Did you check the "Troubleshooting" section of your bread machine manual for an answer? 1. My first choice is to do what I always do - bake your bread in a loaf pan in the oven and only use your bread machine for preparing the dough, but that's now what you're after. 2. Let the bread rest in the pan for 10 minutes after you remove the pan from the bread machine. Once in the cooler air the loaf will shrink a little and that may help it pull away from the pan. 3. I've read where you can wrap a wet kitchen towel (wet with warm/hot water) around the bread pan and allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes, and that's supposed to help the unwilling loaf loosen. 3. Another choice... After your dough has finished kneading, remove it from the bread machine and give it and/or your bread machine a shot of Cooking Spray; then replace the dough in the pan. But not just any cooking spray, get the professional grade product they sell at Sam's Club (red and white can with a red lid). This particular spray is made with 100% canola oil, but in this application it's superior attributes will beat plain old PAM every time. It resists darkening under heat and won't mess up your pan with baked-on residue. An application of cooking oil or melted shortening may also work. Good luck, and be sure to let us know what works best for you.

1. Have you checked your oven temperature with an oven thermometer? That's how you KNOW when your oven reaches the correct temperature for baking - not according to any certain amount of time or a magic pre-heat beep from the oven. Many ovens are out of calibration. Just because the knob or digital read-out says 350F, doesn't necessarily MEAN that's the actual temperature. You need to check the temperature with the oven thermometer where the baking is going to be done (such as the middle rack in the middle of the oven). In some ovens the temperature can differ from one rack to another, as well as from the front of the oven to the back. Baking muffins in an oven that is too hot will create asymmetrically shaped muffins. If the oven temperature is too cool, the muffins will be heavy and not rise correctly. Most muffins bake at 350°-400°F. Those temperatures vary according to the recipe and the type of batter used. 2. If the silicone muffin pans aren't working for you, then I'd suggest using standard metal pans. If you don't like the clean-up, use paper or foil muffin papers to line the muffin pans (metal OR silicone). Did you spray your muffin pan with PAM or other vegetable spray? That can discolor silicone (as well as metal pans), especially any over-spray on the surface top of the pan. I avoid PAM for spraying ANY type of pan - it's just nasty, gunky, stuff that builds up on the surface and is difficult to remove. Did you place the silicone muffin pan on a flat surface (a cookie sheet) during baking? There are different finishes on different brands of silicone bakeware, and some work better than others. 3. How did you mix your muffins? Only mix muffins until the dry ingredients are almost completely incorporated (even a small amount of dry ingreients still visible is okay - over-mixing ISN'T okay). DO NOT use an electric mixer because that results in too much gluten development and poor quality muffins. A wooden spoon or spatula will work fine, even a dinner fork is a good choice for mixing quick batters. A Danish Dough Whisk is actually one of the best investments for hand mixing (yeast breads, quick breads of all kinds, etc.). Your problem may partially be your mixing technique, oven temperature, as well as the pan. Wait to mix and pan muffin batter AFTER the oven has completed pre-heating. You never want the batter to be waiting for the oven to heat (that goes for all batters that have chemical leavening - soda/baking powder - in them.) Due to the type of leavening (baking powder), you need to quickly mix, pan, and get it into a hot oven to get maximum lift out of the leavening. Baking powder reacts twice, once when it is mixed with the liquid ingredients, and again when it hits the hot oven. It will lose it's UMPH the longer it sits waiting for the oven to pre-heat. 4. Normally, a bread machine only needs "babysitting" for the first 10 minutes or so of mixing/kneading until you are sure the dough has the correct hydration. You have to do that with ANY bread making technique, not just bread machines. I use a bread machine for nearly all my yeast breads anymore (dough only). It does a better job than either by-hand or stand mixers. King Arthur Test Kitchen uses Zojurishi BM for all their bread dough making for just those reasons. Patience is still a virtue, even in this ADD/ADHD world where people choose baby carrots so they don't have to peel and chop whole carrots, salad in a bag, instead of choosing the greens, washing and preparing them, and a whole generation who only "cook" using a microwave. Slow cooking is a lost art. -Grainlady

dreamhouse1 - I like your idea of decorating them. I wish I was that creative. That is why I got the pan, because I thought they would make cute muffins or cakes for entertaining. That and it only cost me $2. Joe - I also thought about that they might be madeleines because they are so shallow, but they aren't shaped like a madeleines pan. But no law says I couldn't make madeleines in this shape. Over the weekend I made banana choc. chip muffins in them. They are the perfect bite size. I can just eat one and not feel deprived because I shouldn't be eating such desserts. They remind me of the mini muffin pans I have, which I also like. Clare

Ugh, no wonder it was in the back of the shed! I'm so lazy, my enthusiasm for all of that might not be there. Since I already have the romertopf for bread, I might put this one in with the "donate to Goodwill" pile. Or I could try it a couple of times with greased parchment paper. Thanks for the tips though!! Very helpful! I appreciate very much that you took time to answer!