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See why.The Best Baking Sprays
Tired of greasing and flouring pans before baking? Baking sprays replace that fussy process with one simple step.
By Published Mar. 24, 2023
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See Everything We Tested
What You Need To Know
Using baking spray is a convenient, quick way to prepare pans, ensuring that even the stickiest baked goods slide out cleanly. Our favorite spray, Baker’s Joy Baking Spray with Flour, was especially easy to spray in a controlled manner. It was a snap to coat everything from square cake pans to muffin tins. If you regularly bake, it’s a must-have.
What You Need to Know
If you bake a lot, you should consider baking spray. It is a fast and easy one-step product that lets you skip the messy, tedious traditional process of greasing and flouring pans for baking. We specifically call for baking spray in recipes that are particularly sticky and when we use a Bundt pan with lots of nooks and crannies.
Cooking spray has become ubiquitous in home kitchens. Baking spray, however, is less common. For both, the main ingredient is an oil such as palm, soybean, or coconut oil. They also typically contain emulsifiers such as lecithin or mono- and diglycerides that keep the ingredients combined in the can and help the oil adhere to the surface of cookware or bakeware.
To discharge these ingredients into the air, a can needs to be pressurized. Pressure inside a can is created in two ways. One setup mixes a pressurized propellant gas (such as propane or butane) with the oil. The second setup, known as a bag-on-valve dispensing system, places the oil inside a bag, separate from the pressurized propellant gas (either compressed air or nitrogen), which fills the space between the bag and the can.
Baking spray typically—though not always—also contains flour, cornstarch, or wheat starch. These starch particles create space between the baked goods and the pan that insulates the batter or dough from the metal pan. Because of this insulation, the food cooks a bit more slowly and, more importantly, releases easily. Some baking sprays with starch also contain silicon dioxide, a fine powder that prevents clumping, which is important for even distribution of the starch.
One of the products we tested isn’t a spray—it’s a liquid mixture you apply to the pan and spread into a thin layer by hand. We included it because it’s marketed as a solution to the tedious task of greasing and flouring pans. We wanted to know how it stacks up against typical baking sprays. Here’s what we found.
What to Look For
- Effective, Neutral-Flavored Sprays: The sprays in our lineup contained one or more oils, including soybean oil, canola oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and mineral oil. Every spray, no matter the oil or oils used, released muffins, cakes, and brownies, passing all our baking tests. We also liked that all of the sprays tasted neutral and didn’t alter the flavor of our baked ...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
This spray was easy to use—its moderately powerful nozzle sprayed in a round spray pattern and thus landed exactly where we expected. A visible layer of foam, a combination of a propellant and starch, made it easy to see that the entire pan was covered in a thin, even layer. It was effective too. When we prepared pans with this spray, baked goods always slid out easily.
- Ease Of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
We felt in control when using this can. The spray landed where we expected it to, and the visible foam made it easy to see that the pan was covered. It landed in second place because the consistency of the spray wasn’t as uniform as that of our winner’s.
Recommended with reservations
- Ease Of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
We loved this spray’s superfine mist that evenly coated pans. This spray was clear because it has no starch, and we had to pay closer attention to make sure that we covered every nook and cranny of each pan. While it passed all of the kitchen tests we performed using high-quality bakeware, you should be wary of using this in recipes that call for baking spray containing flour. If your nonstick pans are unreliable or you want extra insurance when making a sweet treat for a special occasion, it’s important to use a baking spray with starch.
- Ease Of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
This spray passed all of our baking tests. The wheat starch and propellant in this spray combined make it visible, which allowed us to be sure that we covered the entire pan. Our biggest gripe was that it was hard to use. The superfoamy spray came out of the can with such intensity that it splattered outside of the intended area. It was messy and unnecessarily powerful.
- Ease of Use : 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
The only product in our lineup that wasn’t a spray, this liquid coating is a good option for bakers looking for a nonaerosol product to use when making sticky baked goods. However, we found it tedious and time consuming to spread the solution into all the intricate divots of Bundt pans and individual wells in muffin tins. We prefer the convenience of spray.
Not Recommended
- Ease of Use: 0.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
While this baking spray kept baked goods from sticking, it was challenging to use. The label claimed that a light press on the spout would achieve a “drip or drizzle,” a medium press a “stream,” or a full press a “spray or mist.” While we eventually got the hang of it, achieving these results took practice. Our biggest complaint was that when we pressed fully on the spout, the spray shot upward. Lastly, the application of spray was shaped like a long oval rather than a circle, making it harder to cover the pan.
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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.
Carolyn Grillo
Carolyn is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She's a French-trained professional baker.
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