How To Make Glass Shard Brownies.
Eight minutes after I put a pan of brownies in the oven this morning, I heard what can only be described as a loud explosion. It sounded like a bomb went off. I peeked inside the oven to discover that my glass dish of brownie batter had shattered. Thank goodness I didn’t peak in moments earlier!
My first thought was, “now I don’t have dessert for the Super Bowl!” Naturally.
Then I spent over an hour just willing it to go away. After some extensive whining, complaining, soul searching and information gathering on Twitter and Facebook, I decided to attempt to clean it up by myself because Mr. How Sweet wouldn’t be home for a few hours.
I scraped up the batter (which was batter at first, but ended up “baking” on the oven floor) and as many pieces of glass as I could with a spatula. This was only after it took me about another hour to get the bottom rack off due to the batter “glue” and large shards of glass wedged in between.
[This is currently still sitting on our kitchen floor. I have separation anxiety.]
Then after getting that wretched rack out, I used the shop vac. Don’t worry, I wore oven mitts and sunglasses as goggles.
Here’s the details:
- The dish was Pyrex, which I’ve used for years. Not anymore. I will never buy it again. I don’t believe it was a “fluke.” After doing some research, this actually happens often.
- The oven temperature was on 350 degrees.
- The dish was in the middle of the oven, touching nothing else.
- The dish was room temperature when it went into the oven, not hot or cold.
- The dish was fairly new. It didn’t have any (visible) cracks.
- I just used it last week at a higher temperature (375), to bake cookie bars.
- I’m not contacting the company, because I honestly don’t care what they will give me. I don’t want a coupon and I don’t want a new dish. I won’t ever use Pyrex or glass dishes again.
Now who wants a brownie?
154 Comments on “How To Make Glass Shard Brownies.”
The same tihng happened once when I baked brie – yum!
Scary! I’m glad you let us know.
Wow. Thank you for this; I have a couple of pyrex dishes but I’ll stop using them in the oven from now on! Stick with my ceramic and metal tins, I think!
Oh no! It actually happened to my friend too with a Pyrex dish except she didn’t even get a chance to use it! She bought it brand new and put it through the dishwasher before her first use. Same story, loud explosion and she had to clean all the glass shards from her dishwasher! Glad you didn’t get hurt!
Jessica I am so bummed to hear this happened to you. On a positive note, just think of how many people will be saved from such grief by you sharing your story. I have a casserole dish that is Anchor Hocking. I guess I will be checking around to see if their quality is any better. I use it a lot for things that aren’t baked. Rice Krispies treats, layered dips, etc. So, if it does have risks like Pyrex, I guess I can just use it for other things. :)
I had a disaster with a macaroni casserole a few months ago. A client had given me her church recipe and said it was the best she’d ever tried. It overflowed into my oven without me knowing! By the time I realized it, I had burned milk and cheese covering every crevice of my oven. It was a bigger disaster than I can ever describe. I literally had to have a “Come to Jesus” moment because I was so angry that I could not bring myself to clean it up! To make it even worse I had 2 of them in there and they were made with all organic ingredients. One was to be for me and the other was for my aunt and uncle who are in their late 70s. Needless to say I threw that recipe away!!!!
my mom is visiting me this weekend, so i am teaching her all about food blogs. in reading this post she said to say this, “tell her to go to williams sonoma and get their silver brownie pan, it’s the BEST, best brownies EVER”.
ps we’re drooling over ALL of your food…the glass-less of course.
Same thing happened to me. I took a dessert out of the oven and set it aside to cool. About 15 minutes after that, the 8×8 Pyrex spontaneously shattered. Luckily, my daughter and I were across the room. I can’t believe these people can get away with selling such dangerous products.
Maybe the company will give you your money back, or you could use the coupon for a measuring cup or something!
The SAME thing happened to me this week- only with chicken breasts I was baking. My dogs went nuts when it exploded. What a mess to clean up!
Oh my goodness- glad nobody was hurt!
Bummer on the brownies being ruined! So glad you were not hurt!
I’ve used Pyrex cookware for almost 20 years. I even have some of the same pyrex dishes my mom had when I was growing up & nothing like this has ever happened! I would freak out!
Same here!
I can tell you a crazier story that might make you feel better…?? At my parents old house the glass oven door EXPLODED!!! Glass shot everywhere, inside + outside of the stove. It was insane! Glad you’re okay though. :)
That’s a terrible mess to clean up! That has happened to me but with shrimp in my pyrex in the oven, I think it was the drastic temps in my situation.
Everything that Valerie said above is what I’ve heard or read. The borosilicate bakeware from Europe is a bit better than the soda lime glass but some still shattered up to oven temps reaching 500 degrees. Since my shattered shrimp incident my pyrex bake ware has ever been exposed to temps past 375 degrees!
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Oh I am so sorry!!!! You work so hard and to have such a mess without anything edible coming out of it???? And then the Steeler game didn’t turn out the way I would have liked. Might as well call it the Steeler game instead of the Superbowl since they get there so often! Here’s to a better day!!!!
That must have been very scary and totally frustrating! I’m glad you weren’t hurt! The clean up must have been a bear! I hope your oven didn’t suffer any damage! Luckily, I don’t own any Pyrex. If I did, I would toss it in the recycling bin!
This happened to my sister years ago, since then I only use Pyrex for dishes that have to be refrigerated. Another thing when beating something in a glass bowl last year I chipped the bowl and vowed only to use stainless steel bowl when using the beaters. Better safe than sorry. Paulette
Sorry to hear about your Pyrex! What do you think you’ll use instead? How come this post isn’t on your main blog page?
I only post recipes on my main page… nothing else. I have some square and rectangular Calphalon pans and some Le Creuset bakeware!
Oh how horrible. I don’t use very much pyrex, except to melt chocolate. Guess I won’t be doing that! I use mainly stoneware baking pans and cookie sheets etc. I keep hoping to win the lottery (it would help if I actually played though) so that I could buy some Le Creuset. We have an outlet here, but they still are so expensive! I have seen a few pieces at TJMaxx, but of course they aren’t the ones I want!
Keep up the baking!
That’s crazy! I use Pyrex all the time. I can’t believe that happened, but I will definitely be more wary of using mine now. Thanks for sharing
I saw your cries on Twitter and wondered how this possibly could have happened. I definitely will be thinking twice about Pyrex…and glass pans in general. What a strange thing to happen. Hope you have recovered.
WOW – holy cow. I didn’t even know Pyrex had been bought out in 1998. I have a Pyrex pan and it’s not that old, but don’t think I’ll be baking in it again! So glad you weren’t hurt.
Pampered Chef stones!!!!! I have heard of this happening with Pyrex which is really sad because this is what I grew up with. I have Pyrex but RARELY use it. My stones are all I use!!!
I am so glad you posted this. I use my pyrex pan all the time. It’s the only one I use! I’m going to try to use this as an excuse to invest in Le Creuset! (think my husband will go for it?)
Yes! Tell him how dangerous it is. :)
Oh gosh, what a mess. I’ve heard of Pyrex doing that before. Thanks for the reminder!
I’ve stopped using Pyrex too after the exact same thing happened to me, except I made Glass Shard Chicken! :)
mmm… Tasty!
i love the williams-sonoma goldtouch bakeware! it’s non-stick too. great for brownies, squares, cakes, etc.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/usa-pan-goldtouch-nonstick-square-cake-pan/?pkey=cbkwcakcls
i’ve never had a problem with pyrex before – this is so strange.
OMG!! When I first read the post name, I thought, “I don’t know if I could eat those. I would keep thinking it was REAL glass.” Well, it turned out it was REAL glass!! haha That is freaky!!! I have pyrex leftover containers, but I never cook with them. I’m glad you are okay!!!
I never use pyrex in the oven. I was making a cheesecake and put a small pyrex dish with water in it to help keep the cheesecake moist. (first mistake was using pyrex for this job) It shattered in a 170 degree oven – and of course ruined my cheesecake.
HOLY COW! I’m glad you didn’t get hurt !!
I’ve never heard of that happening, but I use glass dishes all the time, so I’m glad you mentioned it. My 9 y/o checks the oven often when I’m cooking something so I will definitely switch to something else! I guess I need to purchase some metal pans! Thanks again for the heads up, glad you were not hurt. And I would contact the company anyway, just so it’s on file. That’s the only way they will ever do anything to fix the problem.
So now that you don’t use pyrex dishes, what do you use? Anyone have some suggestions?
I will use my Calphalon baking tins and I have some Le Creuset bakeware.
Oh dang girl, that would have been so scary!!
So glad it didn’t cause you any injury because we would NOT want you to NOT be able to get in the kitchen!
I made Glass Shard Focaccia Dough in my large Pyrex bowl from the 80s last year. I was holding the bowl of risen dough in my hands and set in down…bam, it popped into a gazillion pieces. My head was turned and my hands were fine since the dough seemed to take the impact. I’m glad you weren’t hurt either.
Oh my goodness, how terrifying! I am SO glad you weren’t injured!
This happened to me with my pyrex dish when I was baking enchiladas in the oven. I thought I just had a defective dish and didn’t realize it was a common problem by Pyrex.
Boo!! I’ve had a pyrex do that too! I figured it was a fluke, but now I guess I’ll think again about buying another. Also, I love the image of you wearing sunglasses to clean it all up…a very chic pair of protective eye wear.
ahh omg!! that happened to me once when I poured hot coffee into a glass mug… btu thats just dumb on my part..I had no idea it could happen in the oven in a pyrex dish!! ahhhh
What a pain! I had a Pyrex dish shatter in the oven on me when I was roasting a pumpkin last year.
So…this post totally reminded me of the YouTube video I saw a million years ago…about muffins….maybe you’ve seen it…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tcR19y7GPM
Jessica,
I absolutely LOVE our brownie pan. It is from Wilton. I love it so much that I’ve given it as a bridal shower gift (of course with brownie mix!) I believe that I have an 11X8 pan (I got it at Kohl’s), or Wilton has a 9X9 pan as well. Here’s the link:
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=AF3CD56A-1E0B-C910-EA5C1DD65713BAD6&killnav=1
Sorry about your mess! This brownie pan does WONDERS!!! Just don’t use a metal knife to cut the brownies, use a plastic one. That way the bottom of the pan doesn’t get scratched. We’ve had to buy two of them!
Happened to me in 2007, too. Thought I messed things up but turns out maybe I did not! Anyone have luck w/ Corningware-type materials? Sometimes I like to use a glass pan so the food doesn’t “darken” as much. Am I just being silly?
Pyrex Hysteria! Wow, talk about a complete over-reaction! I’ve been using Pyrex for years and have on intention of stopping just because one person who’s blog I read had a pan break in the over.
Yes, it was a nasty incident but hey stuff like that has the potential to happen every single day. Let’s not get crazy here folks. Sit back, do some deep breathing, relax. Then come back in a day or two and re-think it.
I for one, am in no position financially to replace all my Pyrex and I don’t think anyone is going to buy it for me.
With all the health concerns around plastic, glass is still by far the safer better bet.
Hahaha… Michelle I must admit that I would probably have the exact same reaction if I saw this on a blog. I was actually a bit shocked at the responses too! My intention wasn’t to tell people to never use glass bakeware. However, being that it actually happened to me, I will gladly never use my Pyrex (or any glass dishes) again. I don’t care how expensive they are. It was a pretty terrible thing (I can’t stop thinking about if I had peeked in my oven 30 seconds earlier and got my face blown off), and I think if it’s something you’ve experienced it’s easy to say you won’t use it again. But I understand and probably would feel the same way you do if it had not happened to me.
@Michelle – you working for Pyrex or something? its a legitimate safety concern and so many people are saying the same thing happened to them.
and who would put plastic in the oven? :S
Yikes! That’s scary! I’m going to have to rethink my Pyrex too.
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OMG! Dang, thanks for the Pyrez warning! :/
Oh no!!! I’m so sorry that happened!!!!
OMG I can’t believe that? Makes me a little scared to bake in my glass dishes!
That’s so sad! Those poor brownies. : (
I’ve also had Pyrex explode on me. Twice. Once, I was flipping over some chicken AS it exploded. I have no idea how none of the flying shards hit me, but I’m so glad they didn’t. I thought they were a reliable brand and reputable company. But, like you, I’ll never be using them again.