Buy at Williams Sonoma
Buy at AmazonEveryone loves miniature muffins and cupcakes—they’re so cute! Our favorite mini-muffin tin, the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Mini Muffin Pan, 24-Well, produced attractive baked goods that were evenly golden brown and released easily. There was also plenty of room around the rim, which meant that we could hold it securely, even while we were wearing thick oven mitts. Our Best Buy, the Wilton Perfect Results Premium Non-Stick Mini Muffin and Cupcake Pan, 24-Cup, was as easy to handle as our winner and also produced nicely shaped mini muffins and financiers. We docked it slightly because the foods we baked in it weren’t browned quite as evenly as foods we baked in our winner.
Mini-muffin tins are great when baking for children’s parties and any occasion where you want an assortment of small treats such as mini doughnut holes, mini muffins, and peanut butter cups. While the overall profiles of regular and mini-muffin tins are the same, the number of cups they contain differs (full-size muffin tins have 12 cups, and mini-muffin tins have 24). You can convert full-size muffin and cupcake recipes for mini tins, but it’s not an exact science, so we developed a few guidelines (see below).
Make mini doughnut holes, peanut butter cups, mini banana chocolate chip muffins, and more!
What to Look For
- Models Made from Steel: Our top-rated tins were made of steel, which retains and disperses heat well. Models made from steel produced muffins and financiers that were evenly baked and well browned. While the tin’s material mattered more than its color, we noticed (as we’ve noted in previous reviews) that food baked in dark-colored tins browned faster than food baked in lighter-colored ones.
Steel retains and disperses heat well, so models made from steel produced muffins and financiers that were evenly baked and well browned. Neither aluminum nor silicone is good at dispersing heat evenly, so treats baked in models made from these materials were unevenly browned.
- Moderately Sized Cups: The capacities of the tins’ cups varied. Tins with smaller cups made tiny, perfectly proportioned versions of muffins and cupcakes, while bigger cups made for squat, unattractive baked goods.
We preferred tins with narrow cups because they produced baked goods that rose up and over the rims of the cups, forming classically shaped muffins (left). Two tins had noticeably wider cups than the others, and the baked goods we made in them were short and squat (right).
- Narrow Cup Shapes: The shape of a muffin tin’s cups determines the shape of the baked goods. The cups on every model in our lineup were narrower at the base than at the top. The shape of our favorite tin’s cups produced baked goods that rose up and over the rims of the cups, forming cute, classically shaped muffins.
- A Wide Exterior Rim: Since we were most often wearing oven mitts while maneuvering muffin tins in and out of ovens, the tins with wide rims were much easier to use than those with narrower rims. The rims on the tins we tested ranged from a paltry ⅓ inch wide to 1⅔ inches wide. Tins with at least 1 inch of space gave us a place to put our hands without accidentally sticking a thumb into a baked good. In addition to having wide rims, two of the models in our lineup had grippy handles that made maneuvering them very easy.
- A Nonstick Coating: With the exception of the model made from silicone (a material that is always fairly slick), all the tins had nonstick coatings. We also followed the recipes’ recommendations of coating the muffin tins with vegetable oil spray prior to filling them with batter. As a result, all the tins easily released muffins and financiers, and they were easy to clean. While cleaning 24 small cups isn’t exactly pleasant, it was simple given that no food was stuck to any of them.
All the tins easily released muffins and financiers.
What to Avoid
- Aluminum and Silicone: Since neither aluminum nor silicone is good at dispersing heat evenly, the foods baked in tins made of these materials were unevenly browned. The silicone model had an added problem—the cups were squishy and flexible instead of rigid, which made it hard for us to rotate the tin during baking.
- Wider Cups: The cups of two tins were noticeably wider than the others—and so were the baked goods we made in them. Compared with those made in tins with narrower cups, these short, squat baked goods didn’t have the same proportion of exterior to interior, which is particularly important in financiers, almond–browned butter cakes that have a pleasant, coarse-textured interior and a crispy edge.
Muffin tins with less than 1 inch of space around the rim were less comfortable to handle than those with a wider exterior rim. We had to carefully place our hands so that we didn’t leave a thumb-shaped indent in our baked goods.
- A Small Exterior Rim: Models with rims that were less than 1 inch wide were more challenging to maneuver in and out of the oven, especially when wearing oven mitts.
- Bake Banana and Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins
- Bake Financiers (Almond–Browned Butter Cakes)
- Hand-wash each tin 10 times
