We've been flipping through our recipe file dreaming about summer pies - one can never start planning these things too early, after all! One instruction we frequently come across involves blind baking. This is a technique that always seemed intimidating to us until we finally jumped in and figured it out.
Blind baking is really just another way of saying "pre-baking." It simply means that you bake the pie crust on its own before adding the filling. This is something you do if the filling itself isn't going to be cooked (like a fruit tart) or if the filling will cook faster than the crust (like with a quiche). You can also either fully bake the crust or partially-bake it so that it has a head start when the full pie goes in the oven. The recipe should specify how far to cook the crust.
There are two ways to go about blind baking: docking and using pie weights. Docking involves pricking the crust with a fork to allow steam to escape evenly. Otherwise the crust will tend to bubble up and cook unevenly.
Pie weights do the essentially same thing by pressing down the crust and holding it in place. You can buy fancy ceramic pie weights or simply use a dried beans. Either way, put a layer of parchment between the crust and the pie weights to keep the pie from picking up any off flavors from the weights, and push the weights all the way to the edges to help keep the sides from collapsing during baking.
For either method, bake the pie crust in a 425° oven until the edges are brown and golden. Allow 30-40 minutes for full baking or 25-35 minutes for partial baking. If you're using pie weights, remove them halfway through cooking so the steam can escape and the bottom can fully cook.
Now, who's ready for summer pie?!
Related: Perfect Pies: Tips for Making Pies from Scratch
(Image: Flickr member Bitten Word licensed under Creative Commons)
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I cover the crust with tinfoil, then pour a bag of dried kidney beans over it. This works great and you can store the beans as designated "pie weights" once they cool. So far I have been using the same bag of beans for about 6 months, and I bake a couple pies a month.
I've always had trouble making pie dough. My main trouble is moving the rolled out dough onto the pie pan, baking dish, bakers quarter, etc. It always falls apart, tears, or does not want to come off the rolling pin or parchment paper it was stuck too. Any tips?
This may seem like a silly question, but if you use dried beans, are they ruined?
@breezie - Falling apart pie dough tip: It is probably too wet when you mix it together. Pie dough should be *just* wet enough to form a ball when pressed together. The moisture will even out if allowed to chill at least over night.
@allisondobson - you can reuse the baked beans for blind baking many, many times. But I would not suggest trying to cook bean dishes with them.
@allisondobson - I use rice instead beans. Some of the butter in the crust seeps through the parchment and toasts the rice which I can then use for an ersatz pilaf.
The beans are fine--they might need a little longer soaking, if you want to cook them. I just keep a special canister of baking beans. I wouldn't put the tinfoil under them, but parchment paper is fine.
No matter what I do when I blind bake I STILL get shrinkage (I chill AND use pie weights). I've heard people say you should leave the crust with a bit of an overhang, but then how do you flute it or otherwise make it look pretty?
@allisondobson -- the beans can be reused for quite a while as pie weights but you can't cook and eat them anymore. They also go rancid after a certain period, so at that point it's best to compost them and get a new batch of dried beans to use.
@a pie for a pie -- shrinkage, me too. And I also dock, chill, and weight. Maybe we're over-handling the dough??
My problem has been that when I try to remove the parchment, the pie crust sticks and rips. But it never occurred to me to let it cool before proceeding. hmmm.
@breezie as caseoftornados pointed out the tearing could be caused by the dough being too wet; however, another possibility is that you are not cutting the fat into the flour finely enough. If you have large chunks of fat in your dough, the dough will tend to rip at that spot