Reviews you can trust.
See why.Springform Pans
Have you ever ruined a cheesecake? We’ve been there, too. But never again: We tested every top-selling springform pan to find the best on the market.
Last Updated Dec. 1, 2020. Appears in Cook's Illustrated July/August 2011, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 21: Elegant French Desserts
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
Imagine toiling for hours over a cheesecake—the final act in your showstopping holiday meal—only to unmold your perfectly baked, seemingly beautiful cake and find that it is crumbled, mushy, or cracked due to a faulty springform pan. Sadly, springforms are too often the culprit in dessert disasters. Unlike traditional cake pans (which require the baker to unmold the cake by flipping the pan upside down), springforms consist of two pieces: a round, flat base and a circular collar that latches open and closed, allowing delicate cakes to be unmolded upright. Unfortunately, the two-piece design leaves small gaps where water from a water bath (we sometimes place springforms in a roasting pan with water to control heat during baking) can seep in and butter from the crust can leak out.
Despite a decade of searching, we’ve yet to find a completely leakproof springform; even our previous winning pan from Nordic Ware leaks a bit. But we’ve kept an ear to the ground and noticed that a number of major manufacturers recently redesigned their metal springforms. A few also started making pans out of heat-resistant silicone. We tested eight top-selling models, including our old winner, priced from $13.95 to $49.95—two silicone and six metal options with, variously, glass, ceramic, and nonstick bases. We used each to make no-bake cheesecake, oven-baked cheesecake, and water bath–baked cheesecake.
The silicone pans were disastrous: They smelled like burnt rubber in the oven, they let water leak in and butter seep out, they had loose parts that were easily lost (ours went right down the drain), their soft silicone sides squished crusts, and their glass and ceramic bases underbrowned the crusts and wouldn’t release them.
Glass bottoms were problematic in general: One metal pan with a glass base made pale, pallid crusts that were practically glued into the pan. Darker metal makes for darker baked goods, and one pan’s black finish slightly overbrowned crusts (though not enough to affect flavor). We favored pans with light-colored nonstick finishes, which browned slowly and released readily.
A good springform pan should release cakes effortlessly, but a nonstick base wasn’t the only factor; time after time, cakes tore, crumbled, and cracked when we removed them. Some pans tore cakes along the collar, where a protruding seam clung to fragile swaths of crust. Other pans trapped crust on their bases: Springforms with flat or recessed bases were difficult to maneuver a spatula or knife along, and we often lost parts of the crust when we moved the cake or cut slices. We preferred raised bases, which gave us a full view of the cake and more room to leve...
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Seal: 3 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This gold-toned pan produced beautiful cheesecakes with evenly baked crusts. With high walls and a large base, the pan was easy to maneuver in and out of the oven, and its slick nonstick coating ensured that cheesecakes could be removed in pristine condition. Better still, this was the only pan that was actually leakproof. A few minor drawbacks: First, the pan has more parts than most, so it’s slightly more difficult to assemble than those with one side closure. Like other nonstick springform pans, it scratched when we cut slices on it directly.
- Seal: 2 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Our old favorite, this springform once again made beautiful, evenly browned cheesecakes that were easy to release from the pan. Leaking was minimal, and most butter pooled along its base, though a few drops overflowed onto the oven floor. This pan’s base had a few minor scratches after testing.
- Seal: 2 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Release: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
The darkest pan of the bunch, this springform slightly overbrowned crusts in some spots but not enough to change recipe times or make a big difference in flavor. Cakes were mostly easy to release, and any leaking was corralled along the pan’s wide, ridged base.
- Seal: 2 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Release: 2 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This pan’s lighter finish produced gorgeous, evenly browned crusts. Though cakes were fairly easy to release, its flat base required more finessing and leaked butter onto the oven floor. A few scratches remained after testing.
Not Recommended
- Seal: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Design: 2 stars out of 3.
- Release: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1 stars out of 3.
Our one time favorite, this springform was recently redesigned. Though handles made this pan easy to maneuver, its small glass bottom was fussy to align with the collar and made unevenly browned crusts. Ridges along the pan’s collar crumbled delicate crusts and left an odd pattern on the sides of cakes. By the end of testing, this pan was truly beaten up, with large scratches all along its collar and base.
- Seal: 1 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Release: 1 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2 stars out of 3.
This pan’s poorly fitting recessed base trapped crust, leaked everywhere, and left us wondering if we had assembled the pan incorrectly (we hadn’t). Every cheesecake emerged from the pan mangled, and large scratches remained where we had to dig into the base to remove crust.
- Seal: 1 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Release: 1 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This silicone model defied our attempts to build a crust against its flimsy walls, sending whole chunks crashing down with just a gentle nudge. It smelled like burning rubber when baking in the oven, and its glass bottom unevenly browned cake, leaked butter onto the oven floor, and clung to crust. We frequently had to fish its smaller, loose latch out of dish drains.
- Seal: 1 stars out of 3.
- Design: 1 stars out of 3.
- Release: 1 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1 stars out of 3.
We had to wrestle this pan’s silicone collar around its ceramic bottom plate (“like trying to button a pair of too-small jeans,” said one tester). And even so, our efforts were fruitless: The pan leaked butter all over the oven and turned cheesecake cooked in a water bath to inedible mush. This pan was rendered totally useless when we lost a small plastic part down the drain during washing.
N/A
- Seal: 2 stars out of 3.
- Design: 3 stars out of 3.
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This gold-toned pan produced pristine cheesecakes with golden, evenly baked crusts. A ridge along the top was a great guide for leveling batters, and its tall sides gave us something to grab when turning the full or hot pan. While the pan is prone to slight scratching and is not completely leakproof, its wide, raised base easily caught leaking butter and provided support when cutting slices or removing cake.
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.
0 Comments
