There are few jobs more frustrating than having to scrape the egg off a muffin pan – without damaging the pan in the process, at least.
It can be fiddly to get at the cups inside these pans as well, which makes a messy job even more frustrating!
The good news is that there’s a very clever little kitchen hack you can use to get the job done quickly, and with minimal effort on your part.
How do you get baked egg off a muffin pan the easy way, then? It’s simple:
- Preheat your oven to 350F / 176C.
- Fill the each pan with hot water and baking soda.
- Bake the filled pan for 20 minutes or so.
- Once cool, wipe away the grime and rinse!
That’s the quick answer. For the full lowdown on how to clean up a particularly gunky muffin pan, read on.
I’ve also included a second method in case this first one can’t quite shift the most stubborn stuff.
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Jump ahead to:
What You’ll Need
The good news is that you likely already have what you need for this job lying around in your kitchen:
- Baking soda
- Hot water
- A pouring jug such as a Pyrex
- A non-abrasive cleaning sponge
- An oven (!)
So, as you can see there’s nothing too demanding needed from even the most primitive kitchen.
If you don’t have any baking soda, that’s very inexpensive to buy from the local store.
Instructions
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of what you need to do.
Step 1 – Preheat The Oven
You don’t need a particularly high heat for this method to work.
Preheat the oven to 350F / 176C and it’ll be more more than hot enough to get the job done.
Step 2 – Prepare Your Cleaning Mixture
While the oven’s heating up, fill the Pyrex jug up with hot water until it’s almost full.
Add two tablespoons of baking soda, and then stir it gently until the baking soda has completely dissolved.
Step 3 – Fill The Muffin Pan Cups
Carefully pour the hot water and baking soda mix into each cup.
Aim for around two-thirds to three-quarters full in each case.
(You’ll be transferring this to the oven shortly, so you don’t want to overfill and spill this stuff all over your kitchen floor. Most of the worst egg muck tends to cake on the bottom of each cup anyway.)
Step 4 – Bake That Muffin Pan
Carefully transfer the filled muffin pan to your oven.
Let the mixture bake for around 15 minutes.
Step 5 – Cool Down Before Cleaning Up
Once the 15 minutes are up, turn the oven off and wait for the muffin pan to cool down until it’s safe to handle.
Step 6 – The Easy Clean
Transfer the cooler muffin pan from the oven to the sink, again being careful not to spill any of the baking soda mix.
Grab your sponge and gently work it around each of the cups. You should find that the baked-in egg slides off effortlessly now.
If not, keep going a little harder. Just be careful not to be too abrasive with your bakeware.
Step 7 – Rinse & Dry
When you’re done, just give the muffin pan a good rinse to remove any traces of baking soda still left on it.
Finally, just air or towel dry and then store it away with the rest of your bakeware.
Alternative Method
If the baking soda hasn’t done the job, you can try again using white vinegar instead.
Fill the muffin pan cups with hot water again, then add a few drops of vinegar to each one.
Don’t put it in the oven this time though. Just let it sit on the side for 20 minutes or so. After that time, just empty, rinse and dry as normal.
I recommend trying this after the baking soda approach though.
The vinegar can lend a distinctly unpleasant after-odor to your muffin pan, which will require a longer rinse afterwards.
Wrapping Up
That should be everything you need to know about getting baked eggs and all the other kinds of baking gunk off your muffin pan.
Good luck and happy cooking!
Mark’s a lifelong food fanatic and spent ten years working as an entertainment journalist. He now combines his love of food, drink and writing as the founder and editor of Viva Flavor. Read more