husband needed that, and it was winter....so I baked. I only had 2 cookbooks, so I pretty well baked my way thought Fanny Farmer. I remember going down to the shore when my daughter was 18 months, and I had to stay home while she napped and everyone else went to the beach, so I made bread... I had found some yeast in the cupboard and I had flour salt and milk....and no cook book....so I winged it....and it was wonderful! I had no bread pan, not even a cookie sheet, so I baked the bread on an upside down 9 by 12 cake pan! That made me realize that in home made bread, perfection is nothing when compared with the smell of bread fresh from the oven. I have made under baked bread, over baked bread, forgotten the salt ( just add extra butter when youe at it!) and forgotten to add the yeast until I realized that it didn't rise.....so I mixed the dry yeast into the dough, added a little more water to make it easy to knead and a bit more flour....so it wouldn't be sticky....and you would never know. It's really really hard to ruin bread. I repeat, just do it....you might waste $10 worth of ingredients and 4 or 5 hours of your time if you have about 4 to 6 failures in a row....but if you had gone to some cooking class, you would have spent more $$ and spent more time and learned 1/2 as much. Just do it! Linda C