How To Baking – Muffins Tins- Which One Produces The Biggest Muffins?
Who doesn’t love a delicious, big topped muffin! Do you know which muffins tins are best to use?
Question: Which muffins tins and liners would you use to create the BIGGEST muffins that rise the highest and require the LEAST amount of cleanup?
My Muffin Tins Test
In a never ending attempt to create tantalizing, terrific healthy muffins using the least amount of time and required cleanup, I wanted to do a test to see if the type of muffin tins used affect how high the muffins rise?
A. Silicone muffin tins
B. Paper muffin liners
C. Metal muffin tins sprayed with a non-stick oil
In the excellent and comprehensive “how to baking book” called About Professional Baking by Gail D. Sokol, on page 290 explains that muffins will rise higher when using oiled muffin tins (nonstick cooking spray or greased), versus using liners. He also states that muffins will also be larger and more substantial in a metal muffin tin, because the liner takes up room, then those that use a liner. Interesting……
My first thought was….”oh PLEASEEEEE say it isn’t so!” There is NOTHING better than lining your muffin tins with paper liners and then having “seconds of cleanup” as you pop each one out of your perfectly cleaned pan. There is no scrubbing each individual muffin container; and the whole process is just so EASY!
So to test this theory, I made two different types of whole grain muffins using three different types of muffin tins. I was hoping the results would come back showing me that paper liners were the best.
Amazon Basics Nonstick Round Muffin Baking Pan
Salient Features
I was currently testing two recipes; a pear muffin recipe and a lemon muffin recipe that I had been working on. I filled each muffin tin 2/3 high with the same batter and cooked it in the same pan.
The Three Different Muffin Tin Approaches I Used:
- Silicone muffin tins (The bright colored ones you see in the picture)
- Paper liners (The no mess, no fuss approach)
- Used an olive oil non-stick spray directly on the pan and did not use any muffin liners.
Results of The Muffin Tins Test?
Sadly, the results came back just Gail D. Sokol said it would.
- The best performing, rock star muffins where the ones that used NO muffin tin liners and were just sprayed with olive oil right in the pan. BUMMER, there goes my 2 seconds of clean up was my first thought.
- I also noticed that the muffin tins that were silicone or paper left lines on the muffins, and were quite a bit smaller than the ones sprayed with olive oil.
- The muffins that used NO muffin tin liners were not only higher, but they were bigger. (I think this is because the silicone liners and the paper liners are slightly smaller than the pan.)
Conclusion:
Happily baking with paper liners and NO cleanup is harder for me to do now, when I know how much prettier, bigger and how much more my healthy muffins will rise using NO liner whatsoever, just good old fashioned muffin tins.
With this new found knowledge, I have converted to only using greased muffin tins when making muffins. It really isn’t all that bad when you use a non-stick spray. Cleanup still only took a few minutes and my family is sure enjoying having BIGGER topped muffins that taste great.
Happy muffin making!
QUESTIONS FOR YOU: Have you used other types of muffin tins where you have gotten excellent results? I would like to try silicone muffin tins, versus silicone muffin liners. Has anyone tried these? Share your results below in the comment section. Join the conversation of living healthy! Don’t forget to Click Here to Like Living Healthy Mom On Facebook where we discuss EVERYTHING about heating eating, living and baking. Also, if you find interested health articles that you love promoting healthy kids, and healthy eating feel free to share them on Facebook.