Are you looking to host a dinner party in the near future? You could bake an individual quiche for your guests, or you could pour all of the ingredients into a large 2-quart baking dish to feed up several people at once. So, how large is a 2-quart baking dish?
The standard size of a 2-quart baking dish is 8 × 8 inches and 2 inches deep. There are also 2-quart rectangular baking dishes that are about 11 × 7 × 1.7 inches, as well as round baking dishes measuring 9 inches wide and 2 inches deep. However, there are variations for each shape.
In this guide, I’ll explain in more detail the dimensions of 2-quart baking dishes, why choosing the right baking dish size matters, and what you should look for in a baking dish.
What Is a Baking Dish?
A baking dish is an umbrella phrase for any oven-safe dish. It will mostly be made of glass or porcelain, though there are also stainless-steel, aluminum, and stoneware baking dishes. Most baking dishes are rectangular or oblong in shape, though you can easily find square, round, or even oval-shaped dishes.
How Big Is a 2-quart Baking Dish?
The exact dimensions of a 2-quart baking dish will depend on its shapes, of which you have 3 to choose from—square, rectangular, and round.
The standard dimensions (L × W × D) of a 2-quart baking dish in each size are as follows:
- Square—8 × 8 × 2 inches
- Rectangular—11 × 7 × 1.7 inches
- Round—9 × 2 inches
The exact dimensions of the baking dish will vary from model to model. The following table will describe the dimensions of popular 2-quart baking dishes you can find online.
| Model | Shape | Length | Width | Depth |
| Ello Duraglass | Square | 8 in. | 8 in. | 2 in. |
| Pyrex Square | Square | 8.1 in. | 8.1 in. | 2.1 in. |
| OXO Grips | Rectangular | 8 in. | 8.5 in. | 2.4 in. |
| Pyrex Easy Grab | Rectangular | 9 in. | 7.25 in. | 2.75 in. |
| Duido Souffle Dish | Round | 8.6 in. | — | 2.8 in. |
| Anchor Hocking | Round | 9 in. | — | 5.21 in. |
| LE Regalo | Oval | 14 in. | 9.5 in. | 2.5 in. |
Does the Size of a Baking Dish Matter?
Although all 2-quart baking dishes can hold, well, 2 quarts of a batter or ingredient mix, you should still take into account the size and shape of the baking dish. This is especially true when attempting a recipe without using the same dish size as the author.
The following are the various factors that can be affected by the shape and size of the baking dish:
How many people you can feed
The first thing you should know is how many people a 2-quart baking dish can feed. On average, it should yield enough of a recipe to feed 6 to 8 mouths, so you should have a pretty good idea of how many of them you need to fill and bake to feed your entire party.
Cooking times
It’s important that you follow a recipe author’s instructions to the letter, which also includes using an identically sized baking dish. However, if your baking dish is smaller or larger than the author’s, you can still make a tasty dish by adjusting the cooking times as follows:
- Smaller, shallower pan = increased baking temperature and shorter baking times.
- Larger, deeper pan = decreased baking temperature and longer baking times.
Alternatively, you can increase or decrease how much batter you make to fill your baking dish to the correct depth. For instance, if a recipe asks to fill an 8-inch round baking dish with 2 inches of batter, you can fill a 9 × 7.25-inch baking dish with 2 inches of batter to retain the same cooking times and temperatures as the author of the recipe.
Risk of overcooked corners
Square and rectangular baking dishes have 1 downside that round and oval baking dishes don’t—corners. If you’ve tried to bake a batch of brownies in a square or rectangular pan, you’ve probably noticed that the corners come out drier than the center. That’s because the corners are exposed to more heat during the baking process, causing the batter to set more quickly.
The narrower the pan (e.g., the longer the pan), the closer together the corners are, and the faster they’ll cook relatively faster compared to the rest of the cake. However, if you’re a fan of edge brownies, consider this a win!
Choosing the Right Baking Dish for Your Next Dinner Party
The size and shape of a baking dish isn’t the only thing you should consider if you plan on hosting a dinner party in the future. In this section, I’ll pose the questions you need to answer in order to find the right baking dish.
What is it made of?
There are easily over a dozen types of materials used to make baking dishes, but I’ll explain the most commonly used ones below.
Glass—The most common baking dish material, you can see what’s going on underneath the surface of your food to monitor how done it is. However, it can crack when exposed to extreme temperature shifts (hot oven to cold sink), so be super-careful with it.
Metal—Your choices are aluminum and stainless steel. These baking dishes heat up quickly but rapidly lose heat the moment you pull them out of the oven. It can be easy to overcook your food in metal dishes.
Cast-iron—Another type of metal, cast-iron baking dishes take long to heat up but retain heat for quite a lot time. They can be a bit costly, but they’re worth it if you bake regularly.
Ceramic—Your choices are stoneware and porcelain, both of which can withstand extreme heat (over 2,000°F). Porcelain is non-porous and non-stick, but it’s a lot more fragile than stoneware.
How heavy is the dish?
A 2-quart baking dish can get extremely heavy, and it can be a pain to remove from the oven. If you have difficulty lifting heavy things, you should consider getting a glass or metal baking dish, which is a lot lighter compared to cast iron and ceramic.
Does it need a lid?
Many baking dishes come as stand-alone pieces, so you’ll have to pick up a lid separately. However, this isn’t usually the case for ceramic baking dishes, which can also come in multi-dish sets. You can also use a sheet of heavy aluminum foil and shape it into a lid for your dish.
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