All About Baking Pans (Cake, Sheet, Muffin)

[Marlene]

I'm off to WS for some Friday afternoon stress relief shopping. I need a bunch of new baking pans - cake, loaf etc. The question is, should I get non stick or stainless steel?

[mamster]

Neither. Get aluminum. I haven't used their loaf pans, but the all-aluminum Magic Line round cake and rectangular baking pans are by far the best I've ever used, and they're not very expensive.

[col klink]

Recently I've been registering for a helluvalot of kitchen stuff at Blood Bath & Beyond as well as Williams Sonoma and I can tell you that Blood Bath doesn't have aluminum bakeware. WS doesn't exactly have aluminum pans but after a quick search on their site, they have the pans you're looking for in "aluminized steel," or steel coated with aluminum. Has anyone tried these? How do they compare to all aluminum pans?

On a side note, I recently registered for this:

[fifi]

Go to a restaurant supply place. I finally got smart and did that. I now have very heavy aluminum 1/2 sheet and 1/4 sheet pans that perform flawlessy, don't warp in the oven, and cost about $6 apiece. Last trip there I noticed that their cake pans and such looked just as good.

[snowangel]

Recently I've been registering for a helluvalot of kitchen stuff at Blood Bath & Beyond as well as Williams Sonoma and I can tell you that Blood Bath doesn't have aluminum bakeware. WS doesn't exactly have aluminum pans but after a quick search on their site, they have the pans you're looking for in "aluminized steel," or steel coated with aluminum. Has anyone tried these? How do they compare to all aluminum pans?

On a side note, I recently registered for this:

For use as a cake pan or medieval hat?

[Schielke]

Hey! I'm-a da pope-a!!!!

[elyse]

I'm afraid of aluminum and try never to use it.

[nightscotsman]

I'm afraid of aluminum and try never to use it.

Don't be a afraid. Unless you are baking something that has acidic fruit coming in direct contact with the aluminum - like pineapple upsidedown cake - you shouldn't have any worries. And I certainly agree with mamster that heavy, light-colored aluminum is the best for bake ware, especially for cakes where you do not want a dark colored pan. Dark pans absorb heat faster and will cause cakes to have a darker, thicker crust.

For tart pans, however you do want a black steel pan, not shiny tinned steel, so the crust browns quickly.

[Marlene]

Recently I've been registering for a helluvalot of kitchen stuff at Blood Bath & Beyond as well as Williams Sonoma and I can tell you that Blood Bath doesn't have aluminum bakeware. WS doesn't exactly have aluminum pans but after a quick search on their site, they have the pans you're looking for in "aluminized steel," or steel coated with aluminum. Has anyone tried these? How do they compare to all aluminum pans?

On a side note, I recently registered for this:

I got the WS aluminized steel pans. I got a loaf pan, four mini loaf pans, an 8' square pan. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff (I love that store! ) I still need muffin tins.

[Lesley C]

For home use, go for non-stick.

Despite what anyone says about heat conductivity and the like, it's just so much less of a pain in the ass to clean. I don't like spending my Sunday mornings scraping burnt muffin bits and baked-on Pam off my muffin tins. Neither should you.

Non-stick all da way.

[elyse]

nightscotsman, are we both talking about the Alzheimer issue? My stepfather's a doctor, and other doctors we know all agree that aluminum is a scary thing.

Also, I bought some dark brown tart tins because I couldn't find black steel, and they baked no browner than silver. VERY upsetting.

[mamster]

elyse, I'd direct you to the article on aluminum in Harold McGee's The Curious Cook. The jury is still out on whether dietary aluminum contributes to Alzheimer's, but whether cookware is a significant source of dietary aluminum is well understood: it isn't.

I'd agree with the nonstick recommendation for muffin tins. I've never had something stick to a Magic Line cake pan that wasn't easy to get off, and rectangular pans are a pain to clean no matter what--things always get stuck in the corners.

[Richard Kilgore]

elyse - I noticed that Sur La Tab carries tart pans that are tinned or brown non-stick, or black tinned.

[jersey13]

I'd agree with the nonstick recommendation for muffin tins.  I've never had something stick to a Magic Line cake pan that wasn't easy to get off,

I love nonstick for muffins too, but even with that I use the cupcake papers. Clean-up doesn't get much easier.

I use aluminium for baking but I always line cake pans with wax or parchment so I don't find them too hard to clean. Also, I find that high quality non stick is sometimes more expensive than good aluminium. And, non-stick eventually flakes off, leaving the pans vulnerable to rust. We've eaten alot of Teflon flakes in our brownies, I'm sure!

Edited May 14, 2003 by jersey13 (log)

[Richard Kilgore]

Mamster - From your previous onion tartlett article, it appeared you used light colored tartlett rings. They looked great, so why would others have a problem with tarts baked in light colored pans or brown pans, indicating that black steel pans work best for tarts. There are also lots of white porcelein tart/quiche pans on store shelves --- are they inadequete to the task? Is there are difference in using tart rings vs tart pans with removeable bottoms?

[mamster]

When I made those tarts, I prebaked the shells and then removed the rings and baked them on parchment on an old steel cookie sheet. But I (okay, more often Laurie) have made larger tarts using the regular tinned steel fluted tart pans without any trouble.

On the other hand, I've never done a side-by-side test, and getting good color on your tart shells is important--they're far more often underbaked than overbaked. I don't understand how you get the tart out of the white porcelain ones. I guess you can serve from the tart pan, but that strikes me as less impressive than unmolding it.

[elyse]

elyse - I noticed that Sur La Tab carries tart pans that are tinned or brown non-stick, or black tinned.

Sorry I didn't respond. Sur La Table has the brown ones. Not good for browning.

[Richard Kilgore]

elyse --- I am sure that I saw all three versions at Sur La Tab: tinned, brown, and black.

Mamster - Thanks. I see that I will just have to experiment. Sounds like it is an interaction between type/color of pan, baking sheet, temp and whatever else.

I am having a hard time understanding why a brown pan would perform significantly differently than a black pan. Did it just need more time in the oven?

[elyse]

I don't think it's like wearing black clothing in the sun. I have no idea why it works differently, but The brown non-stick one I bought reacted no differently than the silver ones I have which is... not at all. And I've only heard that the black steel ones brown very well comparatively.

[elyse]

elyse --- I am sure that I saw all three versions at Sur La Tab: tinned, brown, and black.

Well I've looked at least three times and can't find them. Gotta link?

[Richard Kilgore]

I was not clear - I saw it in a Sur La Tab shop, not on the website.

[WHT]

I'm afraid of aluminum and try never to use it.

For baking it is fine. As a core element it is fine. Never use it with acidic products; here is where the fear may take over.

Baked goods do not leech or absorb the metal around them. Tomato sauce, pineapple and other acidic would be the exception.

I use Pyrex or Lincoln Aluminum for baking. Stainless or copper for stovetop and never Teflon for anything. That will do more harm in the long run than aluminum.

[Steve Klc]

"I see that I will just have to experiment. Sounds like it is an interaction between type/color of pan, baking sheet, temp and whatever else. I am having a hard time understanding why a brown pan would perform significantly differently than a black pan. Did it just need more time in the oven?"

I haven't worked with tart pans in years, but because of all my restaurant work I have worked with indivdual metal molds of many different metals and compared them side by side with each other and flexipans, etc. If you do this you find out very quickly that all the different metals absorb and conduct heat differently--and depending on 1) wall thickness and 2) what you are baking 3) its size and 4) how you are baking it--the end product is most definitely affected.

Take the same shape small mold from say JB Prince--in stainless steel, aluminum, shiny tinned steel (which is inexpensive but rusts if you don't dry them meticulously) and the new brownish "non-stick" metal (which is usually twice as expensive as the comparable tinned steel mold but does not rust.) In my restaurant work I use aluminum and the brown "non-stick."

Test some of your favorite little cakes, crusts in them and you'll see differences in how quickly and evenly they bake and acquire browning. You'll probably find one metal that "works" best for a particular item and shape you're baking in them. You'll find which rack you place it in the oven matters, so do, does double-sheet-panning with some to prevent too much browning from below. Me, personally, I find the pure aluminum mold best for one cake I do--it heats up the fastest and most evenly and for that particular timbale-shaped cake that metal is best--in stainless steel that cake never worked out right despite my adjustments. Generally, with long slow bakes at lower temps (325/350) it seems to me to matter less which metal you use.

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks Steve. That's helpful.

[Marlene]

Brilliant, and very helpful Steve, Thanks!