Baking with Glass Pans

Almost all of my bake ware is glass. Pyrex, Fireking, or any other brand that might have been popular and easy to find at garage sales in the Midwest. You see, my parents were big on garage sales and country auctions. When we bought the inn, my dad amassed a large collection of glass bake ware, broken toasters, 1950s era waffle irons, marginal vacuum cleaners, and sparking (not sparkling) lamps that he was sure we would find useful. Although I could have lived without the home perms caused by some of the lamps and toasters we did use almost all of his "treasures.

The unfortunate thing about glass bake ware is that it retains heat so well that baked goods keep on baking after you pull them out of the oven. That's just fine for somethings but for some reasons guests didn't appreciate overly crispy coffee cakes and brownies. The solution? Tin foil. Mold foil over the outside of the pan, insert the form into the pan and gently smooth it into place.

Spray it with non-stick spray if the recipe calls for greasing the pan. Bake as usual but within a few minutes of removing it from the oven gently pull up the foil and remove the cake from the pan to a cooling rack or counter. The extra foil around the edges can cover the cake when it is cooled. As a bonus the pan is still clean so just put it away when it is cool. That' a tip that works for me on Wednesday or any other day of the week.