With their highly-durable, non-stick surface, even heat distribution, and easy cleanup, silicone baking mats are a baker’s best friend. They’re perfect for baking homemade desserts, like our Italian meringue macarons, but they’re also great for making baked savory dishes, like our sausage balls with cream cheese. Despite their many advantages, silicone baking mats can be a challenge to store properly. After all, they’re incredibly floppy and just about impossible to store vertically on their own. But what if there was a simple way to securely store your silicone baking mats using household items you likely were going to throw away?
The solution to this storage conundrum lies in the humble toilet paper roll. After using your silicone baking mats, simply roll them up and place them inside an empty and clean toilet paper roll. This not only saves space in your pantry, as the toilet paper roll is incredibly compact, but it also keeps the silicone baking mats from unrolling, as they so often do on their own. If you don’t have any toilet paper rolls ready to go, you can also use a paper towel roll cut into small pieces, about 4 inches, to accomplish the same task.
Before storing your silicone baking mats inside the toilet paper rolls, make sure that they’re properly cleaned and free of any grease or residues. Avoid soaps that contain moisturizers or essential oils, as those can linger on your mats, making food cooked on your silicone kitchenware taste like soap.
How to organize your rolled silicone baking mats
Once you’ve rolled up your silicone baking mats and placed them inside your toilet paper tube, organizing them in your kitchen is a breeze. For easy access, you can place the rolled mats vertically in a basket on the counter. Or, since they’re so compact, you can place them in your kitchen shelves or cupboards without taking up too much of your precious storage space. Another option is to place the rolls in a drawer alongside your other go-to baking supplies like rolling pins, rubber spatulas, or parchment paper. Storing your silicone baking mats in the same place as your other baking supplies not only saves you time, but it also helps to prevent the age old problem of finding the necessary supplies when it’s time to bake.
If you have multiple silicone baking mats, you can write directly onto your toilet paper rolls to help distinguish the mat’s usage. For example, you could label the size of each baking mat, or whether the mat is primarily used for sweet or savory creations so you don’t mix unpleasant flavors. Not only that, but you can label whether or not your silicone baking mat has outlines for macarons, or if it has circular guides for dough sizes. This saves you the hassle of unrolling each baking mat to find the specific one you’re after, letting you focus on what really matters: Making delicious, homemade food!
