Ha! I was shopping with my mom and looking for one of these and she couldn't quite figure out what I was getting at. (I kept saying "like a silpat, but just for the messing with the dough, not for putting in the oven." Sometimes I'm verbally ineffective.) Finally I remembered that my grandmother had one and explained that she used to roll the dough for empire biscuits on it. Mom promptly remembered, and indicated that she still had it and had never used it. She gave me that one; god I love my packrat mom!

wow. totally used to have that child's one when i was little. of course, back then it was used for play doh.

My Mom had a similar tool only it was cloth and she stored it in the freezer. It became saturated with floury goodness (which I've no idea whether is safe, purely nostalgic in my mind) so the dough didn't stick, but cleanup was easy. Anyone know if those are still around?

I too inherited one from my grandmother, along with a plastic rolling pin that is supposed to be filled with ice water, to keep pie crusts chilled while rolling. I didn't like the pastry mat because even with a generous dusting of flour, the mat would slide around or come off the table while I was rolling. Also I got it too close to something hot, and a corner of it melted.

This is probably the type of Anglo-Saxon obsession with perfect measurements that the French would find ridiculous...

My Mom had one of the plastic mats too. If you slightly dampened the counter, it stayed firmly in place. Since we ate fresh baked pies at least once a week, they were helpful...mostly for quick cleanup and to lift the pie crust onto the rolling pin for easy transfer into the pie plate.

I use a silpat pastry mat (also not the kind for using in the oven). It works fine and stores wrapped around my rolling pin.