This article answers, “Will coffee filters burn in the oven?” and discusses the different issues of using coffee filters in baking.
Coffee filters look the same and feel the same as cupcake liners. As someone who makes coffee every day, you have no doubt witnessed the ability of your coffee filter to withstand the intense heat of boiled water.
Therefore, it is a natural conclusion that, If you have run out of cupcake liners, you can substitute them with coffee filters without any great problem. If they can withstand being scalded with boiling water, they can surely withstand the heat of an oven.
You would be wrong to follow this line of reasoning. Many people have tried to use coffee filters as substitutes for cupcake liners only to have their experiment end in disaster. This substitution is not viable. Here is why:
Will Coffee Filters Burn In The Oven?
Cupcake liners tend to be made of parchment paper or tin foil. These materials do not burn when subjected to baking temperatures.
Coffee filters are made of finely weaved paper-based material. They can tolerate boiled water from the coffee machine, but they cannot withstand the high temperatures in a heated oven. If you use coffee filters to make cupcakes, the filters will burn.
And as a matter of good practice, you should never put any material in your oven that is not oven-safe. You could risk setting off a cascade of events that can lead to an oven fire, which will present a severe danger to your home.
You may also find our explainer on are coffee cups oven-safe helpful.
Other Reasons Why You Cannot Use Coffee Filters To Bake
One of the most pleasant things about eating cupcakes is peeling off the wrapper. Coffee filters have coarse and long fibers designed to adhere to coffee grinds as part of the extraction process. So if you were to use these filters instead of cupcake liners, the fibers will stick to the batter and merge with the pastry, creating a congealed mess of paper and cake.
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If you have previous experience of making cupcakes, then you know that the batter consists of a runny and loose liquid. One of the cupcake liner’s primary functions is to hold this batter so that it doesn’t run all over the pan.
Unfortunately, coffee filters are not waterproof. Think about it. The whole purpose of coffee filters is to allow liquid to pass through them while retaining the coffee grinds.
Additional Uses In Baking
If you intend to bake, there are some things you can use coffee filters for. They include:
1. Storage
Coffee filters are great at absorbing and holding moisture. You can fold coffee filters in half and place your baked products in them.
You can then put your goods in zip-lock bags for later consumption. Using a coffee filter to wrap them beforehand will help retain the original moisture.
Indeed, if you intend to snack on your cupcakes throughout the day and only want to cover them to keep the freshness in and the flies off, then you should use a coffee filter rather than a paper plate or a paper towel. It is more effective.
2. Serving
Although you cannot put coffee filters in the oven to bake your cupcakes, you can use them to serve your guests. If the liners you used turn out to be rather shabby looking after being in the oven, you can take them out of these wrappers and put them in coffee filters. This may be a better way to present the dish.
Other fragile baked items that don’t need liners can also be served in coffee filters. A fresh, clean, crisp filter will suffice if you have nothing else with which to serve your baked goods. Coffee filters are also great to use for spreading butter and oil in pans ahead of baking.
