Palmer Large Ravioli Mold

Used this mold to make 120 raviolis yesterday. I am really happy with it. I did not have any problems with an oily coating on the mold, metal splinters, discoloration or any other issue mentioned in other reviews.It does a really good job of sealing the edges of the raviolis but as others have said, it does not separate the raviolis from one another. After laying on the top sheet of dough and rolling it with a rolling pin (on a slight angle) you tap the sheet of 10 raviolis out and then need to cut them apart. Not a big deal. The ravs come out easily as long as you dust the mold with flour before laying down the first sheet. Also dust the bottom of the insert plate so it doesn’t stick to the dough. It’s dough, things stick to it. Use flour. The only “problem” I had was getting the correct amount of filling so that the ravs were filled but not overflowing when the top sheet of dough was put on and rolled. A ravioli stamp is much more forgiving. Alarge pastry bag with a large tip worked great. Much easier and quicker than using a spoon and made for nice plump raviolis. Rather than laying the top sheet of dough on the entire mold at once, I found that starting on one end and laying it down didn’t trap any air.

I am new to Ravioli making but this pan is perfect. At first I wasn't sure whether the dough went over the metal round wells, so I called the Palmer company and a very nice woman walked me through the steps. The Box came with a nice 12 page book of recipies for various types of ravioli fillings, dough, periogi fillings, etc as this company also makes Pizzell and Waffle irons. It also came with instructions as well. The metal round form is actually used to make the impressions in the dough after you have layed your dough over the square piece form. You can use the round well form to hold/or measure your filling. Then another piece of dough is placed over the square form and you take a rolling pin to press this dough over the ridged square form. The individual pieces were well formed and could easily be pushed out since you can push from beneith unlike other raviolli forms where you have to peel them away from the form. I also lightly floured the square form prior to placing the dough. I think other people who reported discoloration of the metal may have put in in the dish washer which can cause some oxidation of the metal. The company recommended that I hand wash it, which is generally what I do with these types of baking pieces. I would also highly recommend the Kitchenaid attachment for dough flattening and the spaghetti cutters (3 pack) if you have the stand mixer which is how I prepared my semolini dough for the raviolli, but this is another review. It makes 10 ravioli and my family likes the bigger size pieces with good fillings rather than the smaller ravioli, but this is a personal preference. May be looking for the same form but one that allows me to make a larger quantity with one pressing since I like to freeze them as well as serve fresh. I am very pleased with this purchase and the customer support from the Palmer Company.

Picking over the different ravioli forms made me think that none of them work. This, however, does work as it should. I haven't had the issues others have, but that's because I read the comments before using it, which some people obviously did not do. I haven't had any dough stick to the form because I sprayed it with cooking spray first. Works better and a heck of a lot less messy than throwing flour all over the counter. I also used the rolling pin at a 45 degree angle, then turned it to the opposite angle, which works perfectly for separating them. The one star deduction is for the width of the form, it is obviously sized for dough coming off a pasta maker that has been rolled to exactly the width of the machine. Dough that is a little bit narrower than the machine puts out is just a little too narrow to completely cover the form. I'm not good enough yet to get sheets that are exactly the width of the machine so that's my fault, but if the form was 1/2 inch narrower it would be much easier to use with a pasta machine. Also the suggestion to poke a hole in each ravioli is ridiculous, all that does is allow water to get right in and make the filling soggy and mushy. If you use it correctly there won't be enough air inside them to make them burst when boiling them.

It makes great raviolis, it really works well but there are some tricks to using it successfully. The product works great but the instructions that come with it needs to be more detailed and explicit. By reading the product reviews in Amazon will be the only way you're going to get this to work properly. For example, I too use the KitchenAid pasta roller which turns out pasta sheets just shy of the width of the ravioli maker so be prepared to hand stretch the dough a bit. Next tip, before pressing the plate with the bumps for the cheese pockets into the bottom sheet, you'll want to gently press the dough down all around the edges on to the mold to hold it in place to prevent pulling the edges of the sheet in when you press the mold in place. You'll want to also lightly flour the mold to stop the dough from sticking. After you put the second sheet on you need to hold the rolling pin on an 45 degree angle, not flat to trim off all the edges. then after you roll the pin flat across all the joints you'll still have to take a knife to the seams to separate the raviolis before turning it over. When you go to remove the ravioli, don't bang it. Gently press the Ravioli out with your fingers because if they're still connected on the seams you can end up with ripped raviolis. Like any other device it just takes some playing to learn how to make it work properly but once you figure it out you'll be cranking out professional looking raviolis