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Would lining a dark pan with foil inhibit the browning significantly?

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where do you get the notion that dark pans brown better? I've never heard that... – Sam Holder Sep 10 '10 at 16:09
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do you mean in baking? @Sam - for baking purposes glass and dark metal are considered to brown baked goods faster than light metal – justkt Sep 10 '10 at 16:10
I have a cake tin (dark metal) which has started to leak. As a consequence I lined the tin with foil last time I baked a cake, and I can't say that I noticed that the cake was less brown, but there again I wasn't looking for it. The cake was brown on the bottom though. – Sam Holder Sep 10 '10 at 16:18

1 Answer

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For metal pans, lining them won't significantly affect the cooking time -- the reason they cook differently is because of how much radiant heat they reflect. (dark absorbs, light reflects).

For a glass pan, however, I would think that if you use aluminum foil, or something light and reflective, that it could make it cook more like a light metal pan, as the issue in the glass pan is that it allows almost all of the radiant heat through without reflecting it. I've never tested it, though.

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