Add Ice Cubes to Empty Muffin Tins

By

imburnt

I just found out this might not always be a great plan. I was baking muffins at 375F and filled the empty cup half full with water. I heard a strange sound, opened the oven to discover the bottom element (under the water) misshapen and then it snapped. We think the water boiled and overflowed as there is a white residue under the element on that side only. I don't know why I did this, my pans have never warped, I never noticed any one muffin cooking more than others and I never noticed a little smoke in a clean oven.
Also, I usually turn my muffins over to get them out of the pan, how do you do this with water in one cup?

By

cett

Please could somebody enlighten me? when I don't fill all the tins I just leave them empty! Is there some special reason for filling them with water? Why do they ALL have to be filled with anything?

<b>Editor's Note:</b> The reason I fill any empty tins halfway with water is so the muffins will bake evenly. When some of the tins are empty the muffins nearest those empty tins may bake faster than the others. Another view is it's meant to prevent your muffin tin from warping. Yet another view is so the pan won't smoke during baking.

By

Karifl

This is an excellent tip! Duh! Why didn't I think of that :>) Thanks for this great tip!