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.

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.

Use a steamer

Steaming is a great way to add moisture to past-their-prime muffins. And according to a TikTok user, you should also be steaming your muffins when you bake them since the hot air and steam allow more time for the centers to rise, resulting in tender and airy muffins.

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!

How do you make muffins rise higher? ›

Start the oven on high

Bake your muffins at 400°F for the first 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to the more standard 350°F for the remainder of the bake time. This method sparks the leavening agents (especially baking powder) in the batter to react quicker, creating that gorgeously risen top.

When the cell structure doesn't set, the air spaces created by the leavening in the recipe collapses, causing the muffin to sink. Oven temperatures vary over time. To insure the correct temperature each time you bake, always use an oven thermometer. The oven temperature in the recipe may not have been hot enough.

With recipes that don't have heavy or juicy add-ins, soggy bottoms are often caused by leaving muffins to cool in their pans for too long. This is problematic, as it traps steam. When baked goods come out of the oven they're naturally very hot, and internal steam needs to escape while they cool.

For baking you need to use a product that is a minimum of 70% fat. Spreads with less fat contain more water, resulting in dry, less tender muffins. Remember that one stick of butter or margarine is equal to 1/2 cup and not 1 cup. If you confused the two, you will be cutting the amount of fat used by half.

Muffins baked with fresh fruits or with dry fruits like raisins will last last about 1/2 a day on the counter and about 3 days in the fridge in an airtight container.

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.