Cleaning Baked Gunk off of Pans – A Pretty Happy Home

I’m fairly certain I am using the same glass baking pans I received as a wedding gift…16 years ago. Now, that’s a quality product!

Of course, they last a lot longer when you don’t use them at all for the first 10 or 11 years. Just saying.

Anyway, the point of this story is that my glass bread (loaf) pans looked disgusting. I swear I cleaned them, but they had dried gunk on them that would not come off no matter how hard I tried. See?

I promise I did try. I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, every cleaning product in my cupboard, baking soda, glass cooktop cleaner, scraping it with a knife (so not safe) and that supposedly magical cleaning potion with the blue Dawn dish soap. Nothing worked. It was time to bust out the big guns.

Oven cleaner. I really don’t want to know what is in oven cleaner… clearly it’s not anything good.

Now, I picked the Target brand not because I have any affiliation with them, other than the fact that I am the sucker that can’t seem to go in there without spending one hundred stinking dollars. Anyway, it’s all they had and I’m not picky. You can also get the Easy Off brand oven cleaner on Amazon.

To clean the pans all you have to do is thoroughly spray them with oven cleaner in a well-venilated area. Like outside folks. Don’t do this inside. To be cautious, when you are finished, double bag them inside two garbage bags.

Now, here’s where the hard work comes in. Slowly walk away from the bagged pans and leave them outside for 4 – 6 hours. Tough, right? Or you could be like me and forget and leave them overnight. I was working extra hard folks!

When the oven cleaner is done working its magic, it’s time to wipe off the gunk. Don’t be like me. WEAR GLOVES. None of my fingers were harmed during this experiment, but I’m sure it is possible. If the oven cleaner has been working long enough, the baked-on goo wipes off with very little effort. I started with a paper towel and then moved on to washing the pans normally with dish soap and a rag. Then because I was freaked out about chemicals, I put the pans in the dishwasher for good measure.

And TADA! Here’s how it turned out. Looks brand, spankin’ new, right?

I have baked bread 3 times since cleaning my pans and I’m wondering how long it’s going to take before these pans are gross again. My theory is that a lot of that gunk is from the cooking spray…I probably should grease my pans the old-fashioned way and not use the spray.