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When you are baking you may not think too much about the baking pan you use. There is actually quite a bit you need to know about baking pans before you begin baking, however. There are several different sizes and shapes of baking pans, not to mention materials they are made from.

The size of baking pan will determine how much batter it will be able to hold. If you do not use the right size pan for the recipe you are going to make then there could be some mishaps. If the pan you use happens to be larger than needed then the depth of the batter will be shallower and the batter will bake quicker. Opposite to using a larger pan, if you use a pan that is to small then the batter will be deeper and it will take more time to bake.

There are a few different sizes of baking pans, such as: cake pans, loaf pans, and pie pans. Cake pans come in two main shapes, round and square. There are two other shapes though, the angel food cake pan and the springform pan. A large pan with a flat bottom is a loaf pan. Last of all, the pie pan is meant only for pies and has a flat bottom with flared up sides all around it.

There are primarily two types of materials that baking pans are made from. Metal and glass are the two types, although glass normally refers to baking dishes. If you use a glass baking dish then you may have to reduce the temperature of your oven by twenty-five degrees. It’s common that recipes will inform you of which material your baking pan should be made of for that recipe.

How do you figure out the dimensions, depth, and volume of your pan? It’s quite simple really. If you want to know your pan’s dimensions then you just measure one inside edge to the other. It is important that you measure from the inside of the edge or else you will include the thickness of your pan.

Even simpler to determine than the dimension is the depth of the pan. To do this you need to put a ruler straight up from the bottom up to the top of the pan. The only thing you need to watch out for is to make sure the ruler isn’t slanted. The best way to figure out the volume of a baking pan is to pour pre-measured cups of water in the pan until it is filled to the brim.

Final Thoughts

What should you remember or know about baking pans before choosing one? You should now that most conventional ovens hold pans no bigger than 17 x 14 inches. You should remember to measure the depth, volume, and dimensions. When measuring your dimensions it is good to know that 1 inch equals 2.54 cm and 1 cup equals 237 ml for your volume. You should use the type of pan that a recipe calls for whether it’s a glass dish or a metal pan. The last thing you need to be sure to remember is to use the correct size pan, if you don’t it could lead to a mistake in your baking.