Mini-loaves make the perfect gift, and with our linked mini-loaf pan, you can make multiple at a time and get your gift shopping done early. We absolutely love to bake mini loaves. Wrap them in cellophane or a pretty paper from the craft store and tie them with ribbons for gifts. It’s easy. You can use your favorite bread, cake, muffin, or quick bread recipes to make mini loaves. You can certainly use our quick bread mixes or our bread mixes, but you have to be sure to adjust the baking time. Times vary depending on altitude, your oven, the recipe, and the pan. Get in the habit of checking early until you know how a particular recipe and pan combination will perform in your oven.
Testing the Baking Times For Mini Bread Loaves
We have tested baking times extensively around two variables: the pan used and the size of the recipe. This is what we have found:
- Dark pans bake considerably faster than light-colored pans, especially silver pans. That’s because light pans and glossy finishes reflect the heat while dark pans absorb heat. Using a dark, matte-finished pan, may reduce your baking time by 20%.
- It’s the depth of the batter that matters the most, not the area. Batter an inch and one-half deep will bake nearly as quickly in a 15-inch pan as a 13-inch pan. Two inches of batter will take considerably longer to bake.
How to Adjust the Time for Your Mini Loaf
In dark mini loaf pans of medium size, reduce the time by 25% and then check five minutes early. Many recipes take 22 to 25 minutes.
In dark mini loaf pans of small size, say our eight-loaf linking pans, baking times are more like jumbo muffins, not loaves. Many recipes take 18 to 20 minutes.
We hope that helps.
