Home | flash bake. bake in a very hot oven for a few minutes.
Add pie weights, dry rice, dried beans or (as I've done here) dry wheat berries, enough to fill the pan 2/3 full. Chill the crust for 30 minutes; this will solidify the fat, which helps prevent shrinkage. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 20 minutes. Remove the pie from the oven, and lift out the paper and weights.
Blind baking is basically baking a pie crust (or tart shell) without any filling. This method is done when a recipe calls for a filling that doesn't need to be baked, meaning the crust must be fully baked first. Examples of this are puddings, custards, or cream fillings.
To prevent them becoming soggy, shortcrust pastry cases need to be partially cooked before adding moist fillings. This process, known as blind baking, which seals the surface and results in a crisp pastry case.
Line the tart tin with baking parchment and fill with ceramic baking beans or dried pulses. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the pastry is firm, then remove the beans and cook for about 5 minutes more, until golden brown and biscuity.
To fully blind bake pie crust, bake it at 425°F until the crust begins to turn golden, 17 to 20 minutes. Remove the parchment and pie weights, and continue to bake until the crust is evenly browned and looks crisp, which should take another 5 to 10 minutes.
Some recipes like quiches recommend partially cooked pie shells because the baking time wouldn't be long enough to fully cook the dough otherwise. Pre-baking a crust can ensure that your pie or tart crust will be fully baked and browned, and not soggy.
Instead, check your pantry for dried beans or uncooked rice—both will work just as well as pie weights. You won't be able to cook or eat the beans or rice afterward, but they can be used over and over again for blind baking, so label them clearly and store them with your other baking supplies.
Instead of weights, try using a second pie plate — one that's either the same size as or slightly smaller than the crust — and nestle it inside the pastry. It keeps the crust in place, picture-perfect, and ready for filling.
Can You Reuse Rice after Blind Baking? While rice should not be cooked or eaten after blind baking, it can be continually used as an alternative to pie weights. If you are using rice to weigh down your pie crust while blind baking, make sure to label and store it with your other baking supplies for your next creation.
Blind-Baking Method: Parchment Paper and Uncooked Rice
Bonus: After cooling, you can cook and eat the rice. Results: The rice does a slightly better job of evenly filling the crust and weighing down the parchment than the beans, but it's actually harder to get out of the hot crust.
If the filling needs to be baked (like for a pumpkin pie), you don't want to overdo it on the pre-baking. But if the filling does not need to be baked, then you'll want to fully blind bake the crust until the bottom is golden. Always follow the recipe, though!
These weightier options are often used when baking paper or tin foil are used to cover the pastry for blind-baking, both of which have their merits. However, one of the most convenient and consistent materials you can use for blind-baking comes in the form of oven-proof cling film filled with plain flour.
Chill
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. You can wrap the piecrust in plastic wrap and freeze overnight. (Be sure to use a metal or aluminum pie pan if you freeze the piecrust.) This step is optional, but it does help with the flakiest pie crust possible.
The simple answer is, typically, no. My homemade recipe noted above has more than enough fat in it to keep it from sticking. If you are using a storebought pie crust, I would recommend giving your pan a light spritz of cooking spray or brush with a little softened butter- don't do it on either.
While homemade pie crust will have superior flavor, store-bought crust may hold its shape better during blind baking. Dried rice and beans can be used over and over again as pie weights. Let them cool completely, then store in an airtight container. I've used the same rice for years!
We prefer to line our pie doughs with foil (preferably heavy duty foil). It can be molded into shape nicely and used as a bit of a crust guard to even out the cooking of the edges and bottom while they cook with the weights.
Parchment paper fared best; its more permeable structure allowed the shell to breathe—and then brown—as it baked. It's our go-to choice for blind baking, with foil as a backup.
It's not recommended to blind bake without any weight, because the pastry will puff up and it won't cook evenly if there's nothing holding it down. But if you don't have traditional baking beads, you can use dry rice, pasta, beans or even sugar! Anything that's heavy enough to hold down a piece of baking paper.
And if you're medically advised to lower the sodium levels in your diet, then go ahead and rinse away some of the salt with the canning liquid. But salt enhances flavor, so if it's not the doctor's orders, skip the rinse.
Set aside a bag of popcorn kernels to use as a pie weights substitute! They work just as well. Just don't use them for popping afterward—they'll dry out in the oven.
If you have dried beans in your pantry, these can come in handy as pie weights, too. The type doesn't matter, so use chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans, even lentils. After using them a couple times, retire them as pie weights and turn them into dinner. (This Instant Pot method is a great place to start.)
Poking holes allows steam to escape
Air bubbles can also lead to cracks, and cracks inevitably lead to leaks. Therefore, for a level, leak-proof crust, a perforated crust is key. If, however, the recipe you're working with has a particularly liquidy filling, poking the bottom isn't a necessary step.
To maintain its shape during baking, pastry needs liquid to activate the flour's gluten. For flaky, tender texture, it also requires fat. The balance of those two ingredients is critical. Too much fat and the crust loses its structure and shrinks; too much liquid, it's hard and leathery.
If you're going to bake it again with filling in it, I would bake it for 45 minutes. To prevent the crust from over browning on the second bake, shield the pie crust edges. I usually use a ring of foil, but you can use a pie crust shield like this one if you prefer.