How do you choose the right tart tin?

The short version: 3 things to look at when choosing a tart tin at home

If you bake a tart on a Sunday, there’s no need to wade through professional catalogues. Three criteria will do, and they come in this order.

1. The material, based on what you bake

Metal conducts heat quickly, so it gives you a well-coloured pastry and a dry base. That’s the default choice for shortcrust or puff. Silicone heats more gently, but the tart comes out without a fight — which makes it hard to beat on delicate preparations and upside-down tarts. Ceramic bakes slowly and goes straight to the table, though it’s unforgiving with a wet filling.

2. Fixed base or loose bottom

A loose-bottomed tin does one job: it lets you lift the tart out whole, without turning it over. Handy for a deep tart you serve as it is. The downside is that a liquid filling will find its way out if the pastry isn’t properly sealed. For a quiche or a loose egg-and-cream filling, a fixed base is the safer bet.

3. Diameter, depth and rim

A diameter of 240 to 280 millimetres covers the classic family tart. Depth is where it really matters. Allow 20 millimetres for a thin fruit tart, and move to 35 millimetres as soon as you fill generously or pour in a custard. As for the rim: straight sides give a clean, modern finish, while a fluted rim looks traditional and holds the pastry a little better.

What changes once you produce in batches

In production, everything above drops down the list. What counts is no longer how one tart looks, but how a mould behaves when it’s used a thousand times a week. On that basis, a mould is judged on four cost lines. Nobody looks at them when buying, and everybody lives with them afterwards.

First, set-up time — the lining — by far the biggest drain on labour. Then consistency: a rim that slumps shows up in the display counter, and a depth that varies will stop any automated packing line. Then breakages, both when lining and when turning out. And finally running costs: washing, drying and the space the moulds take up in storage.

Technical breakdown: the four cost lines everyone forgets

Family 1: the perforated stainless steel tart ring

A perforated ring is a stainless steel band with no base, covered in micro-perforations. They let moisture escape and help the heat spread evenly, which gives you pastry that stays dry and colours right out to the edge. In practice, it’s the simplest answer there is to a soggy bottom — and the reason it has replaced the solid tin in almost every professional bakery.

The rings Maé Innovation supplies are Gobel references: stainless steel, straight-sided and made in France. They withstand 300°C and are dishwasher-safe. The range runs from 80 to 300 millimetres in diameter, in two depths, 20 and 35 millimetres, which comes to twenty-four references. The Ø200 x 20 mm is €8.42 excl. VAT per unit.

In practice: which depth for which product

1. 20 mm depth for thin fruit tarts, chocolate tarts and tartlets for the display counter.
2. 35 mm depth as soon as you pour in a filling: quiches, custard tarts, deep tarts.
3. One diameter per product range, so that your wire racks, trays and packaging boxes stay standardised.

What a ring won’t do is remove the lining step — it only makes it cleaner. If lining time is your real problem, look at the fibreglass family further down.

Family 2: the metal tart tin, fixed base or loose bottom

Metal tins still earn their place in two specific cases. The first is very liquid fillings, where a solid base rules out any leak. The second is presentation formats — rectangular or square — which cut into even portions and leave fewer offcuts.

The catalogue covers round tart tins from Ø200 to Ø320, in both fixed-base and loose-bottomed versions, plus perforated versions with a fixed base. On formats, there are rectangular tins at 340 x 100 mm and 275 x 195 mm, and a 220 x 220 mm square. A tartlet tin range then covers Ø60 to Ø140.

One word of warning: a loose bottom doubles the number of parts to wash and match up. At twenty tins, nobody notices. At two hundred, it becomes a washing-up job in its own right.

There’s a baking point to keep in mind too. A solid metal tin traps moisture underneath, so it calls for more disciplined blind baking, or a moisture barrier when you fill.

Family 3: the silicone tart mould

Silicone plays a different game. It isn’t trying to dry the pastry out — it removes the turning-out problem altogether. Silmaé moulds are made from platinum-cured silicone: non-toxic, stable, odourless, non-stick, hydrophobic and sterilisable. They are also bacteriostatic, meaning bacteria don’t develop on the surface. The working range runs from -40°C to +280°C, so you can go straight from the blast freezer to the oven.

Two ranges apply directly to tarts. The first, Easy Tarte, was developed with consultant pastry chef Frédéric Bourse. The principle is simple: the filling is poured straight into the cavity, with no lining at all. Fifteen references are available, from the single 463 ml format to trays of 6, 12, 24 and 45 cavities, priced between €15.38 and €72.10 excl. VAT.

The second, Tartlet and Tatin, brings together nineteen references from Ø39 to Ø132, between €38.84 and €72.10 excl. VAT. It answers upside-down products and assemblies where turning out is the genuine sticking point.

One practical detail deserves more attention than it usually gets. Holding down to -40°C isn’t a marketing line: it’s what makes just-in-time production possible. You pour, you freeze in the mould, you turn out frozen, then you store cases ready to fill. So silicone doesn’t only save time — it lets you spread the workload across the week.

Family 4: the fibreglass tart mould

Fibreglass is the answer to high volumes. It’s a perforated glass-fibre cloth coated in food-grade silicone, made in the Touraine workshop in France. The micro-perforations spread the heat evenly, and the silicone coating means you can turn out without greasing. It holds up to +280°C.

The Instant Tarte range was developed with Pierre-Henri Roullard, Meilleur Ouvrier de France pastry chef and confectioner 2023 — one of the highest craft distinctions in France. The aim is stated plainly: do away with the ring and the tart press. The method comes down to three movements. You cut the pastry with a cutter, drop it into the cavity, then a light press with your finger is enough for it to take the shape. So not zero handling — but lining without a ring and without a machine.

“You’ll work as fast as with a tart press”

Pierre-Henri Roullard, Meilleur Ouvrier de France pastry chef and confectioner 2023, who designed the Instant Tarte range.

Fourteen references are available at €47.47 excl. VAT. Shapes cover round, fluted, boat, oblong, mini formats, tartlet and flat-based dome. The six-cavity fluted tray, for example, measures 382 x 592 mm, with each cavity at Ø180 x 30 mm. The product sheet quotes up to two hundred tart cases made in record time.

Technical breakdown: the four families side by side

Tray format: the criterion nobody checks first, and the one that blocks everything

Here’s the factor almost nobody builds into the decision, even though it governs the other three. A mould never works on its own. It travels on a tray, in a rack, through an oven, then into a blast chiller. A format that doesn’t suit your equipment costs you cavities on every bake, and adds handling on top.

Two standards dominate professional kitchens. On one side, the 600 x 400 mm bakery tray and its variants. On the other, Gastronorm GN 1/1, more common in contract catering and food manufacturing. The Silmaé and Fibermaé ranges both include GN 1/1 versions. The Instant Tarte fluted tray measures 382 x 592 mm, which fits a standard bakery rack.

The rule is simple. Pick the tray format first, then the number of cavities, and only then the diameter. Do it the other way round and you end up with half-empty trays — paying for a full oven cycle to bake half a batch.

Which mould for which volume: the decision tree

This is the summary you came for. It works in tart cases per day, because that’s the only variable that genuinely tips the choice one way or the other.

Fewer than 50 cases a day

Stay with perforated rings. At that volume the lining time is still absorbed by the team, and rings give you the best balance between baking quality and outlay. Plan for two diameters at most and one depth per product family, so you don’t fragment your stock.

50 to 300 cases a day

This is the tipping point. Hand lining becomes the bottleneck, but a tart press still can’t be justified. Multi-cavity moulds make full sense here, in fibreglass or in silicone: you move from one piece at a time to a whole tray, with no machine and no reorganisation.

More than 300 cases a day

At this stage the question isn’t the mould any more, it’s the line. Two routes exist side by side. Either you mechanise with a tart press, which means floor space, capital and a dedicated operator. Or you multiply multi-cavity trays, which stays more flexible, switches format faster and needs no maintenance. Maé Innovation quotes outputs of 200 to 5,000 pieces a day with the Instant Tarte range, and a saving of €8,000 to €25,000 against buying a press. Either way, standardise the tray format so everything moves through the same trolleys and the same chillers.

The 4 mistakes that cost real money

The first is choosing the diameter before the tray format. A mould that doesn’t sit properly on the tray costs you cavities on every bake — and margin on every service.

The second is mixing depths within the same production run. Bake 20 mm and 35 mm on the same tray and the baking times pull apart. You always end up compromising one of the two.

The third is greasing a non-stick mould. On a silicone coating, fat does nothing useful. Worse, it polymerises and leaves a tacky film, which is exactly what destroys the non-stick surface you paid for.

The fourth is judging a mould on its purchase price rather than its cost per case produced. A €47 mould that turns out two hundred cases a day doesn’t compare with an €8 one that does them one at a time.

Recommended equipment for professional tart production

FAQ: choosing a tart tin