Thin Sheets That Curl and Buckle in the Oven - YUK!
I ordered 3 (2x) sets of these so that I would have a full complement of 6 cookie sheets.
When they arrived I noted that they were a bit lighter than the commercial quality cookie sheets that I had used previously but my thinking was that if they baked well that was all that counted. I always bake with an Exopat silicone mat on my sheets.
Upon the first use when they were placed in the oven the edges of the cookie sheets turned up about a quarter of an inch - an ominous sign that the sheets are too thin. The next thing I heard was the tap tap tap of sheets buckling in the oven. Lack of dimensional stability at 350 degrees F translates to poor heat conduction and burned cookie bottoms. This symphony of metal buckling courtesy of my new $15 cookie sheets.
Even with the Exopat silicone sheets on them the cookies were barely done when I decided to pull them from the oven to save the bottoms from getting burned - typical of cheap thin cookie sheets that one knows one needs to "double pan" to prevent burning. What a wonderful situation Amazon has presented me with - $90 and a garbage can full of cookie sheets.
Yes into the garbage all six sheets went - no matter how costly its even more so to live with poor quality baking implements and invent work-arounds to augment their performance. These are no better than inexpensive supermarket cookie sheets - actually they're worse - with the price-point of supermarket wares one can infer the quality that one is getting.
I used to believe brands like Calphalon stood for quality and this translated into some assurance that products bearing premium names would be of at least mezzanine quality. When I buy on the web and cannot better scrutinize the items I'm choosing I tend to favor trusted brands. As it turns out these sheets did not have the Calphalon name on them anywhere - Calphalon apparently made the decision to buy up a bunch of cheap -Made in China- cookie sheets and sell them at a premium price by leveraging the Calphalon brand.
With the holiday baking season upon us what do I plan to replace them with? The Vollrath cookie sheets (not non-stick but I use silicone mats so do I care?) recommended in Cooks Illustrated magazine. They're in stock at Chef Resource - their price everywhere is $19 but most vendors are out of them. They're due to arrive via UPS day after tomorrow - Tuesday 10/17. Holiday baking is much too sacred a tradition to be left in the hands of Calphalon apparently.
If I could give them no stars or provide an icon of 6 sheets going into the trash I would so rate them.
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