How can you safely remove 9x13 pans/dishes from a hot water bath?

This can be tricky, as you are trying to remove the pan with the hot pudding before it cools completely, without sloshing water into the inner pan.

There are wire rack arrangements with handles that extend on the narrow ends of the pan, but these are an extra expense and require extra height in the oven rack.

A home solution for this is to string some butchers twine criss-crossed under the pan you are using, and extend this over the sides of the bain marie pan. The problem here is that this will wick some water out and it will drip, but does not cause a big problem for me when making bread pudding using a similar method.

When you remove the bain and pudding at end of cook time, you can lift the pan out using the string, but make sure it is very steady. Make sure you use enough string to support the pan.

String:

NOTE: I have big hands, and can do this. THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS if it slips and plunges into the hot water !!

Finally, just lift it out an inch or so, then rotate 90 degrees and rest it on the outer pan. You can now dry the side handles and move it with dry potholders from there.

If the pan isn't a very tight fit, you can simply lift it out with silicone oven mitts (random example on amazon). These are waterproof and allow you to dip your hands in boiling water for some time.