A muffin pan is one of those baking tools you should thoroughly research before purchasing. Unlike cake pans or brownie pans, the small cavities in muffin pans mean shorter baking times, quicker heating, and less room for error. Choosing a muffin pan with even heat distribution and balanced heat reactivity will help you achieve tender, fully cooked foods — whether it’s muffins and cupcakes or other muffin pan recipes.
To find the muffin pans that yield the best results, I tested eight models from expert bakeware manufacturers, including Fat Daddio’s, Great Jones, Nordic Ware, and more. After running each tin through the gauntlet, I found that the best muffin pans baked foods until they had crispy exteriors, moist interiors, and very little left to clean on the pan. Plus, they had helpful accessories and designs to make handling easier. Read on to see which pans stood out. The results may surprise you.
The Great Jones Stud Muffin is remarkably designed. This muffin pan’s nonstick ceramic coating is dual-layered and highly effective. It even coats the crevice between the platform (the flat portion of the pan) and the cavities, preventing food particles and moisture from getting stuck in between. This design feature made releasing muffins and cleaning the pan easier than all the others I tested.
The Stud Muffin has wire-reinforced rims and lengthy ends that are easy to grab with oven mitts. Like magic, this pan baked both blueberry muffins and mashed potato bites with dark, crispy crusts and moist interiors. The cavities have a goldilocks width, sized perfectly for baking with or without cupcake liners. The only test this muffin pan passed without full marks was the hard-boiled egg test, since the egg whites did not release from their shells as cleanly as with other pans. Otherwise, this is an outstanding muffin pan, and we like that it comes in two bright colorways, blueberry and raspberry, to set it apart from other bakeware.
Materials: Aluminized steel and nonstick ceramic coating | Dimensions: 15.25 x 11 x 1.25 inches | Maximum Temperature: 450°F | Dishwasher-safe: Yes, hand-wash recommended
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I was gobsmacked when I saw the price of OXO’s muffin pan after testing it. It’s the second least expensive I tested, which is surprising considering its excellent performance. The OXO’s unique feature is the position of its cavities: They sit slightly below the platform, rather than curving over it, giving muffins room to expand. The space between cavities is substantial, as is the almost 2 inches of handling room at each end. The overall construction weighs more than twice the weight of some others I tested, and it has sturdy rolled rims to prevent warping.
Despite this muffin pan’s heavy build, the cavities are surprisingly narrow. Cupcake liners fit tightly into the cavities, creating relatively petite cupcakes. When I baked muffins directly in the pan, the muffin bottoms were small, although the muffin tops had plenty of room to rise. Compared to the Great Jones model, the OXO was a close second in baking performance. Browning was almost as even, but there were tiny yet noticeable spots where the browning was less consistent than with the Great Jones pan. This muffin pan’s notable drawback is the crevices between cavities and the platform, which I had to clear of food bits using a toothpick. But I would happily continue to do so for a muffin pan of this caliber at its impressively low price.
Materials: Aluminized steel and nonstick ceramic coating | Dimensions: 16.96 x 11.9 x 1.65 inches | Maximum Temperature: 450°F | Dishwasher-safe: No
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Not everyone wants to make a dozen muffins or cupcakes. When six or fewer is enough, the Lodge cast iron muffin pan is a sound choice. Like all of our favorite cast iron kitchenware, this muffin pan requires proper reseasoning. However, it’s a continuous mold with no need for toothpicking crevices. It’s easy to carry, due to its small size, and it’s the only muffin pan I tested that has actual handles.
This pan yielded muffins that had a tight crumb and tall rise. It also baked “hard-boiled” eggs the best of any pan — each egg was fully cooked and noticeably easier to peel. If you can get past the relatively expensive price tag, this is a lifetime purchase that fits seamlessly into a small-batch baker’s kitchen.
Materials: Cast iron | Dimensions: 12.69 x 7.06 x 1.56 inches | Maximum Temperature: 650°F | Dishwasher-safe: No
How I Tested Muffin Pans
I found the best muffin pans after rigorously testing eight top-rated models. For this test, we included muffin pans made of various materials, in different sizes, and from a diverse group of manufacturers. I evaluated each pan in a few ways:
- Muffin test: I started by baking the same blueberry muffin recipe in each pan to observe differences in browning, moisture, and rise. I noted any occurrences of burning, too much spread, underbaking, or any other issues.
- Versatility test: I paired pans of similar performance in the muffin test together to gauge their performance in other areas. In this test, I used each muffin pan to bake foods other than muffins, including lined and unlined cupcakes, mashed potato bites, and mini meatloaves.
- Hard-boiled egg test: I “hard-boiled” eggs in every pan to test for even cooking between cavities and heat conductivity over time.
- Cleaning and care: I followed the manufacturer’s instructions to hand-wash all the muffin pans and noted details, such as maximum oven temperatures and suggested cleaning products. I also cleaned any dishwasher-safe muffin pans in the dishwasher, observing how they fared after each wash.
Once I completed my tests, I looked at the prices of each pan. Finally, I weighed cost against baking performance and design to determine each model’s overall value.
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Factors to Consider
Platform Design
Good muffin pans are easy to grab from the oven. Most muffin pans are built with platforms that extend on opposite sides for grabbing onto. Others have built-in handles that are easy to grip securely. Whether the pan has handles or only a platform, I found that at least an inch of handling room between the outermost cavities and the rim widthwise was plenty of clearance for transferring the pans in and out of the oven. Muffin pans with less than 1 inch of clearance were difficult to grab when hot from the oven.
The platform should also have enough clearance between the outermost cavities and the rim lengthwise. Muffin pans that lacked this space caused batter and oils to drip over the sides and onto the oven floor.
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Cavity Size
Muffin pans are typically available in three sizes: jumbo, mini, and standard. Jumbo muffin pan cavities can hold about 8 ounces of batter, and mini tins usually top off at 2 ounces. Standard muffin pans, the type I tested, have a cavity capacity between 3 to 4 fluid ounces. For standard muffin pans, cavities with less than a 3-ounce volume tend to create short, stubby muffins. Often, these smaller cavities are also wider than others, making them unaccommodating to cupcake liners.
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Cleaning and Care
To clean muffin pans, hand-washing is almost a given. Only our top pick is dishwasher-safe, but Great Jones still suggests hand-washing it. The most important thing to observe on any muffin pan is the crevice between the platform and the cavities. If moisture gets trapped there, your pan could rust over time. Stuck-on crumbs, meanwhile, might lead to a foodborne illness. Thoughtfully designed muffin pans are sealed tightly at the crevices to keep both water and food out. No matter the pan, however, you may have to use a toothpick or other pointy tool to fish crumbs out of crevices when necessary.
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Other Muffin Pans I Tested
Strong Contenders
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Silpat The Original Perfect Muffin Mold ($65 at Amazon)
Serious bakers will love this muffin mold for its effortless nonstick design and heat-reactive baking environment. Yet, it may be expensive for the average home baker, demand temperature and time adjustments, or require extra purchases like a cookie sheet or perforated pan.
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Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Muffin Pan ($40 at Williams Sonoma)
This lightweight pan performed fairly well in all tests, but its heat reactivity was lighter than others, resulting in less consistent bakes.
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USA Pan Bakeware 12-Well Muffin Pan ($32 at Amazon)
Nothing sticks to this muffin pan, and it’s a cinch to clean. It bakes foods very slowly, however, which is great to avoid burning, but not so great for following recipes.
What Didn’t Make the List
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Nordic Ware Brilliant Muffin Pan ($24 at Amazon)
Nordic Ware’s newest muffin pan has pure aluminum cavities, steel rims, and a nonstick coating. It didn’t end up on our list because the pan was too compact, making it hard to hold, and the aluminum cavities are fragile enough to bend at the push of a finger.
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Fat Daddio’s Anodized Aluminum Standard Muffin Pan ($26 at Amazon)
Fat Daddio’s designed a pan that bakes muffins with an evenly browned crust. I found the cavities too wide, however, and the amount of sticking, even after using baking spray, too inconvenient compared to the nonstick models. If you want a relatively inexpensive muffin pan and only plan to use liners, or grease and flour, this muffin pan may still be useful for you.
Our Expertise
Dillon Evans is a Food & Wine Update Writer, certified cake decorator, and lifelong home baker. He has experience testing many kitchen products, including bundt pans, cake decorating tools, and cake stands. In writing this roundup, he performed product research to help select muffin pans to test and used his years of cake-decorating and baking experience to evaluate each product. The first dessert Dillon ever baked was a batch of muffins, and he accidentally swapped salt for sugar.
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