This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to what people in the food industry are obsessed with eating, drinking, and buying right now.
I’ve had my Sasa Demarle Silpat Roul’pat for over 15 years and would never consider rolling out pie dough without it. Mine was given to me by my boss and mentor, Gina DePalma, at my first professional pastry job at Babbo in 2005. And after years of working in pastry kitchens and baking at home, I’ve found that it’s the superior nonstick rolling surface, better than anything I’ve rolled dough on. And that includes marble, which is beautiful, but actually needs to be chilled for the best results.
Silicone pastry mats are excellent nonstick work surfaces. Dough that would normally require a lot of flour to prevent sticking, suddenly does not. The dough will slide and turn and roll easily. It works for literally everything—cookies, pie dough, babka dough, Danishes. If it’s dough and you roll it, then you can count on me to pull out the Roul’pat. I also like that the bottom of the mat is not coated so it does not slip around on your counter or table. Only the dough moves on a Roul’pat.
Silicone can also withstand high temperatures, so it’s good to bake on too, as those of you with Silpats already know. But I use my Roul’pat only for rolling dough because of its large surface area. The one thing I don’t do with a Roul’pat is cut on it, because if I were to accidentally cut through the mat, it would no longer be food-safe. If I need to trim or cut, I move the pastry onto a piece of parchment paper, cutting board, or directly onto the underlying work surface.
So my advice to those of you looking to cut down on baking stress at home is to roll out your dough on a Roul’pat and save the marble for your beautiful photos after the bake.
Jumbo Silpat Roul'pat
Melissa Weller is a professional baker based in New York City and the author of ‘A Good Bake.’
