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Warm Up Part 1 – USA Pan

Each year when Autumn approaches I find myself inventing a deadline before which I refuse to turn the heat on in my house. Until that date I insist on bundling and huddling no matter how cold it gets, whatever it takes, as long as I don’t break the trust I have earned over the years with my furnace.

This is a totally arbitrary practice that disregards comfort entirely.  Yet still, I do it every year.

More and more however, I find myself trying to cheat my own self-imposed system.  I find ways of “heating” the house without heating the house.  Cooking is certainly the most delicious way to do this.

It’s funny because for most of the summer I avoid cooking inside; the thought of turning on the oven or boiling water and the resulting increase in heat and humidity is so repulsive that I simply don’t do it, and now I find myself thing “what could I bake?”  My next thought is usually “nothing.”  While I love to cook, I’m not much of a baker.  Apart from being somewhat daunted by the chemistry of it all, I don’t really have the gear and as a result my stuff always sticks to the pan and about half of what I make is edible (for the longest time, my sole sheet pan was that enameled thing with the ridges that comes with your oven, not ideal for cookies).

While a healthy dose of practice is about all that will solve my fear of mixing and measuring, I’ve found a solution for my inadequate baking vessels, hello there USA Pan.  USA Pan is the domestic line from American Pan Company, a long-time manufacturer of commercial bakeware.  These pans are truly rockin’.

I will admit, I never saw myself getting fired up about cookie sheets and loaf pans, yet here I stand.  Here’s what’s cool about them:

Awesome materials

In addition to being manufactured in the United States, these pans are made of 65% recycled steel which offers superior heat transfer, corrosion resistance and durability.

These pans are hefty.  Not heavy, but undeniably solid.  You know when you pick something up and you just get that feeling in your gut?  That from-the-reptilian brain “this is the real deal” sense.  Yeah, I got that with these pans

The non-stick coating on these pans is actually a proprietary silicone coating that is glassy in appearance, slippery to the touch and provides truly superior food release.

I baked cookies on my cookie sheet and did not grease the pan at all, when I took the cookies out of the oven they almost slid off of the sheet!  

Crazy cool design

The surface of these pans is corrugated, so it has a rib-like feel to it.  This serves to promote airflow beneath  your soon-to-be-baked deliciousness which makes cooking times and temperatures more efficient.  This design also helps in the release of the food from the pan since there is less actual food/pan contact.

Think about a corrugated metal roof and how snow flies off it.  Almost the same idea here.

Needless to say, I’m sold on these.  Plus, with the ease they add to frequent baking, I’ve been able to keep my furnace off for a few more days.

Stop by and check them out for yourself, we’ve got loaf pans, cookie sheets and cake pans to peruse.  Also, for those in the anti-gluten camp, they make a high-sided loaf pan that is just perfect for baking loaves of gluten free bread (Margaret, our gluten-free-goddess baker says so!).

Stay cozy!