Baking Pan Question

[LTS3]

Winchester and anyone else who bakes.

I'm interested in making this recipe These Flourless Brownie Bites Are Dangerously Easy to Make It's easy enough for me to do and doesn't require a stand or hand mixer or any other equipment. I was looking at mini muffin tins online and found two choices: regular metal pans and silicone pans. Does it matter which type I use? If I use silicone, do I need to use muffin liners or would it be easy to just pop out the baked goods, oiling / buttering each well optional?

What worries me is that silicone products tend to be flimsy. Is moving a silicone pan in and out of the oven easy or will I risk spilling batter or dropping goodies? Do I need to put a silicone pan on a metal sheet tray?

 

[neely]

I hope this helps - it's my understanding you should put a silicone muffin pan on a metal cookie sheet for stability. And you should not need to use muffin liners in a silicone pan.

My daughter loves to bake and also loves the silicone pans. I guess I'm more old fashioned and still like to use metal pans.

 

[LTS3]

I kind of like silicone because you can just fold it up and stash into a drawer. But the whole flimsy thing means needing a separate sheet pan I think I'll go with a metal pan. I saw 48 well muffin pans online. That would make it easy to do a double batch of those brownie bites and there's just one pan to store.

 

[Winchester]

Sorry, I haven't been around and I just saw this this morning.

I have a silicone cupcake pan (Mom gave it to me), but I'm not crazy about it. For some reason, I think it makes a drier cupcake. And while the cupcakes aren't too difficult to get out of the pan (you don't use paper liners), they do stick a little bit. I'm just not all that thrilled with silicone. Could just be me.

I really like my metal little mini-muffin pans and I use them for lots of things. I wouldn't mind having a 48-count pan!

That recipe looks really good. How did it turn out?

 

[LTS3]

I have not made the brownie bites yet. I need a muffin pan first. And all the ingredients. Almond flour might be a hard find. I looked at the chain supermarket the last time I was there and did not find any in the baking aisle. I didn't think to check the organic section of the store. Would it be there? Or do I need to go to Whole Foods?

 

[Winchester]

Our organic foods section does have almond flour. But you might have to go through Amazon (if you're going to buy your pan from there anyway) or check if you have a natural foods store or something similar. Check WF, too.

 

[Tobermory]

I’ve found almond flour at Trader Joe’s and in the organic section of Fred Meyer, which is part of the Kroger family.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! My walmarts (neighborhood grocery and also a superstore a few miles away) have the almond flour. Best of luck with the baking project
Your store might have it in the organic section also.

 

[AbbysMom]

I've seen almond flour at Stop & Shop and Shaws. If it's not in the regular baking aisle, look in the gluten-free and organic sections.

 

[LTS3]

My local regular Stop and Shop has a lousy selection of pretty much everything There's a Shaw's a block further up the street I can check out. Or I can take a trip to TJ on a weekend.I

I think the brownie bites might be nice to make for the holidays I think two batches of the brownie bites will be plenty unless the entire office decides to work out of the lab space the day I bring goodies in

 

[LTS3]

I found almond flour today I stopped by the independent grocery store for milk and stuff today and on the lower shelves of a fresh fruit display, spotted several Bob's Red Mill flours, almond flour being one of them. It's $13.75 for a 1 lb bag Target's web site lists the same product for $8.99. I know there are other brands out there. Just have to shop around for the best price.

 

[Furballsmom]

Bob's red Mill is good, I use that brand

 

[LTS3]

I forgot about Ocean State Job Lot. The web site lists Bob's Red Mill almond flour for $6.29. Whether or not the store actually has it is another question

 

[LTS3]

Not surprisingly the local Stop and Shop didn't have any almond flour in stock in the organic section The shelf tag listed the Bob's Red Mill one at just over $9. I'm not in any hurry to get almond flour anyways. Just looking to see what stores have it and prices.

 

[Winchester]

I use Bob's Red Mill products, too. The semolina flour is excellent.

 

[LTS3]

Winchester will this pan work ok? https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Perfect-Results-Non-Stick-Cupcake/dp/B004EBS16G/ref=sr_1_5?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1540337886&sr=1-5&keywords=mini+muffin+panhttp://\amazon.com/Wilton-Perfect-R...id=1540337886&sr=1-7&keywords=mini+muffin+pan
http://amazon.com/Wilton-Perfect-Re...id=1540337886&sr=1-7&keywords=mini+muffin+pan
Wilton is a good brand, right? Calphalon has mini muffin pans but that's pricier and I don't need something fancy for a recipe I'm not going to make often.

Does the color of the pan matter? Some are dark, others lighter, even some brown-ish ones.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i've had very good results with Wilton nonstick pans, specifically their bundt cake pans. they bake evenly, and as long as i grease/flour them, the baked items come out easily (and in one piece). the price is reasonable, too.

 

[Winchester]

LTS3 I don't think I have any Wilton pans, so I can't say. I'd trust micknsnicks2mom ; she's a baker, so she knows. Just don't get any dark-colored pans. IMO, the darker your pan, the darker your baked goods will be. Again, just IMO.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

LTS3 I don't think I have any Wilton pans, so I can't say. I'd trust micknsnicks2mom ; she's a baker, so she knows. Just don't get any dark-colored pans. IMO, the darker your pan, the darker your baked goods will be. Again, just IMO.

thank you! that's a compliment, coming from you.

the Wilton bundt cake pans i have are dark grey colored nonstick pans. and they have a good weight to them, heavy enough. i believe that helps in baking well and evenly.

i have a different (not Wilton brand) very old nonstick bundt cake pan that was given to me years ago. before i bought my second Wilton bundt cake pan, i baked two bundt cakes (the same recipe in both pans) -- one in a Wilton nonstick pan and the other in the very old as well as lighter weight nonstick pan. i baked them together, in the same oven/at the same time. while the bundt cake baked in the Wilton pan tested done in the right time frame, the bundt cake baked in the old lighter weight pan was quite far from being done.

something i do is to use vegetable shortening instead of butter when greasing and flouring pans. the shortening has a higher burn point than butter, so the baked item(s) doesn't get as dark.

another thing i've just figured out, is that the best way to store shortening (longer term) is to freeze it. i'd buy a 48 ounce can of vegetable shortening, and not be able to use it all before it turned (rancid). part of that is because i don't bake in the warm/hot weather months. so i portion the vegetable shortening into pint containers and freeze it, then move a container to the fridge a few days before i need some, after which it goes back into the freezer.

 

[LTS3]

A local library has cake pans and other non typical library stuff for loan. It's part of the "Library of Things". I'll have to see if they have muffin pans. I doubt they will have a mini muffin pan but it's worth trying.

Otherwise I'll get those Wilton pans.

I was thinking of doubling the recipe. Do you think that would be enough? On any given day there's maybe a dozen or so people in the lab.