Review on Norpro Muffin Rings Set 4 by Kristy Powers

This product is good value in many ways. Yes, the description warns you that you should only hand wash these rings and dry immediately when finished. The fact of the matter is, even if you follow this advice literally, these things are short-lived. Apparently the rivets are to blame. I've used these rings several times to make Japanese style pancakes and despite hand washing and towel drying these rivets (and eventually the area around them) have started to show obvious signs of brown rust. not worth buying, cheap or not, when after a few uses they are guaranteed to be landfill fodder. You're not personally saving any money that way, and on a larger scale you just end up creating more real estate for the garbage island. What's worse, if you really forget to follow those strict cleaning instructions and try to clean them, say soaking them in soapy water with your forks and spoons - well, that's when the nasty stuff takes on comedic proportions. Turns out, when they warn you not to feed gremlins after midnight and never wet them, they're not kidding, folks. (I'm attaching photos.) I confess, the last time I used them, I forgot to follow the "rules" and dumped them in dish soap and water. Soon everything went downhill. Yes, this latest escalation was my fault for forgetting those breathless cleaning instructions. But remember: (1) Up until this point I was washing them very gently and drying them immediately after use, but they still started to rust. This recent oversight only seemed to hasten the process. (2) Let's be honest. It's a bit ridiculous that you have to be so careful when cleaning fairly basic kitchen utensils. The househusband should not think of strictly following the rules of an old gypsy curse, lest trouble arise. They're basically just round cookie cutters, not Fabergé eggs, for goodness sake. People shouldn't tiptoe on eggshells just to make thicker pancakes than usual. OTHER PROBLEMS: Aside from rust, these rings have other drawbacks (at least when used for thick pancakes). .a) Temporary obligations: You must clean/rinse them after each use and before filling the next batch of dough. Here's how: You grease the inside before you make the first pancake. Although this lubrication helps release the first pancake after baking, it still leaves batter on the inside of the ring. This means that after using the ring to make a miserable pancake, you have to wait for the metal to cool enough to handle. Only then can you wash the dough and dry the inside. Then you grease it again so that you can finally bake the second pancake with the ring. In other words, get ready to make the most of your day. To be fair, perhaps all of these types of ring molds take the same amount of time regardless of the material they are made of. But I just thought it was funny. (I see another reviewer suggesting looking for a brand of *non-stick* ring mold. It's definitely worth a try.) b) Crap accumulation: It's not a solid piece of metal. Rather, these rings have a "seam" where the dough tends to hide. (The seam is where problematic rusty rivets are.) This makes thorough cleaning difficult. a misguided "corner" here and there where the ring is sealed. It's not very pleasant to see how these edges will inevitably scratch the surface of the coated pan when you try to flip a Japanese pancake. The last few times I've used them (before they succumbed to rust) I felt compelled to use a cast iron skillet, although my large non-stick skillet probably would have made the whole process easier. But it didn't seem worth the risk of ruining the whole pan just to bake some pancakes.