Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had been using dried bean for years when blind baking (baking an empty pie shell) and decided that it was finally time to treat myself to a set of pie weights. The ceramic beads work much better than dried beans as pie weights because the ceramic holds the heat and helps the crust brown. I bought two sets because other reviewers complained that the number of weights was skimpy for a typical 9" pie crust, and I'm glad I did because one set would have been sparse. A few tips: -------------- - New ceramic pie weights will be covered in ceramic dust from rattling around during shipping. Be sure to rinse them in a collander before first use. - Always use a liner (parchment paper, alumninum oil, or waxed paper) over the crust. Otherwise, the weights will become embedded in the crust and the crust will be toast. (Apologies for the bad pun.) - If you crumble the liner and then smooth it out over the unbaked crust before you fill it with the beads, the beads won't be able to roll around as easily. - The plastic storage box is on the flimsy side, and it's a bit of a hassle to put the weights back in it after use. If your box breaks or if you just want a simpler storage solution, a colored canning jar works great. I'm using a pretty turqoise antique Ball jar for mine. P.S. After buying and trying these, it occurred to me that there are lots of other items that could be used just as successfully as these ceramic beads for pie weights, such as the tumbled stones or the glass beads for flower arranging that you can get at your local dollar store. You can get the equivalent of two of these packages for a dollar, so the stones and glass beads are far more economical, and you could use them in your flower vases when you're not baking pies. (Wash them well afterward if you do this.) Plus, you can get glass beads that are flat, so they'd be easier to handle. Just be sure that the beads are actually glass and are not the acrylic or gel beads. Glass has a very high melting point and doesn't even begin to soften until 1020° F., so the glass beads will be perfectly safe in an oven.