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See why.Six-Cup Muffin Tins
These compact muffin tins fit easily in toaster ovens and kitchen cabinets. Which one is best?
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What You Need To Know
If you bake muffins, cupcakes, or mini versions of baked goods such as pies, cheesecakes, and brownies, you need a muffin tin. We've always used 12-cup muffin tins, and we love our winner; it produces evenly baked, golden-brown food. Six-cup muffin tins, however, make half the number of baked goods. Their compact size means that they fit into smaller ovens, including our favorite countertop toaster oven, and are easier to store, a real plus in kitchens with limited space.
To find the best six-cup muffin tin, we gathered six models, priced from about $11 to about $26. The pans in our lineup were made from either metal or porcelain and ranged in color from white to gold to silver. All but two had nonstick coatings. We used each tin to bake Basic Muffins, Easy Birthday Cupcakes, and Muffin Tin Frittatas. We examined how easily food released, as well as the food’s overall shape and how evenly it browned. We also evaluated how comfortable the tins were to hold while moving them into and out of the oven and how easy they were to clean.
The Sizes and Shapes of the Cups Matter
While we were happy with the foods produced in most of the tins, our results varied. The cups were shaped differently from pan to pan. Some were taller and narrower, while others were shorter and wider. Those differences affected the shapes of the baked goods they produced. Only one pan was a real problem, turning out unacceptably squat baked goods. Because the cups were shaped differently, capacites varied slightly from pan to pan, ranging from about 5 tablespoons to about 6½ tablespoons per cup. (For comparison, the cups of our favorite 12-cup muffin tin each hold roughly 7 tablespoons.)
The two models that had the smallest cup capacities offered less than ½ inch of space between the cups. As batter rose in each cup, the expanding tops of the cupcakes ran into each other. When we pulled one of these tins from the oven, we had what looked like one giant cupcake instead of six. Our favorite tins had larger cups as well as about 1 inch of space between the cups, giving us baked goods that were separated and distinct.
Pans with Extended Rims Gave Us a Place to Hold
The dimensions of the pans also affected how easy they were to handle. Some of these pans had very little space around their rims. The rims on the smallest tins were just ½ inch wide, so we didn’t have a convenient place to put our hands. With these tins, we had to pay special attention to avoid accidentally dropping them or poking the baked goods with our oven mitt. Pans with rims that were at least 1 inch wide were easier to handle. We liked that we could securely grab them without inadvertently...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Food Shape: 3 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleaning: 3 stars out of 3.
This gold-colored muffin tin produced golden-brown muffins, cupcakes, and frittatas, and each item released from this tin’s nonstick coating with ease. There was plenty of space between each cup, so the muffins and cupcakes baked without running into one another. Plus, a 1-inch-wide rim made the tin easy to grab and maneuver into and out of the oven, even while we were wearing bulky oven mitts.
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Food Shape: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 3 stars out of 3.
- Cleaning: 3 stars out of 3.
This pan’s nonstick surface made it easy for us to remove our baked goods. We loved how comfortable it was to use; the extended rim gave us plenty of space to hold, even with bulky oven mitts on. The large cup capacity and ample space in between each cup meant that baked goods stayed separate. The finished cupcakes were slightly conical in shape, so they weren’t quite as attractive as those made in our favorite tin, but they were still acceptable.
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Food Shape: 3 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleaning: 3 stars out of 3.
This muffin tin produced evenly browned and beautifully shaped muffins and cupcakes, but its rim wasn’t wide enough to afford us a secure grip. As a result, moving this pan while we were wearing oven mitts wasn’t as convenient as moving the models with broader rims. Nothing stuck to the nonstick coating, so this tin was a breeze to clean.
Not Recommended
- Release: 2 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 3 stars out of 3.
- Food Shape: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Cleaning: 2 stars out of 3.
Foods produced by this pan were evenly golden brown, but the pan’s wide, shallow cups made them flat and squat. Made from porcelain, it was the heaviest muffin tin in the lineup, weighing more than 3 pounds. We couldn’t hold it aloft with one hand for an extended period of time, so we had to rest it in the sink when we washed it. Plus, when the porcelain was wet, the pan became slippery. When we removed muffins from this tin, small pieces of food stuck to the porcelain.
- Release: 3 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Food Shape: 1 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 1 stars out of 3.
- Cleaning: 3 stars out of 3.
This golden-colored, nonstick-coated muffin tin produced evenly browned food, and its nonstick coating released food with ease. However, its cups were small, and there was very little space between them, so the muffins and cupcakes ran together as they baked. Lastly, this tin didn’t have a large enough rim for us to hold on to, so it was difficult to grab hold of the tin without accidentally denting a muffin or cupcake.
- Release: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Browning: 0.5 stars out of 3.
- Food Shape: 2 stars out of 3.
- Handling: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleaning: 3 stars out of 3.
When we removed food from the cups, we noticed that the bottom halves of the baked goods were pale and flabby. This pan's material is shiny, so it reflects heat more than it absorbs it, inhibiting browning; food that was in contact with the metal inside of the cups struggled to brown. There also wasn’t much space between the cups, so cupcakes ran together as they baked. The rim on this muffin tin was small, so we didn’t have a secure place to hold.
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.