The Sticky Muffin Blues

[MelissaH]

It seems that every muffin or cupcake I bake sticks. I've used both normal size and mini-muffin pans, and find no difference. I've tried greasing the pan, and I wind up with muffin tops that pull off, leaving the body firmly glued to the pan. I've used paper liners, and while the muffins come out of the pan perfectly, I peel off the paper and a good half inch of muffin comes off with the paper. (Obviously, this is a more dire circumstance for a mini-muffin than a normal-sized one.) Am I doing something wrong? Is it (all) my recipes that are problematic?

I should note that I don't generally have any nonstick spray in the house. I wrecked many a pan with brown sticky residue. The couple of times I've tried brands that supposedly don't leave residue behind, I've never used much of the content before the propellant is gone and the aerosol no longer sprays. When I grease a pan, it's generally with Crisco and my fingers, and I usually follow it up with a light coating of flour, knocked around the pan to give a thin even layer.

What do you do to get your muffins to release cleanly?

MelissaH

[lancastermike]

I do use spray. The best is the kind with flour included. I don't use papers. You must make sure they are cool before you attempt to release them. A teaspoon can help urge them out as well

[Darienne]

I have no idea why your muffins are sticking.

I always use papers because I hate cleaning muffin pans. There's never any sticking. And there's never any muffin stuck to the papers. I have no idea why. I make several kinds of muffins.

In fact, in the last year, I have made hundreds of muffins. We've had a lot of workmen here over the year: new furnace, new septic tank, foundation dug up, re-pointed, re-parged, etc, etc, and etc, and endless renovations (Man. I HATE renovations. My DH lives to renovate.). A gazillion workmen. Twenty gazillion muffins. Feeding workmen won't save you any money, but it can mean that they will want to please you.

All best...

[Kerry Beal]

I liberally spray with Pam or some other no name pan spray - and I include the top part for muffins that will intentionally overflow the top. Before long I don't have pretty muffin tins - but I rarely have stuck muffins either.

[Kim Shook]

I also use spray, but I've discovered the secret (for me at least) by accident. I was picking at a tiny bit of overflow from a very hot (only a couple of minutes out of the oven) muffin tin. Along with the bit of overflow came the muffin it was connected to - all in one piece and hot as hell. Next time I made muffins I experimented and gingerly took them out of the tin while still hot - using a small offset spatula to assist. I've never looked back!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I use papers, and when I run out of those (as often happens) I do as Kim does - they come out of the tins whilst still screaming hot.

[SylviaLovegren]

My old Joy of Cooking instructs to take the muffins out of the tins while still hot.

[MelissaH]

OK, this is getting interesting: some people say take them out hot, others say wait till they cool. Any logic, to one or the other? And what about those of you who use papers: do you have issues with the paper taking a good layer of muffin off?

MelissaH

[Panaderia Canadiense]

OK, this is getting interesting: some people say take them out hot, others say wait till they cool. Any logic, to one or the other? And what about those of you who use papers: do you have issues with the paper taking a good layer of muffin off?

MelissaH

Argument for detinning hot: the fats that you used to grease the tin are still liquid and therefore the muffins will slip out easier.

Argument for detinning cold: the muffins have contracted as they cooled and are now no longer in contact with the tin, and will therefore slip out easier.

Argument for paper: none of the above matters, because paper won't stick to the muffin tin, greased or not. Detin the muffins when they're cool. Additionally, if your muffin recipe has adequate fat and you peel the muffins when they're cool, hardly anything will stick to the papers.

Edited to clarify what was originally a very confusing sentece....

Edited September 18, 2012 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[stuartlikesstrudel]

I was going to write that I've often had muffins that leave a bit on the paper (both my own baked ones and other peoples') but I wonder if PanCan's comment about adequate fat is relevant here - mostly when I make muffins they're the 'slightly-more-healthy' type and so perhaps haven't got enough fat.

[Genkinaonna]

I always use papers, I don't do the dishes and have unhappy dishwashers if muffin tin scrubbing is required. I generally just try to not overfill the papers, so no batter is in contact with the tin once it rises, and pop them out onto a cooling rack as soon as the tin's cool enough to pick up.

[YWalker]

If I'm not using muffin papers, I normally spray the pan with Pam. I leave them in the pan for about 5-10 minutes or so before removing. If they look as if they're going to stick to the pan (which is especially likely in the muffins I make with fruit chunks in them), I take a toothpick and trace around the circle to loosen any stuck spots before inverting the pan to remove them. If the muffin tops overshot the top of the muffin wells and look as if that is going to stick them to the pan, you can also use the toothpick to loosen underneath that.

I don't like to let muffins in papers cool completely within the pan, as I feel like that encourages moisture to condense on the papers, which is just gross.

Edited September 19, 2012 by YWalker (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I was going to write that I've often had muffins that leave a bit on the paper (both my own baked ones and other peoples') but I wonder if PanCan's comment about adequate fat is relevant here - mostly when I make muffins they're the 'slightly-more-healthy' type and so perhaps haven't got enough fat.

Life is short. Bring on the butter!

[Darienne]

Life is short. Bring on the butter!

Ditto for me. I have yet to find a 'low calorie, low fat, no fat, etc, etc,' goodie which truly tastes good.

[Kim Shook]

Made corn muffins last night and here is a picture showing the bottom of one using the method I described above – sprayed with Pam and removed from pan when still screaming hot:

Not missing a crumb!

[Mjx]

I was going to write that I've often had muffins that leave a bit on the paper (both my own baked ones and other peoples') but I wonder if PanCan's comment about adequate fat is relevant here - mostly when I make muffins they're the 'slightly-more-healthy' type and so perhaps haven't got enough fat.

Life is short. Bring on the butter!

Qualifier: If we're talking real (not fluffy, not sweet) corn bread corn muffins, make that bacon fat!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Fair enough. But bring on the real fats, the animal based ones. Margarine is an abomination.

[MelissaH]

The last batch of muffins I did was a King Arthur Flour recipe, for baked pumpkin "doughnuts". I don't have a doughnut pan, so I baked mine in papers inside muffin tins, and removed them from the pan hot (as I always do when I use papers). I was also careful about being neat when I portioned the batter with a small disher into the paper-lined wells. I got 24 mini-muffins and six regular size muffins from one recipe of batter. I wasn't overly impressed with the muffins themselves—I found them to be heavy—but they did, in fact, release cleanly from the papers this time, and had a reasonable crust inside the paper.

Time to move on to another kind of muffin, and see what happens, I guess.

MelissaH