There’s something weird about a Muffin Top Pan, if you really think about it. I understand the fact that people like eating the tops of muffins better than the bottoms, but having a special pan that only bakes the tops without the bottoms seems odd. But I guess if you think about it, it’s much more efficient that way and less wasteful!
Today I’m going to talk all about these strange kitchen oddities. I’m going to discuss:
- What they are
- Where can you find them
- and how much they cost
So what exactly are they?
Contrary to what you may think, they’re not a regular muffin pan. They’re a baking pan used solely for cooking muffin tops. Sometimes the word for them is a popover pan but I refer to call them muffin top pans and that’s what most of the world calls them too.
They come in either stainless steel, aluminum, or tin and the sizes range from the classic 6-cup nonstick up to a 12 cup large muffin pan or more. The depth of each cup is quite small, such as one to three inches deep that allows for only the muffin-top to form and nothing else.
Like many popular cake pans these are usually non-stick with a little silicone thrown in for good measures, though I’m not really sure why that is exactly.
Why use them? Have you ever tried to butter the bottom of a muffin? It’s hard. If you only have the thin top part, they’re much easier to put butter or jelly or whatever on. They’re also a lot easier to re-heat in a toaster later on! Plus they’re just cool.
Where can you find them?
When they first came out they were a little hard to find but these days you can get them just about anywhere you would buy other bakeware items such as a department store or even online at Amazon.com They aren’t very expensive so you don’t have to spend a lot of time price shopping or looking for a deal or anything like that.
How much do they cost?
Prices vary depending on the size of the pan. A Cuisinart Chef’s Classic 6-Cup Nonstick Muffin-Top Pan costs around $16 and is very well rated pan. I give it a strong 5 out of 5 stars based on aggregating other review sites out there.
On the other hand, a Chicago Metallic 12-cup Muffin Pan costs about $26 and also gets my coveted 5 out of 5 stars review based on aggregate counts.
Every kitchen should have a Muffin Top Pan or two and at these prices there’s really no excuse not to. If you like muffins or if somebody else in your house likes them then you should really toss out your old pans and replace them with these popular items.
