July 31, 2006

Review: Have a Pie Day Clay Pie Plate from Hess Pottery

We received a clay pie plate to review from Hess Pottery. The plate is made with natural red clay and is non-porous and lead-free. It can be used in the oven, dishwasher, and microwave. I had to wait to review it until my mom came to visit as she is the pie maker in the family. After debating about what type of pie to make—peach, cherry, blackberry—we finally decided just to make our favorite, lemon meringue pie.

In order get a comparison, we made two pies--one in the clay plate and one in a regular glass plate. We used the same set of pie dough for both. I felt the crust in the clay plate did brown a little better than the crust in the glass plate. There wasn't a huge difference in taste between the two crusts, but in our blind taste test, three out of five people preferred the pie crust from the clay plate, saying it was flakier and less chewy. As a bonus, the bottom of plate seems to be fairly nonsticky and easy to clean up.

The plate came with a recipe for rhubarb custard pie, however, I wish it would have come with a pie crust recipe as we are constantly looking for the perfect recipe.

At Hess Pottery.