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New Pyrex Pie-Baking Protocol

Here's our updated approach to baking pies in Pyrex pie plates stacked on metal baking sheets.

To avoid the risk of the glass shattering, we know not to put a hot Pyrex baking dish on a cold surface, but we have often recommended the opposite situation when baking pies in our favorite pie plate from Pyrex: We typically chill the dough-lined pie plate before transferring it to a preheated baking sheet, which helps ensure proper browning of the bottom crust. World Kitchen, the company that now owns the U.S. Pyrex brand, doesn’t specifically warn against such a practice, but we recently decided to confirm with them that it was safe. As it turned out, the company cautioned against putting cold (or even room-temperature) Pyrex pie plates and baking dishes onto hot baking sheets because they conduct heat so efficiently that they could shatter.

Our new recommendation is to place the pie plate on an unheated metal baking sheet before sliding it into the oven. The metal pan still helps conduct heat to the bottom of the pie but without risk of cracking the Pyrex plate since it heats up gradually. To apply this new approach to any of our existing recipes calling for a preheated sheet, bake the pie 5 to 10 minutes longer to guarantee a crisp, browned bottom. (Times will vary depending on the moisture of the filling and whether the pie has a single or double crust.)

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