“Prepare the pan” is usually the least interesting part of a recipe. I blast my dish with cooking spray and move on. But my family’s recent baking obsession left me with an empty can and an opportunity to rethink my technique. I was curious: Does dusting the pan with different fats, flours and flavors improve your favorite recipes?
The fat prevents food from sticking. Sure, you can grease the pan with vegetable oil, but butter will reward you with a delicious golden crust. Standard butter or higher-fat European butter? For pan dusting, it makes no difference. What does matter is the application technique. If you want to leave no crumb behind, melt a tablespoon of butter and apply it with a pastry brush and a heavy hand.
Dusting the pan with all-purpose flour prevents the butter from seeping into your batter. I made my own flavor-packed “flour” by grinding a quarter cup each of nuts and oats in a food processor until it became the texture of cornmeal. Brownies dusted with almond-oat flour offered nuanced toasted notes, as well as a sturdier crust that kept crumbs off the table. Coconut-oat flour made a sweet, crunchy foundation for my sheet pan blueberry muffins.
I tweaked the experiment again, skipping the “flours” and dusting the buttered pan with cocoa powder for banana bread and smoked paprika for cornbread. In both cases, the additional flavors improved the overall taste. However, they both darkened during baking, giving the bottoms of the baked goods a burned appearance. The final verdict: For food that doesn’t stick to the pan, stick to butter and your favorite flour or “flour.”
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