The Best Muffin Pans for Morning Treats and Dessert Sweets

Best Overall

USA Pan Nonstick Muffin Pan

Orig. $32 $30 at Amazon $27 at Walmart $32 at Williams-Sonoma

The durable USA Pan 12-well muffin pan is solidly constructed of aluminized steel, with a proprietary patented nonstick clear silicone coating. Thanks to that nonstick coating, our muffins, cupcakes, and other baked items all came sliding out of the pan with minimal effort during testing. The surface of the pan is slightly corrugated with a wider rim around the wells, making it easy to grip and pull out of the oven. The silicone coating also happens to make it a little bit slip-resistant, which is helpful while handling and turning the tray while cooking.

All of the baked goods we made in this pan came out with an even rise and consistent golden finish on the bottoms and sides, making it the clear winner among our testers. The cupcakes were insulated just well enough not to get too brown and stay moist. Our mini frittatas were perfectly crisp on the surface and bottom, without getting hammered with heat or end up underbaked. The corrugated surface of the pan helps with heat distribution between the smooth muffin wells, and the lighter finish of the metal keeps the delicate pastries inside from baking too quickly.

The only issue with this pan is that it shouldn't be washed in the dishwasher, which isn't a dealbreaker given how quick and easy it is to wipe clean. Oil-based cooking spray should be avoided to keep from damaging the surface of the pan.

Material: Aluminized steel with silicone nonstick coating | Oven Safe Temperature: 450 degrees | Number of Cups: 12 | Dishwasher Safe: No

Best Budget

Chicago Metallic Everyday Non-Stick 12-Cup Muffin and Cupcake Pan

$20 at Amazon

The Chicago Metallic Everyday muffin and cupcake pan is stylishly designed with superb performance. This is a high-quality muffin pan for an excellent price and one you’ll keep for a long time. The carbon-steel pan, which is coated in a silicone-based nonstick, is lightweight without feeling flimsy, plus it won’t rust or warp.

This baked muffins and cupcakes evenly, and resulted in a good outer texture and tender middle. The cups were easy to fill with batter because of the ample room between each cup. It has handles on the ends with a basket-weave design that doubles as a grip to keep the pan from slipping out of your hand.

We used liners for our muffins, but blueberry juice soaked through to the bottoms of some of the cups. It was baked on and looked very difficult to clean. Thankfully, it wasn’t a problem at all! The baked-on fruit wiped right off. We should note that the handles and space between the cups does add inches to the pan, which does make it larger than other muffin pans.

Material: Carbon steel with silicone nonstick coating | Oven Safe Temperature: 450 degrees | Number of Cups: 12 | Dishwasher Safe: No

Best with Lid

Anolon Advanced Bronze Nonstick 12-Cup Muffin Tin

Orig. $37 $32 at Amazon $35 at Walmart $37 at Target

This muffin pan from Analon wins points for its functionality because of its additional features, including rubberized non-slip handles and a snap-on plastic lid for transporting freshly baked treats. Like other muffin pans, it's constructed with steel and coated with a nonstick finish.

The medium-colored bronze finish looks great but also helps to conduct heat to the surface of the baked goods inside. Since it's on the darker side, expect your muffins to bake a little faster and potentially get a little darker. During testing, we found the slightly wider sides were easier to grip, especially thanks to the generous silicone grips on each side. We also found that the snap-on clear plastic lid was tall enough to accommodate cupcakes with lavish amounts of frosting and decorations, without damaging them in transit.

We did notice that this pan is a little heavier than some of the other options, weighing in at 2.2 pounds. It can also be a little challenging to clean stuck-on crumbs out of the crease where the top of the muffin cups meet the flat pan, but a little soaking ultimately managed to knock them all loose.

Material: Carbon steel with nonstick coating | Oven Safe Temperature: 450 degrees | Number of Cups: 12 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best for Gifting

Caraway Muffin Pan

$50 at Amazon $50 at Home Depot View on Carawayhome.com

You may have noticed an influx of contemporary cookware and bakeware brands over the last few years, outfitted with catchy designs, clever storage solutions, and custom color options above and beyond a classic chrome finish. And it's likely that you've noticed Caraway kitchenware in the mix, with its sleek minimal designs and mellow color palette. While the company has assembled several sets of its most popular cookware and bakeware pieces, you can also purchase pieces a la carte to supplement the equipment you've already got, or for less bulky gifting.

We took the Caraway bakeware collection for a test drive and found that the nonstick ceramic was absolutely worth all hype. Biscuits dropped straight out of the muffin pan after baking without any extra help, and cookies nearly slid off the surface of the sheet pan without the need for a spatula. Additionally, the ceramic coating helped to evenly distribute heat across the pan for even cooking, and consistent browning without burning.

The ceramic surface is durable, making this muffin pan able to withstand temperatures of up to 550 degrees (just in case you wanted to cook mini meatloaf patties in them). But it's still recommended to use butter or liquid oils for greasing the pans instead of cooking spray. The pans should also be hand-washed with warm water and mild soap to extend their lifespan. This muffin pan is available individually, or as part of the 5-piece and 11-piece bakeware sets, and the complete kitchen 16-piece cook & bake set.

Material: Aluminized steel with ceramic nonstick coating | Oven Safe Temperature: 550 degrees | Number of Cups: 12 | Dishwasher Safe: Hand-wash strongly recommended

Best Silicone

Trudeau Structure Silicone Pro Muffin Pan

Orig. $25 $20 at Amazon $14 at Walmart $25 at World Market

Silicone might not be the first type of pan that comes to mind when you're browsing for your next muffin pan, but this versatile material can make for a convenient alternative to a metal pan in several ways. The biggest benefit of using silicone is its nonstick properties, so you never have to worry about your juicy blueberry muffins or caramelized kouign-amann sticking to your pan again.

The Trudeau silicone muffin pan is made with a steel band embedded in the rim of the pan, which provides stability to a pan that is otherwise very flexible. After scooping batter into the wells, you should still be able to pick the pan up by the rim and move it without buckling the mold, although we'd still recommend placing it on a baking sheet for transporting to the oven and for the actual baking.

It's important to keep in mind that silicone is a great insulator and conducts far less heat than metal baking pans. We found that it takes more time for your usual baked goods to cook, and they will likely look different when coming out of the pan. You can generally expect softer products that retain a good amount of moisture, with less browning overall. It's entirely normal for a batch of vanilla cupcakes to be fully baked in a silicone pan with a golden brown top, and next to no additional color on the sides or bottom of the cake, even after spending more time in the oven. This kind of insulation is ideal if you want to branch out into baking custards like mini flans or cheesecakes.

Since this silicone pan can also be used in the refrigerator and freezer, it's also great for anyone interested in setting cold desserts like gelee or frozen molded mousses. It's dishwasher safe and lightweight, although you won't want to stack anything on top of it, to avoid warping the shape of the silicone. While our Trudeau muffin pan was able to withstand scratching during testing, it's best not to use metal or sharp utensils with silicone pans, to keep from cutting or tearing the material.

Material: Silicone with alloy steel | Oven Safe Temperature: 428 degrees | Number of Cups: 12 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Jumbo

Wilton Recipe Right Non-Stick 6-Cup Jumbo Muffin Pan

$21 at Amazon View on Webstaurantstore.com

This well-made muffin pan comes in a set of two so you can bake up to 12 jumbo muffins or cupcakes in your oven at a reasonable price. It’s manufactured with scratch-resistant nonstick coated aluminized steel and the design ensures you can bake the larger-than-standard jumbo muffins at a perfect, level temperature throughout. It’s heavy enough to not warp and can be cleaned in the dishwasher after use. It’s weight and composition are perfect for baking jumbo muffins, which can sometimes brown too quickly on the outside while not cooking through in the center.

Material: Cold-rolled steel with nonstick coating | Oven Safe Temperature: 450 degrees | Number of Cups: 6 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Mini

Wilton Advance Select Premium Nonstick 24-Cup Mini Muffin Pan

Orig. $20 $15 at Amazon $44 at Walmart

This mini muffin pan’s design answers the challenges that can happen when baking mini muffins or mini cupcakes. The weight of the steel is thick enough so that heat is evenly distributed, but not so thick that the delicate, small cakes risk burning.

The nonstick coating is infused with silicone to assure easy removal (important with cakes this tiny, or really, any miniature food), and the oversized handles extend out from the pan far enough to get a comfortable grip. It can be used with muffin liners or without, and the coating makes the pan scratch-resistant. Put it in the dishwasher for easy cleanup! It comes with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Material: Cold-rolled steel with nonstick coating | Oven Safe Temperature: 450 degrees | Number of Cups: 24 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes