Of course, you can make muffins and cupcakes in a muffin tin (FYI: any quick bread or cake recipe, even a boxed mix, will make great muffins or cupcakes), and muffin tins can be used to serve food children.
But what else can you use them for?
A few of these things are the same as my creative uses for a bundt pan.
Why?
Because the meal itself is that versatile, and can adapt to almost any container.
As with the bundt pan, make sure you grease, wipe with melted butter, or spritz the muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray before you add any ingredients. Otherwise, you might end up with half of your dish stuck to the muffin pan.
10 Foods to Make in a Muffin Pan
- Single serving meatloaves. You can use a recipe specifically designed for a muffin pan, like Kraft's Marvelous Mini Meatloaves. Or use your favorite meatloaf recipe. If you do that, make sure to cut the cooking time way back, as much as half. Otherwise, your mini meatloaves will burn. I like muffin meatloaves because the serving size is predetermined. There's no cutting, unless you're feeding small people.
- Muffin-sized frittatas or omelets. This link is from the American Egg Board, featuring a veggie frittata with peppers, onions, and zucchini, but you could vary the ingredients according to your liking. There's no reason that you couldn't make a ham and cheese frittata or even a plain cheese frittata. A muffin-sized frittata is perfectly hand-sized, and easy to eat on the run, by the way.
- Eggs-tra special breakfast cups. This is so easy! Put 3 frozen tater tots in each muffin cup. Top with diced ham and shredded cheese. Last, beat 12 eggs (adding spices, salsa, or other seasonings as you prefer), and divide the egg mixture among the cups. Bake at 350 or until the eggs are firm. Top with salsa, ketchup, A1 sauce, or chili sauce. Or don't top them at all and eat on the run.
- Corn mini pies. To make corn mini pies, you whip up a filling of cream cheese and corn, and then stuff it inside an uncooked Grand's biscuit. Imagine the possibilities - how about a filling of spaghetti sauce and pepperoni? That would make mini strombolis. Or a filling of diced ham and shredded cheese? Or taco meat? Or diced apples, brown sugar, and butter (or your favorite pie filling)? Again, the possibilities are endless, and the results are oh, so tasty.
- Freeze 1-cup quantities of homemade chicken or turkey stock. Once they're frozen, you can pop them out and place in a gallon-sized zip top bag for easier long term storage.
- Mandarin orange upside down cakes. Yum! This is a simple recipe. Basically, you combine ¼ cup of melted butter with ½ cup of brown sugar. Divide the mixture between all 12 muffin cups. Then, place one maraschino cherry and 4 mandarin orange slices (patted dry) in each muffin cup. Combine a yellow cake mix with the juice from a jar of mandarin oranges and one egg. Divide the cake batter between the muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, then immediately turn onto a heat-safe platter. Based on an old recipe from The Pampered Chef. You could make any upside-down cake the same way. Instead of oranges, use pineapple chunks or rings. Or toss pecans or walnuts in the butter-sugar mixture and omit the fruit.
- Taco muffins. I think these are so unique, and they are so tasty! We top ours with salsa, cheese, and sour cream.
- Individual au gratin potatoes. Slice potatoes very thin. Layer 3 slices of potato, a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese, and a sprinkle of sliced green onions. Repeat 5 times or until muffin cup is full. Pour 2 tablespoons of heavy cream over the top. Fill all muffin cups in the same manner, cover with foil, and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 20 minutes. Based on a recipe from The Next Food Network Star. As is the case with most of the above recipes, you can vary the ingredients by changing the type of cheese, adding ham or bacon, or even adding other veggies.
- Cinnamon pull apart muffins. Start with two 11-ounce packages of dinner rolls. Separate the rolls and cut each into six pieces. Roll half of the pieces in two tablespoons of melted butter, then toss with a mixture of ⅓ cup sugar, ¼ cup chopped pecans, and 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon. Fill 6 of the muffin cups and repeat with the rest of the pieces, another two tablespoons of melted butter, and another mixture of ⅓ cup sugar, ¼ cup chopped pecans, and 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon. Divide between the rest of the muffin cups. Combine the leftover sugar mixture from both batches with 1 tablespoon of flour and 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Stir to make a crumb topping; spoon topping over each muffin. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove from muffin pan. Based on an old recipe from The Pampered Chef.
- Twice baked potatoes. Start with 6 baked potatoes, cooled enough that you can handle them. Cut each potato in half across the middle (so that you have short, chubby halves rather than long thinner ones). Scoop out most of the potato, leaving a sturdy shell behind. Place one shell into each muffin cup. In a large bowl, mash the scooped out potato. Add ½ cup sour cream, ½ cup milk, 3 chopped green onions, ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese, and ¼ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Scoop the potato mixture back into the potato cups, and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Garnish with more green onions, crumbled bacon, and more cheddar cheese. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
- Bonus - BBQ muffin cups. These stuffed muffins contain cheese and BBQ ground beef. So amazingly tasty!
I could probably give you another 10 suggestions if I'd allowed myself to include quick bread and traditional sweet muffin recipes. There are tons of those available on the internet and in cookbooks.
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Valerie @ FFFB says
Love the mini meat loaf idea -- brilliant!
Angie @ Many Little Blessings says
Funny - I was just thinking today that I should try making banana muffins instead of banana bread with some bananas I have that seriously need to have something done with them. I've never made the recipe into muffins though, so I was afraid to do it. Maybe this is just the push I needed.
Lindsay @ Just My Blog says
Oh I love twice baked potatoes! I will have to try a few of these recipes! Thanks for the ideas!
Jeni says
What great ideas! I'm definitely going to bookmark this post for later reference - the breakfast cups and twice-baked potatoes are especially appealing!
vanderbiltwife says
Mandarin orange upside-down cakes! GENIOUS! What a cute idea!
Betsye75 says
Someone made me brownies (with a piece of chocolate melted into the center) in a muffin tin. It was de-LISH-ious. Only downside - the serving size made me eat too much and I felt a little sick afterwards.
Anna says
What a fun list! I love the idea of making individual foods - meatloaves, au gratin potatoes, etc. I'm going to have to try that.
My kids love to eat out of muffin tins. They think it's hilarious to have their lunch served in them, with a small cup in one, some grapes in another, cheese cubes in a third, etc.
Anna here from Top Ten Tuesday. 😀
Andrea says
Great Post! I LOVE finding multiple uses for items I already have in my house.
This weekend, I made Mini Fruit Pies in my muffin tins (click the link to see my recipe). They turned out great!
I also use muffin tins to help me stay organized -- I use them to sort buttons and beads in the craft room, earrings and other jewelry, and even to sort seeds when I'm planting my vegetable garden.
(visiting from Top Ten Tuesdays)
FeelsLikeHomeBlog says
Grace does, too. If the muffin cups are fancy and silicone, it's all the better. I so enjoy her muffin tin meals! 🙂
FeelsLikeHomeBlog says
You are not the first person who has mentioned to me that they use muffin tins to organize. I never thought of that, but it is brilliant!
Sheriw1965 says
Great ideas - especially the breakfast ones! Serving small food in each compartment almost makes me wish my kids were still little. 🙂
momstart1 says
You are so creative. I'm going to have to bookmark this just so I can try some of your recipes. Like the pull apart muffins. YUMMY!
BigBinder says
This is fantastic!! I thought it was going to be something like "keep your buttons sorted" or something - what an awesome list of fun recipes!
Julie Bagamary says
I also freeze applesauce portions for replacing the oil in the next batch of granola.
Anoregoncottage says
Love these ideas, Tara! And the bundt ones, too- never thought about roasting a chicken and putting the veggies in the bottom- clever. 🙂
Kaye says
Love this list! I am going to link to in this Satruday as part of my weekend round up post!
Heather @wistfulwrists says
Some great new ideas in here. I really like the breakfast cups & portion for freezing broth. Thanks for sharing. I found you from WFMW.
Crystal & Co says
I have made individual meatloafs many time in my muffin pan. They cook so fast you never have to worry about the middle not being done!
Great tips. I am going to share this link with my Facebook readers.
Stopping by from WFMW!
Blessedwithgrace says
Great suggestions! Thanks.
Janna says
Yummy! Love these ideas! I make chocolate chip muffins of course:)
Tiffiny Felix says
Found you on Works for Me Wednesdays 🙂 These are great ideas, I especially love the mini upside-down cakes--they must be so cute!! 🙂
Becca says
What awesome ideas! I might have to try egg fritattas in there 🙂
April says
What great ideas! I can't wait to try a few of these, especially the breakfast cups and twice baked potatoes.
Lenetta says
I'm also a muffin tin organizer person :>) and I use my sillicone muffin pan to freeze 1/2 cup pucks of diced green pepper, which I then just toss into soup and stuff. I linked to you on my weekly roundup - thanks for sharing!
JDaniel4smom says
This post has been selected as one of my great posts of the week. Here is the link to my post: http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/2010/07/great-posts...
FeelsLikeHomeBlog says
Thanks! 🙂
Natalie says
I make mini Sheppard's pie ...put a flattened biscuit in the bottom fill with hamburger meat, corn and then top with mashed potatoes and cheese...bake for 20 minutes and you are done...
I also make inside out egg rolls...put one wanton wrapper in the bottom, fill with cabbage, pork, carrots, ginger, and garlic and onions...cook for 20 minutes and serve with soy sauce and duck sauce...yummy
LilMsMuffinPan says
Everything... it's my now my obsession!
http://www.doyouknowthemuffinpan.com
Justine says
I make some scrambled eggs, (you can also put whatever you want in the eggs) then spray the muffin pan, stuff a slice of bread in the bottom of the muffin cup, (so it looks like a cup) then put the scrambled eggs into the bread, top with bacon crumbles, cheese, onion, fresh tyme, whatever you want, then bake for 10 - 15 minutes. They look and taste great!
Tara @ Feels Like Home says
That sounds delicious!
Phillipa Wirangi says
Awesome ideas! So glad I came across this.
I made quiche last night in my muffin pan for hubbys lunch.