Last week I talked about cooking in unglazed terra cotta pots. This week let’s look at how you can bake in unglazed terra cotta flower pots!


Small unglazed, unpainted, terra cotta pots (those used in gardening) can be used in place of loaf or cake pans for baking bread, cakes, or brownies. Just cut a circle of parchment to cover the hole on the inside bottom. 6- to 8-ounce ceramic pots make great individual-sized desert cakes or brownies.


Any boxed mix or standard bread or cake recipe will work. As usual, you’d insert a toothpick to know when the cake is done. And why bother? The end result is incredibly moist!

If using terra cotta for baked goods interests you, then be sure to season your clay pot first (create a non-stick barrier). The process is nearly identical to seasoning cast iron:

• Use a scrub pad on the ceramic to remove any small burs.
• Submerge in water and soak the ceramic overnight.
• Wash the pottery thoroughly with water (no soap), or run it through your dishwasher (again, no soap). Soap will soak into the ceramic leaving a bad flavor.
• Place in a 200 degree F oven for 10 minutes, or until its bone dry. Cool.
• Pour some food-grade oil/grease (vegetable oil, Crisco, lard) onto a clean cotton cloth or paper towel; rub this over your pottery, coating thoroughly. This process will change the ceramic’s color, so you may prefer only oiling the top/inside (where the food will be); but for uniformity it’s best to oil the whole thing on all sides.
• Using a clean cloth or paper towel, wipe it well until it looks dry. The oil will have penetrated the pores; you don’t want drips or excess on the surface. (Note: it doesn’t speed up the process to leave a thicker coat of oil on it; instead, you’ll have leave drip marks and a non-uniform coating.)
• Place pot upside down in a cool oven; let it preheat with the oven. Bake one hour at 450°F (avoid opening the oven door). Turn oven off and with the pot in place, cool for two hours. Remove. The ceramic will be darker. Note: there will be smoke from the oil burning, which is WHAT YOU WANT. (Disengaging your kitchen smoke alarm during this process is helpful.) Burning the oil creates the hard glazed non-stick coating. Over time the coating will get darker, which is good; you want that glaze. This dark surface isn’t “dirt” and doesn’t need scrubbing.

Finally, while not absolutely necessary, the more it’s seasoned, the better your results. So if you have the time and the ambition, do steps 3-5 as much as five more times. There’s no harm in using your terra cotta after only one seasoning, though.

Always lightly oil/grease the terra cotta before baking with it (just the inside where your batter, or food will touch the sides).


As mentioned above, just like cleaning a cooking pot, cleaning a baking pot only needs a simple wipe-down with a damp rag or sponge and a rinse. If very dirty, soak in clean water (no soap), then wipe clean. If only used for baking breads and such, it shouldn’t need any more than a gentle rinse. Avoid excessive scrubbing or soap use, and never run through the dishwasher as this will remove the seasoned coating and the soaps/detergents will absorb into the porous clay (altering the taste of the food).