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Bed Bath & Beyond)
Those hot dog buns you buy at the supermarket have been traveling for awhile. They may be a little flattened out by the time you get them home and will definitely taste a little bland. This isn't necessarily a problem, until you realize it is easy to make your own and they taste much, much better.
There are many recipes for whipping up a batch of hot dog buns; the only hard part about any of those recipes is making sure you have the right pan. The Americoat Nonstick Hot Dog Bun Pan is ideal for turning out a whole batch of buns at once. Even better, you can make just the number of buns you need at any given time, avoiding superfluous buns.
The Hot Dog Bun Pan is made of aluminized steel, which allows an even distribution of heat, and is coated in Americoat, an environmentally friendly nonstick formula. The pan measures 15 inches long by 6 inches wide, separated into 10 sections by raised ridges. When you pull your buns out of the oven, you can separate them with barely a touch. You can safely use the pan in ovens up to 450 degrees. You should wash it by hand. The Hot Dog Bun Pan costs $41.99.
The holiday season isn't just about baking--plenty of entertaining goes on, as well. The Snowy Village Cakelet Pan can help out with both. Using it, it's easy to turn out miniature cakes shaped like quaint cottages covered with festive greenery. Add a dusting of powdered sugar and you've got a snow-covered village that will look perfect in the middle of your holiday table. You don't need to take decorating any farther than that, although a few little touches of holiday color can make the village even cuter. Personally, I think that gingerbread makes for both the perfect appearance and smell for this holiday village, although the pan comes with a recipe. It can hold six cups of batter--one cup for each of the six buildings in the tiny village.
The Snowy Village Cakelet Pan is cast-aluminum, making for a very durable pan that will distribute heat evenly, baking your cakes perfectly. The pan has a nonstick finish, so that even the small architectural details on the buildings will release easily from the pan. While you should wash the pan by hand, it is easy to clean up. The Snowy Village Cakelet Pan is a limited-edition pan made by Nordic Ware and available through Williams-Sonoma for this holiday season. The pan is $36.
Going all out on baking for the holidays is a family tradition: we make cookies, cakes, and anything else we can think of, handing out treats to friends and family. Since I give them to a wide variety of people, I'm always looking for a way to make mine look their best. The Baking Shapes that King Arthur Flour is offering for the holiday season easily add a little something special to a plate full of holiday sweets. The set of four includes a pair of bells, a star, a snowman, and a tree. You can fill one with cake or muffin batter--much the same way that you make cupcakes, bake them, and turn them out.
The Baking Shapes each hold about a third of a cup of batter and turn out cakes ranging in size from 3.5 inches to 4.25 inches. Each of the four bakers is steel, with a nonstick coating. When you clean them, the Baking Shapes should be washed by hand. While the four shapes won't use up all the batter that most cake recipes will make, they can be combined with muffin tins to turn out several options you can easily serve for the holidays. The set of four Baking Shapes is priced at $14.99.
Just about every restaurant is offering up seasonal treats incorporating pumpkin on their dessert menus right now. One of my favorites is pumpkin cheesecake: it brings together two of of my favorite tastes. While making cheesecakes at home can be a little complex, I want to be able to turn out a few of my own pumpkin cheesecakes. The Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Pan can do just that and even makes those cheesecakes in single portions, shaped just like pumpkins. You can choose any crust you feel like making and mix and match with pumpkin cheesecakes and more traditional flavors--either way, the pumpkin forms will create a fall-themed treat even if you choose to leave the pumpkin out of your recipe. You can even decorate a jack o'lantern or two.
The Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Pan is better for single serving cheesecakes than the standard muffin pan. The sides are nonstick and the bottoms are removable, which lets you pull out finished cheesecakes without having to worry about muffin papers or other liners. The pan is steel with aluminum alloy and is safe to go in the dishwasher. It measures 14 inches by 10 4/5 inches, creating individual cheesecakes about the same size as cupcakes.
I want that one.
(Credit: Taylor Gifts)Someday, all food will come in exact sizes and shapes. No, I'm not talking about the oft-mentioned food pills of the always-distant future, where one capsule supplies enough nutrients for the day. Hopefully, that terrifying future never falls upon us, because eating or preparing a well-made meal can be rewarding in its own right. However, there is something to be said about food that is served exactly the same every time. Just ask siblings how they feel about the concept as they try to split a particularly delicious treat like pizza or a brownie.
Speaking of brownies, we've seen the concept before: a brownie pan that creates equal-sized squares of the chocolate treat. While it is not uncommon for children to fuss over who has a larger piece of brownie, the competition is rarely taken to dinner items, such as lasagna. Thanks to the Slice Lasagna Pan, it need never happen.
Twelve perfectly portioned squares of lasagna are cooked at one time. Simply layer your creation as you would with any other lasagna pan, and then push in the cutting grid. The lasagna cooks into individual squares, with the added benefit of four delicious cooked sides for each piece of lasagna. Of course if lasagna is not your thing, with its 2.75-inch depth there is no stopping you from making twelve huge squares of brownies--all with four sides of crust.
If you live or work somewhere with limited space, the 3-in-1 Breakfast Maker from Sunpentown can breakfast a lot easier. It incorporates a coffee maker, a toaster oven and an electric frying pan all in one small appliance. The coffee maker can hold 4 cups and offers a reusable coffee filter. The frying pan is nonstick and ETL-approved. The toaster oven has a removable rack and tray, along with a 15-minute timer. It has a capacity of 5 liters. And all of this is in an appliance that measures just 15.5 inches by 8 inches by 9.5 inches.
The 3-in-1 Breakfast Maker is ideal for a dorm room or an office. While a few meals might still be out of reach, you can cook up a surprising number of dishes in it, and you certainly aren't just limited to making breakfast. If you can pair it with a miniature fridge and possibly a microwave, you can cook most things that come to mind. The 3-in-1 Breakfast Maker has a power output of 500 watts, meaning that it won't be a major part of your electricity bill, either. The appliance is black and stainless steel. It's priced at $50.98.
With the MSR Flex 4 System Cookset, you have a complete set of cookware for a group of four--at least for basic cooking jobs. The set is versatile enough to cook at home or pack for a trip. It includes a nonstick 3.2-liter pot, a 5.3-liter pot, lids for both pots that double as strainers, a Talon pot handle, four polypropylene plates, and four insulated mugs. The only thing missing the silverware, assuming you don't want to eat with your fingers. The different parts of the cooking set nest together, minimizing the amount of space they require in your kitchen cupboard or on a trip. The MSR Flex 4 System Cookset compresses to just 6.25 inches by 12 inches. With packing materials, it barely breaks 4 pounds.
In addition to the MSR Flex 4 System Cookset, MSR makes a variety of camping gear, including smaller cookware sets. The company offers a single-pan option, as well as systems that provide enough cookware for two or three people. While the MSR Flex 4 System Cookset is priced at $159.94, the two-person set is $99.94 and is missing only the plates and cups for the third and fourth diners.
Cupcakes are great, but sometimes you want to go a step beyond. The Sweet Rides Classic Car Pan, from Nordic Ware, lets you turn your cupcakes into truly sweet rides. The pan shapes each cupcake into a different car--they aren't made in any particular models, but you'll be able to pick out a truck and even a convertible. While the pan does add quite a few details to your cupcakes, there aren't so many that it's hard to remove the cupcakes after you're done baking. You can also get away without completely icing these treats: a full coat of icing would hide the details but a few well-placed lines of frosting will just emphasize them.
The Sweet Rides Classic Car Pan is 10 inches by 16 inches by 2 inches. It only turns out 8 cupcakes in each batch (compared to a more typical 12), but those cupcakes are a little larger than average and will require a full batch of cupcake batter. It's made from cast aluminum, with a nonstick coating. The coating does mean that the pan is hand wash only, preferably with mild detergent, but it does clean up very easily. The Sweet Rides Classic Car Pan is $27.23.
Bundt cakes, as a rule, aren't particularly fancy. With the right pan, though, you can make your cake a little fancier. The Aloha Bundt Cake Pan is perfect if you're looking for a tropical feel. The pan's design shapes your cake to look like six small pineapples that form a ring. You don't even need to frost it to get a great look. Unlike many pans that mold details into a baking cake, the design on this pan is not so delicate that you won't be able to get the cake out of the pan when you're ready to eat. And if you're planning to entertain, the pineapple design as an extra meaning: the pineapple has been considered a symbol of hospitality since colonial days.
The Aloha Bundt Cake Pan comes from Nordic Ware and meets its maker's reputation for solid bakeware. It is made from heavy-duty cast aluminum, with a nonstick finish. The finish does mean that the pan should be washed by hand, but cleanup is generally easy. If you're not in the mood for cake, the pan works equally well as a mold for gelatin or ice cream. The Aloha Bundt Cake Pan is priced at $28.66.
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Nordic Ware)
There are plenty of ways to liven up a stack of pancakes: you can mix in blueberries or add a handful of chocolate chips or even use a pan that adds fun designs to your breakfast. The Bug Pancake Pan lets you take that last option, adding pictures of dragonflies, ladybugs, and more to your pancakes.
The pan comes from Nordic Ware and has a non-stick surface that's also heat-reflective, offering uniform browning for your pancakes. The pan offers seven different sections into which you can pour pancakes, each with its own bug theme: a dragonfly, snail, butterfly, ladybug, spider, bee, worm, and beetle. The pan was designed with silver dollar-size pancakes in mind.
The Bug Pancake Pan is particularly ideal for making up a stack of pancakes for children--not only will the bug imprints appeal, but the smaller pancakes will be a better fit for smaller appetites and the pan lets you make up a whole batch in a hurry. The pan is 10-1/4 inches across. Cleanup is hand-wash only: Nordic Ware warns against using abrasive cleaners with its non-stick pans. The Bug Pancake Pan is priced at $35.
