Baking pans

Thank you all for so much wonderful advice about baking pans ... I'd have wasted quite a bit of money without it. As it is, I'm having a hard time spending any money at all, because it's proving so hard to find good quality baking kit. There's an opening here in the UK for a really good speciality shop for everything a baker needs - online would be fine, too.

I wanted to buy ceramic coated pans, several in two sizes, and perhaps one Pampered Chef form for a change (I'm like Amanda, not too keen on washing up). And then a couple of silicone muffin forms. Some of this I haven't yet been able to source in the UK, others - well, there wasn't very much choice.

I've been shopping online and through the door ... what you see in the photograph is all I have bought, one non-stick heavy duty 2-lb loaf tin from John Lewis, just to see how it does, and a John Lewis muffin form. I don't want to sound spoilt, but I really really wanted it to be pink (making muffins and cupcakes is such a girly activity). Black was all they had.

The loaf tin seems fine. Unexciting but fine. I've cooked a couple of new breads in it, so it's hard to tell (especially as neither turned out perfectly). Today I'll bake one of my "usual" breads and see how that goes.

In the meantime, if anyone can give me a contact for a UK Pampered Chef dealer, I'd be very glad. And I'll keep looking for ceramic coatings. Oh yes, and THANK YOU Marie (no blog) for the tip about the Richard Bertinet shop for scrapers. Also courses. I think I'm going to enrol on a day course ... anyone for a bloggers day out in Bath?


PS I've just remembered that, decades ago, I had a flowerpot I used to use for baking brown bread ... perhaps I'll go back to that, it was very good, providing you obey the instruction to temper the flowerpot before you first use it for dough, otherwise the bread will never come out ... I hope you can tell that I am speaking here from experience

Baking tins - what do you recommend?

I'm looking for some advice, please. As you see, my baking tins are past their best, and I need to replace them. I bought them cheaply several years ago when baking bread was an occasional indulgence, rather than - as now - a daily delight. Technology has galloped ahead since I last shopped for bakeware, and I don't want to find I've wasted a lot of money on something everyone knows is no good.

I'd really welcome your comments on which pans work for you - and, specifically, I'd like to know what you think about those floppy (plastic?) ones that come in bright colours and are extremely tempting (but also possibly a hugely expensive mistake).

And ... does anyone know where in the UK I can buy a baker's peel, and a couple of those plastic scraper/cutters that all serious bakers seem to use?

Thanks ...