Published March 1, 2005.
The best tin should have excellent heat conductivity and convenient handles.
The majority of muffin tins on the market are made of coated aluminum and are lightweight. We purchased two tins of this type as well as two heavy-gauge “professional” aluminum tins and one “air-cushioned” aluminum tin. Three had a nonstick coating.
We baked up two different varieties of muffins to test the two things that really matter—browning and sticking. We wanted the muffins to brown uniformly and to be easily plucked from the tin. Corn muffins were ideal for the browning test, blueberry for the sticking test—no one wants a sweet, sticky berry left in the tin rather than the muffin.
Browning ended up being the deciding factor in these tests. Sticking was not an issue as long as the tins were sprayed with cooking oil. The best tins browned the muffins evenly, the worst browned them on the top but left them pallid and underbaked on the bottom. As we had observed in other bakeware tests, darker coated metals, which absorb heat, do the best job of browning baked goods. The air-cushioned tin produced pale muffins that were also small (the cushioning made for a smaller cup capacity, about 1/3 cup rather than the standard ½ cup).
We found the heavier-gauged aluminum tins to have no advantage—they are much more expensive than other tins, weigh twice as much, and do not produce superior muffins. Their heft may make them durable, but unless you bake commercially, the lightweight models will last a lifetime.
