Emile Henry Pie Dish

Pros: Incredibly non-stick and easy to clean; sturdy; the perfect size; fluted edge; very attractive; dishwasher-safe
Cons: None!
Rating: 5 out of 5

Review items courtesy of Emile Henry and Jardina Communications.

Pie is tough to resist. I have the sweet tooth from Hell, and pie is definitely one of my weaknesses. Whether it’s a fruit pie, a custard pie, or any of a number of other variations, I just can’t walk away. At Thanksgiving I always have to have some type of a pumpkin pie, and right now we have a banana cream pie from Ania Catalano’s Baking with Agave Nectar in the fridge.

Being the kitchen nut that I am, I have a good handful of pie plates in the house. When I was first baking on my own I started with cheap glass pie plates and wasn’t fond of them. I have a couple of ceramic plates, one in a neutral color from my late step-mother, and an orange one. Unfortunately no matter how much we clean it, after this many years the neutral-colored one looks permanently dingy. As for the orange one, it’s a great pie plate, and one that’s stood up for a good handful of years. It’s sturdy, stands up to abuse, etc. I expected to find that the Emile Henry plate was the equivalent of that pie plate; instead I found out I like it quite a bit more (and here I didn’t realize I was missing anything!).

First of all, it’s beautiful. The stark white inside and deep blue underside (a color called Azur) is just lovely. So far it also seems like it’s going to be very resistant to long-term staining or damage.

It’s heavy-duty. It distributes the heat wonderfully, resulting in very evenly-baked pies. The size is a reasonably deep 9″ plate, which is perfect for most recipes.

The edge is scalloped. The scalloping isn’t very deep, so it won’t make a particularly pronounced edge, but it will make it easier for you to do decorative things with the edge (kind of like having a guide to work with).

The glaze on the ceramic is very hard, sturdy, and slick. This has resulted in the most non-stick surface I’ve ever dealt with on a pie plate. The one problem I often have with that orange plate is the tendency of pie crusts to stick to it. We haven’t had a single crust stick to this one—not even a tiny bit!

While this is dishwasher-safe, you won’t find it any trouble to clean by hand. Because of that slick glaze it comes clean extremely easily and quickly. The plate handles the oven just fine, as well as the refrigerator. It’s certainly beautiful enough for tableside serving by far.

In fact, the only minor hitch we had was that the glue on the underside of the ‘label’ (see picture below) was strong enough that it took a bit of soaking to get it all off of the inside of the pie plate. If you have this problem, I recommend filling with hot water and soaking overnight, and it should wipe right off afterward.

So go on—grab a pie plate and the agave nectar book and make some desserts you won’t soon forget!