Shane Wighton, the engineer behind the YouTube channel Stuff Made Here, has reinvented brownie baking with a pan that cooks brownies evenly from the inside out, getting rid of the chewy edges that spark debate among dessert lovers.
Brownies are divisive: some like the crispy edges where the batter meets the pan, others the soft, fudgy center. Inspired by his wife’s preference for center-like texture, Wighton wanted to create a pan that produces only that. Edges form because of uneven heat, the sides of the pan cook the batter faster than the center. His solution redefines heat distribution through clever design and precise engineering.
Baker's Edge Brownie Pan, The Original All Edges Brownie Pan for Baking | Premium Double Nonstick...
- THE ORIGINAL BROWNIE BAKING PAN FOR EDGE LOVERS: Baker’s Edge is the ideal Edge Brownie Pan that makes every piece the best and yummiest one! It’s...
- GIVE EVERY BROWNIE IN THE BATCH THAT DELICIOUS “CORNER CRUST”: Love brownies? So do we. We think the most mouthwatering brownies have moist...
- BETTER HEAT DISTRIBUTION, BETTER BAKING: Contrary to a brownie pan with dividers, Baker’s Edge patented single-chamber design allows the batter to...
Wighton’s first prototype was a spherical pan, to bake a cornerless brownie with even heat from all sides. Machined as a bolted metal orb, it was filled via a syringe through a tapered hole. The resulting small, round brownie was fudgy in the center but cake-like, scored a 5/10 from his wife. Though a good concept, it was too small and impractical so he moved on.
Next Wighton addressed heat transfer directly. Since brownie batter is a poor heat conductor, he designed a pan with aluminum spikes into the batter. Aluminum is 700 times better at conducting heat than batter, so it channels heat to the center and reduces edge overcooking. This “personal pan” had removable tapered spikes and was monitored with a heat resistant camera enclosure. The brownies scored 7.5/10, close but with minor edge issues, fixed by adjusting cooking time and temperature.
The final design is a full size pan with 272 retractable aluminum spikes, for even heat distribution. A lever mechanism retracts the spikes after baking, to give an edge free brownie slab. Batter thickness prevents leakage through spike holes, simplifies the design. The pan was 5 axis machined and has spring loaded ball plungers for stability. His wife gave the brownies a 10/10, they were perfect and fudgy.
To test the design Wighton created a “mechanical mouth” with a razor blade and load cell to measure cutting force. Unlike standard brownies which require more force at the crusty edges, his brownies matched the soft center’s profile throughout, proving the pan works.
