43 Unexpected Muffin-Tin Recipes You've Never Tried (2024)

FAQs

What can you use instead of a muffin tin? ›

You can use alternative items such as ramekins, silicone baking cups, or even a regular baking sheet lined with parchment paper to bake muffins without a muffin tray.

Take any basic batter, from brownie batter to cake batter to muffin batter, and spread it onto a parchment-lined (or well-greased) sheet pan with high edges. Bake until just set and golden on the edges, then remove from the oven and let it cool.

Allow Your Muffins to Cool

Allowing them to cool slightly in the pan before removing them will help keep them from falling apart. This being said, you only want to leave them in the pan for a short amount of time—about five minutes. Any longer, and you run the risk of your muffins going soggy as they cool off.

Once the tops are golden brown, remove the muffin tin from the oven and use the toothpick test to make sure that they are cooked all the way through. Cooling: It is very important to allow the muffins to rest in the muffin tins for approximately 5 minutes once they are removed from the oven.

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.

Is There a Difference Between a Cupcake Pan and a Muffin Pan? What is this? 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.

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.

Though you may notice a slight difference in texture, you can definitely substitute water for milk when preparing our muffin mixes!

What is the secret to moist muffins? ›

Chilling your muffin batter overnight in the fridge is the BEST thing you can do for amazing muffins. It makes them more moist, tender, and TALLER! It's very similar to chilling cookie dough, which if you know me you know I'm obsessed with chilling cookie dough. Think of it like marinating.

Muffins are great, but it's frustrating when they get stuck in the pan. The trick to preventing muffins from sticking to the muffin tins is to grease each muffin cup thoroughly.

Rest the Muffin Batter

The first, most hands-off way to make your muffins pop (literally) is to let the batter rest. Make the batter, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. If you're short on time, just 30 minutes can make a difference.

If you'd prefer to put them in a container, you can (once fully cooled) put them into an airtight container and leave at room temperature for up to 24 hours. If muffins are left exposed, the moisture starts to leak from them and they dry out.

Do Muffins Have to Be Refrigerated? It isn't necessary to refrigerate fresh muffins. With the exception of homemade muffins that contain meat or cheese, you'll almost never want to refrigerate muffins, since freshly baked muffins will get rapidly dried out in the cooler temperatures of your fridge.

Did you know you could make a baking pan completely from aluminum foil? You can! The trick here is to first create an outline of the shape of the baking pan you need by folding foil to create the walls of the pan. You'll then need more foil to cover that outline with more foil to create the bottom of the pan.

Whether they're made out of ceramic, silicone, or paper, baking cups can definitely go in the oven! While ceramic baking cups can generally withstand very high temperatures, when it comes to paper baking cups, there are limits to how high the oven temperature should be.

The Basics

All you need is regular parchment paper. Cut the parchment into squares and then press them around a mold that's roughly the same size as your muffin cup — in my case, a small can of V8 juice did the job quite nicely. I like five-inch squares of parchment for regular-sized muffin cups.

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.