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See why.The Best 13 by 9-Inch Baking Pans/Dishes
Could it possibly make much difference which metal 13 by 9-inch pan you use? Several dozen rounds of baking later, the answer was an unequivocal yes.
By Last Updated Nov. 21, 2022. Appears in Cook's Illustrated January/February 2014, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 21: Elegant French Desserts
Several new models have hit the market since we last reviewed 13 by 9-inch baking dishes/pans. After testing three new models, the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Rectangular Cake Pan is still our winner. It browned foods more evenly than any other model we’ve tested. Plus, its nonstick coating is slick, so it releases food easily and is a cinch to clean.
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See Everything We Tested
What You Need To Know
Baking with our favorite 13 by 9-inch cake pan, the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Rectangular Cake Pan, is a pleasure. It produces evenly baked, golden-brown cakes with tall sides and crisp corners. It also bakes up consistently well-browned sticky buns. Its nonstick coating easily releases all food baked in it, including sticky sugary syrup.
What You Need To Know
We can’t think of a piece of cookware that’s more basic than the 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan, but we also can’t think of one that’s more essential. It’s the vessel that we pull out for everything from sheet cakes and sticky buns to brownies and bar cookies. At first glance it might seem as though any one of the generic-looking metal boxes on store shelves would do just fine. But you’d be surprised: Choose the wrong one and your cake won’t bake evenly, and the sticky part of your sticky buns will stick to the pan, not the buns. We baked Yellow Sheet Cake and Sticky Buns in pans of different materials and designs and compared the results.
What to Look For
- Golden-Color: Golden pans produced tall, delicately colored, evenly baked yellow sheet cake. Sticky buns baked in golden pans were perfectly bronzed as well.
- A Slick Nonstick Coating: We often line pans with a foil sling when making brownies and bars, guaranteeing easy removal, but a nonstick coating is essential for any recipe in which you might need to invert the pan to release the food once baked, such as an upside-down cake or sticky buns. Pans with slick nonstick coatings easily released the food baked in them, including sticky sugary syrup. They were also simpler to clean.
- Straight Walls: Pans with straight walls produced straight, tall, evenly baked cakes.
Nice to Have
- Crisp Corners: We preferred pans that had sharp, 90-degree (rather than curved) corners. Pans with these sharp corners produce cakes and bars with well-defined, professional-looking edges.
- Handles: When we’re carrying pans in and out of the oven, it’s nice to have a place to rest our hands. A few of the pans in our lineup had dedicated handles that made it easy to securely grip even with bulky oven mitts on.
What to Avoid
- Pans Without A Nonstick Coating: We found that sticky buns baked in pans without nonstick coatings either had to be chiseled out one by one or, if they did release from the pan, left behind nearly all their glaze. You can use parchment paper and baking spray to avoid this, but we prefer not to.
- Deeply Sloped Walls: Walls with deeply sloped sides had added surface area that allowed the batter to spread out more and ultimately resulted in thinner cakes.
- Multi-part Baking Dishes: Most of the pans i...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Design: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
Producing the most evenly cooked, professional-looking baked goods of all the pans we tested, this model made brownies that were level and moist from center to edge and cornbread that was deeply golden and uniformly browned. Not even sticky bun glaze stuck to the pan. Despite becoming slightly scratched in abuse tests, its surface released perfectly and was easy to clean.
Recommended
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
This pan was a strong performer in all tests, though its corrugated-looking bottom ridges were controversial: They left marks that some testers found unappealing on baked goods, but the ridges helped minimize scratches. The pan’s nonstick coating released flawlessly. (Note: USA Pan is also the maker of our top-rated Goldtouch pan, though the two have different nonstick finishes.)
Recommended with reservations
- Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
This pan produced evenly browned yellow sheet cake and sticky buns. It gave the yellow sheet cake curved corners, so we don’t recommend this pan if you’re looking for baked goods with well-defined, professional-looking edges. Because the pan had a great nonstick coating, food released easily. It was also simple to clean. Its wide handles meant it was easy for us to move the pan in and out of the oven, even while wearing oven mitts. The pan retained only slight scratches from our durability testing.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
This pan’s wide handles made it easy to maneuver in and out of the oven. Plus, its nonstick coating made it easy to remove food and clean. Yellow sheet cake and sticky buns baked in this dark pan came out evenly browned as long as we removed the pan from the oven on time. We just don’t recommend using this pan for layer or sheet cakes because of its curved corners.
- Design: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
This pan had a nice nonstick coating that released food quickly and easily. And its textured surface fared well in our durability tests, disguising scratches and also prevented the knife from penetrating the surface as deeply. But while the light-colored pan baked cake to an even golden-brown, the cake itself slumped inward oddly, making for an ugly finished result.
- Design: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
The large rolled lip on this pan made it extra-easy to handle. It baked evenly, but the lack of nonstick coating was problematic for gooey sticky bun recipes. The surface showed every scratch, and the pan is not dishwasher-safe.
- Design: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
Bakers appreciated the broad, extended rims that formed handles on this pan, making flipping hot sticky buns easier. This pan baked evenly for great-looking cakes and brownies. Too bad there isn’t any nonstick coating, since sticky buns nearly cemented to the bottom. The surface scratched deeply.
Not Recommended
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
The darkest pan in the testing produced the deepest browning, which gave us a flavorful crust on cornbread but created a challenge with other recipes. We learned to check for doneness early: Brownies had tougher, drier edges; sticky bun glaze hardened into candy. The pan’s coating released well, but the knife scratched it deeply, and tiny pieces of coating chipped off.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
This sturdy pan underperformed due to its lack of a nonstick coating: Almost all the glaze from the sticky buns was left behind in the bottom of the pan, and cornbread stuck to it like glue. The bottom of the pan scratched deeply.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
We had high hopes for this pan with a removable bottom (like a tart pan), looking forward to not having to flip out a cake. But sticky bun glaze leaked and burned, and cornbread batter oozed under and baked the removable bottom right into the bread. The surface scratched deeply.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
- Scratching: NaN stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
For bakeries, this product may be a great way to get another use out of a rimmed baking sheet, but it was a flop for us: Sticky glaze leaked all over the oven and burned, and cornbread rose on both sides of the extender and glued it to the sheet. Brownie batter stayed put because of the aluminum sling we’d made to lift the bars from the pan.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Carolyn Grillo
Carolyn is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She's a French-trained professional baker.
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