Portable and Delicious: 100 Healthy Muffin Tin Recipes for Every Meal (2024)

FAQs

What can I use a muffin tin for? ›

🔖 It creates steam and helps promote even baking, creating that bakery style muffin top. The steam will keep muffins from spilling over the sides while baking. It will keep the tin from warping during baking.

Muffin pans are used for holding batters or mixes while they bake in the oven. Muffin pans are usually made to make muffins and cupcakes. Other uses for muffin pans include homemade peanut butter cups, baked egg cups, or even some types of no-bake desserts. Muffin pan filled with freshly baked chocolate cupcakes.

While it may be tempting to fill each muffin cup to the rim, be sure to give the batter enough room to expand while it bakes. Fill each muffin cup no more than two-thirds to three-fourths full, or as directed in the recipe. This will keep the muffins from spilling over the sides as they bake.

The idea behind this tip is that if you sprinkle some uncooked rice in the bottom of the muffin wells, the rice will absorb the grease that comes out of the muffins or cupcakes while they're baking. What you're left with are pretty, grease-free liners.

Muffin pans and cupcake pans are exactly the same.

However, in yet another difference between cupcakes and muffins, cupcakes always use liners and muffins are often baked without liners.

In a muffin mix that calls for water, can I substitute milk? A. We don't recommend using milk instead of water because the milk can make holes in the paper liners or the sides of the muffins.

Preheating: Always place the muffin tins in a preheated oven. Preheating the oven will make the batter less dense and the heat will make the batter puff up to have a nice dome top. The oven temperature must be correctly set to ensure that the muffins are baked evenly from top to bottom.

For this reason, a steel core coated with aluminum (AKA "aluminized steel") is a popular choice. There are also pans made entirely of silicone, which is completely nonstick and can go from oven to fridge or freezer. However, silicone can't conduct heat as well as metal.

Making Cupcakes Without Liners

While sticking is a bit of a risk, you can always spray down your muffin pan and bake the cupcakes as normal. (Baker's Joy is a good product to consider using.) Make sure to evenly coat each and every cup, and to coat not only the base but also the sides of the cup. But don't over do it!

What are alternatives to cupcake pans? ›

Method 1: Paper cupcake liners can work without a cupcake tray, especially if you are careful not to overfill the liners. You can then place them in a snug pan that will keep 5-6 paper liners upright.

Fill your cupcake cases 2/3 full – around 3 tablespoons – or one decent ice scream scoop. Avoid filling your cupcake cases with too much batter as they will not bake properly and might overflow when they rise.

Ideal Muffin Cooking Temperature

That being said, the standard oven temperature for baking desserts like quick breads and muffins is commonly set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Setting your oven to this temperature will almost always produce a well-cooked muffin recipe.

A jumbo muffin pan is exactly what it sounds like: a big sister to the standard tin, making six oversized muffins instead of 12 regular ones. Each cup in a jumbo pan is roughly 2½ times the size of a basic muffin cup, which makes the tool significantly more flexible and versatile.

Top off your muffin tray with water and freeze it for quick access to large ice cubes. These cubes are ideal for keeping punch bowls and other large containers colder for longer.

If you have cupcake liners, all you need to do is create stronger liners by stacking them on top of one another before placing them in a regular baking tray. If you don't have liners, you can make your own using square pieces of parchment paper and a cup.