12 Fantastic Muffin Recipes (Without a Muffin Pan)

Muffins are among of the simplest and most delicious baked items you can prepare at home, and they’re great for breakfast or as a snack. The components are pantry staples, so you can definitely get some milk, eggs, flour, and sugar.

But what if you don’t have the right baking dish? Is it possible to bake muffins without a muffin pan?

To prepare muffins without a muffin pan, line a baking sheet with paper, silicon, or foil muffin liners (or make your own) or use mason jar lids. Muffins may be baked in ramekins, ovenproof mugs or cups, or even clean cans. Bake muffin batter in a loaf pan, cake pan, or skillet. Alternatively, use an electric muffin maker.

Don’t give up if you want to make muffins but don’t have a muffin or cupcake pan. Although muffin trays are useful with separate metal muffin-shaped cups, they are not required for enjoying a fresh muffin.

You don’t need a muffin pan as long as you have something to keep your muffin batter in shape as it bakes and rises. There are several inventive methods for preparing muffins without a muffin pan.

1 – Use Flat Ice Cream Cones

It’s typical to see little cupcakes cooked in ice cream cones for children’s parties, and it’s also convenient since the cup is edible.

Cupcakes aren’t the only treats that can be baked in an ice cream cone. Muffins also work nicely cooked in cones, and if you use the flat-based ice cream cones, you don’t need a muffin pan. Furthermore, nutritious muffins suddenly seem to be party food to picky youngsters.

Here’s how to bake muffins in ice cream cones:

• Place the cones close together on a baking sheet to provide support.
• You may also wish to use a baking tray with a lip in case of spills.
• Stand the cones in mason jar lids, ovenproof ramekins, or mugs for further support.
• Fill the cones with batter and bake as usual.

2 – Use Free-Standing Baking Cups

Freestanding baking cups are a fantastic idea that eliminates the need for a muffin pan.

These cups are available in paper, foil, and silicone, and they are stronger than standard baking cups or liners, so they do not buckle or deform under the weight of the batter.

Most freestanding cups, like conventional paper liners, have ruffled edges. They are available in large, normal, and mini-muffin sizes.

The benefit of freestanding baking cups is that they may be placed on a baking sheet, loaded with batter, and baked without the need of a muffin tray. Another benefit is that they bake faster than a metal muffin pan, so keep an eye on them.

The paper and foil cups are disposable (no cleanup! ), but the silicone cups are washable and reusable.

3 – Use Multiple Paper Muffin Liners

If you don’t have a muffin pan or freestanding muffin cups, you may always use regular paper muffin liners.

These paper liners aren’t strong enough to be used on their own, but if you use two or three at a time, they’re solid enough not to leak batter, even if the end product isn’t perfectly round muffins.

Here’s how to make muffins in paper muffin cups:

• To use paper muffin liners, lay them on a baking sheet, ideally one with a lip to avoid leaks in your oven.
• Place the muffin papers close together, if possible touching, so that the muffins may support one another during baking. The muffins will be little squarish, but they will still taste excellent.
• Overfilling the muffin cups will cause them to buckle and tip over, even if you use double or triple paper liners.
• Place the muffin papers side by side on mason jar lids for further stability.
• Remember that muffins prepared in paper liners will bake faster than muffins made on metal baking trays, so check your muffins early to see whether they are done.

4 – Use Homemade Muffin Liners

You probably don’t have any muffin or cupcake liners if you don’t have a muffin or cupcake pan. But don’t worry, robust muffin liners are simple to manufacture if you have aluminum foil or nonstick parchment paper on hand. Here’s how it’s done:

• Make 5 × 5-inch squares out of aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Make the liners double-layered, with the outside layer made of foil and the interior layer made of parchment paper. Because the foil outer pieces are double-layered, they may be reused.
• To form, wrap the paper or foil around the base of a glass.
• To make the bottom of the improvised liner entirely flat, press a measuring cup down around the paper.
• Use the liners as you would any purchased liners.

5 – Use Ramekins

Ramekins, which are little glass or ceramic plates used for individual desserts, quiches, or soufflés, come in handy as emergency muffin pans.

Using ramekins is a brilliant idea. If you want to serve your muffins at home, it is difficult to tip them out of ramekins, and ramekins are not particularly portable due to their breakability.

However, eating a muffin with a spoon from a ramekin makes muffins appear like an exquisite dessert (despite the fact that it will taste like a homely, wonderful muffin).

Here’s how to bake muffins in ramekins rather than a muffin tray:

• Ramekins may be placed directly in the oven, although it is more convenient to fill them on a baking pan.
• Before filling, butter and flour the ramekins separately or line them with paper muffin liners.
• Put the entire baking tray in the oven.
• Because ramekins are made of glass or ceramic and heat up more slowly than metal, they will take longer to bake than a conventional muffin tray.
• If you used paper liners, you can easily remove the muffins from the ramekins. Otherwise, you’ll look great eating the muffin from a ramekin!

6 – Use Ovenproof Cups or Mugs

If you’re not much of a baker and don’t have muffin pans or ramekins, everyone’s kitchen contains cups and mugs. Furthermore, the majority of ceramic mugs and glasses are ovenproof or oven safe. Hello, quick muffin cups!

Here’s how to bake muffins without a muffin pan by using standard ceramic cups or mugs:

• Set out your mugs or cups on a baking tray.
• Before filling, grease and flour the mugs or line them with paper muffin liners.
• Teacups can be filled like standard-sized muffin pans, however mugs cannot be filled without altering the baking time.
• Put the entire baking tray in the oven.
• Mugs heat up more slowly than metal, so your muffins will take longer to bake than on a regular muffin pan.
• You should be able to get the muffins out if you used paper liners. Otherwise, eat your muffin like a mug cake with a spoon.

7 – Use Clean Tin Cans

When you have a need for muffins but don’t have the baking equipment, a creative alternative is to utilize those little cans you’ve saved for recycling. If you have some cans that are around the same size, you already have a muffin tray!

Here’s how you can substitute cans for a muffin tray:

• Find six to twelve cans of roughly the same size.
• Remove the can tops with care. You may make them shorter if you like, but be cautious of the sharp edges.
• Wash and sanitize the cans thoroughly. This is something your dishwasher can do for you.
• Set out your cans on a baking tray.
• Before filling, grease and flour the cans or line them with paper muffin liners.
• Put the entire baking tray in the oven.
• Bake as usual.
• Take caution while removing the cans from the oven since they will be quite hot!
• Your customized muffin tins are reusable.

8 – Use a Loaf Tin

Okay, so they aren’t muffins, but any muffin recipe can be readily altered to make a fast loaf cooked in a loaf pan. (Any fast loaf recipe may be converted into a batch of muffins.)

The benefit of baking muffins as a loaf is that you can easily slice off a piece for breakfast in the morning and toast and butter it.

To make your muffins into a quick loaf, do this:

• Mix your muffin batter as usual.
• Set the oven to 350F or 180C, or approximately 5 degrees lower than your regular muffin recipe.
• Instead of a muffin tray, pour the mixture into a prepared and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
• Bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

9 – Use a Cake Tin

Although muffin batter is much thicker and denser than cake batter, you may bake it in a standard-sized cake pan in a hurry. However, you will need to adjust the baking time since the thicker dough will take longer to bake.

Heres what to do:

• As usual, make your muffin batter; a thinner batter is preferable here.
• Set the oven to 350F or 180C, or approximately 5 degrees lower than your regular muffin recipe.
• This is the average temperature for baking cakes.
• Instead of a muffin tray, pour the mixture into a 9-inch oiled and floured conventional cake tin.
• Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, monitoring every five minutes or so after 30 minutes. Cover the muffin-cake with foil if it begins to brown too much.

10 – Use a Sheet Pan

If you don’t have a muffin tray and don’t mind the final form of your muffins, you may bake them on a sheet pan or brownie tin.

Many bakers like this method for making muffins because it produces moist, delicate muffins with a wonderful soft muffin top (probably the tastiest portion of the muffin) and crispy golden edges.

If you’re cooking muffins for a party, baking and serving a large batch of muffins on a sheet pan is also much simpler.

If you want to make sheet pan muffins, here’s how:

• Mix your muffin batter as usual.
• Grease and flour your sheet pan, or line it with parchment paper.
• Bake as normal with your muffin batter. Because the sheet pan provides a thin layer of muffins, you won’t need to change the baking time.
• After the massive muffin has cooled, cut it into squares or interesting shapes. If you want round muffins, use a three-inch cookie cutter to cut out circles.

11 – Use a Skillet

If you like muffins and pancakes, this is the recipe for you. Did you know that you can cook muffin batter in a skillet like pancake batter?

The finished product is not a pancake since the batter is too thick, but something in between. Have humans created the puffin?

Individual Skillet Muffins

Aside from the luscious sweet delight, the benefit of creating individual skillet muffins is that they cook in a matter of minutes rather than the typical 20 minutes.

To make your muffins on a skillet, do this:

• Make your batter as normal; however, a thinner batter may be advantageous in this case.
• Warm your skillet with a little amount of oil or frying spray.
• Pour 34 cup muffin batter into the skillet.4 to 1Ladle or splodge about 1
• As the batter spreads, leave room between the muffins.
• Allow the muffins to cook for six to eight minutes, covered.
• Cook for another two to three minutes after flipping the muffins.

Giant Skillet Muffin

Aside from individual skillet muffins, you may also create a large skillet muffin, similar to a Dutch pancake. This is how you do it:

• Make your muffin batter as usual.
• Line your skillet with parchment paper or oil it.
• Set the oven to 350F or 180C, or approximately 5 degrees lower than your regular muffin recipe.
• Pour your batter into your cast iron skillet.
• Bake for 45 minutes to an hour.

12 – Use an Electronic Muffin Maker

The appliance gods have invented the electric muffin maker for those of us who like kitchen gadgets. This gadget looks like a waffle maker, but it features spherical containers for micro or standard-sized muffins.

An electric muffin maker operates similarly to a waffle maker or cupcake maker:

• Plug in the muffin maker and turn it on until the green light turns on.
• Make a batter, preferably following the recipe included with the gadget.
• Pour the batter into the holders using a spoon or a pastry bag. You may need to oil or spray the muffin holders depending on your model. Others are nonstick, so no paper liners are required.
• Close the lid.
• The muffin maker bakes muffins faster than a standard oven, resulting in precisely formed, moist, delicate muffins in six to eight minutes.

The gadget is simple to clean and store. Who needs a muffin pan in the first place?

Final Thoughts

If you have an electric muffin maker, making muffins without a muffin pan is a breeze. Muffin batter may alternatively be baked in a loaf pan, cake pan, sheet pan, or skillet.

Individual muffins may be made using standard muffin liners, doubled-up muffin liners, or freestanding muffin liners. Instead of muffin pans, try ramekins, ceramic cups or mugs, or even clean cans.