Swapped my silicone mats for parchment on croissants, night and day difference

I did a side by side batch last Sunday: six croissants on silicone, six on parchment, same dough and proofing. The silicone ones came out with pale, greasy bottoms while the parchment ones had that even golden crust and flaky layers. I think the silicone was trapping steam and slowing down the bottom heat. Has anyone else found this with laminated dough, or is it just my cheap oven? I'm about to throw out the mats.

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alicebarnes1d ago

Did you run the same batch on the same rack position, or were the trays swapped around? Because if the silicone mat was on a darker pan or a lower rack, that could mess with your results too. The steam thing makes sense to me though, I've heard silicone is worse for things that need a crisp bottom. What temp and bake time are you running? I'm curious if you had to drop the oven temp with the parchment to stop it from burning.