Blind Baking a Pie Crust Might Sound Scary―It's Anything But (2024)

FAQs

What should pie crust look like after blind baking? ›

You want it to look dry and flaky, but still pale. For a fully baked crust, cook until the bottom turns a light golden color. The whole process won't take more than 15 or 20 minutes.

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. Prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork, to prevent bubbles.

Pie weights are little weights used to fill the inside of the blind baked pie crust, to help stop the middle puffing up in the oven. You line the chilled pie crust with crumpled parchment paper, then fill the crust up to the edges of the crimps using pie weights.

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.

To provide a protective seal between the blind baked pastry and a wet filling, so the pastry won't turn soggy, you can brush the pastry with lightly beaten egg white and return it to the oven for 3–4 minutes. This will also seal any very small holes.

Any number of things can contribute to a slumping crust. Maybe your recipe uses an extra-high amount of shortening or butter, or you rolled the crust too vigorously, or you didn't let it rest and chill before baking. Perhaps you used the wrong size pan, or not enough filling.

If you don't have pie weights, you could use something similar like pennies, dry beans, dry rice, or even sugar. I don't recommend blind baking your crust without anything to weigh it down though, because it will likely lose its shape, bubble, and shrink.

What's better: aluminum foil or parchment paper for blind baking pie crust? The unbaked pie needs to be layered with something to hold the pie weights. You can use either foil or parchment. I find that foil can mold better to the shape of the pie, further preventing any puffy parts or slipping sides.

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.

BLIND BAKING BRILLIANCE

Add the dough straight to your tin. There is no need to grease the tin before you line it with pastry – the high butter content in the pastry will naturally stop it from sticking.

Do you let pastry cool after blind baking? ›

Pastry of all kinds needs to be left to rest in a cool place for at least 15 minutes. This allows the fat to resolidify after handling, making the pastry easier to work with and ensuring that it will hold its shape during the early stages of cooking.

To avoid a soggy crust, I blind bake it until it's thoroughly dry before adding the filling. To prevent those unsightly cracks in the filling, I've tweaked the traditional recipe: a bit of flour for stability, replacing some whole eggs with yolks for richness, and baking at a low temperature for even cooking.

If your recipe doesn't have instructions and you're wondering how long to pre bake the pie, here's what I do: I pre bake the prepped pie crust at 350°F. If the crust is homemade from scratch, I pre bake for 35 minutes. If the crust is store-bought, I pre bake for 30 minutes.

For the best results, make sure that your crust is extremely cold before baking; this will help prevent shrinking. I like to line my crust with the parchment and weights and then refrigerate (or freeze) it for at least an hour before baking to make sure to give the crust the best chance possible.

You do not need to par-bake or blind bake this bottom pie crust. Reducing the filling's juice on the stove keeps excess liquid off the bottom pie dough, plus we bake the pie for long enough that the bottom crust sufficiently cooks through.

Step 4: Bake pie crust, fully or partially

The edges of the crust should appear completely baked and have just started to turn golden brown. (Many tutorials I've read only say to bake the crust for 10-15 minutes, but in my experience that's not nearly long enough.

Some bakers skip the pie weights and just dock the pie crust from the beginning, but I've never had luck this way. The sides of my pie crust still shrink down. So I always use pie weights, remove them after the edges begin to turn brown, dock the crust with a fork, then return it to the oven so the bottom cooks.

After about 10 to 15 minutes at 425 F, lower your oven to 350 F and allow the pastry to continue baking until evenly golden-brown. Time: Allow your pie crust to bake all the way through. Most people pull pies out of the oven at the first sign of browning. Pie dough should be a deep golden-brown, not pale in color.

Once mixed, your dough should stick together when you pinch it between your fingers. If it doesn't, you need to add more moisture. Even if you think your pie dough resembles the Sahara desert, show some restraint when adding more water. A teaspoon at a time is all you need.