Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Blind Baking


No, it's not baking with your eyes closed or wearing a blindfold!  Goodness, can you imagine what a mess you'd make!

What I'm talking about is rolling out a pie crust and pre-baking it in the oven.  Have you ever done that?  Only to find your pie crust has shrunk like a wool sweater washed in hot water then thrown in the dryer? Blind baking is typically done for cream, custard, pudding and some fresh fruit type pie fillings that do not have to be baked (most of the time).

The secret is, freezing the pie shell once you've rolled out your crust and nicely placed it in your pie dish, then crimped your edges.  I've listed the steps below, I hope you find them helpful!

  1. Dock the bottom of your pie shell with a fork, as you can see I dock the bottom quite a bit.
  2. Dock the sides around your pie shell.
  3. FREEZE your pie shell for 5 minutes!!!  
  4. Put a piece of parchment paper on the bottom and up the sides a little.
  5. Use a pie weight on the bottom. I use dry beans.
  6. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven
  7. Take the shell out of the oven and carefully remove the parchment paper with the beans, be careful, the beans will be hot.  Once cooled store them for later baking use.  I use mine over and over when baking pie shells.
  8. Place the pie shell back in the oven for another 7 - 10 minutes, keeping a watch on it.

I hope you enjoyed this helpful pie baking tip!

Have a wonderful week and thank you for following!  I truly appreciate your friendship!




23 comments:

  1. That's wonderful... I wish I could make the same :-)

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  2. My mom would pre-bake several at a time then turn them into pies over a period of several days. I loved her pie crusts.

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    1. Hi Larry, what a great idea! Have you ever tried making your mom's pie crust?

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  3. THAT is a very pretty piecrust! I had never heard the trick of freezing the pie crust first until just the other day! Your way sounds perfect to me! xoDiana

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  4. I knew about docking and the weights, but not about freezing the crust for 5 minutes. I will definitely give it a try.
    Sam

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    1. Hi Sam, I just joined a FB pie group, but I also just read about freezing the crust & the experts in this group confirmed it!

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  5. I did. And I'm pinning for future reference. What a beautiful pre-cooked pie shell!

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  6. My, my! What pretty crimping, me dear!

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    1. Thank you Susan, I learned crimping by watching my nana. :)

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  7. I'l try this! Pie crust has always been my nemesis. I have made many that have come out of the oven strangely misshapen. :)

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  8. I have a canister of dried beans used just for this purpose! Pie weights sound like something I'd like to put on my gift list, though. Lovely crimping!

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    1. I keep wanting pie weights too! Williams-Sonoma has some great ones!

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  9. That's a pretty pie shell, I'm sure a delicious filling went into it and it was gone in a short matter of time.

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    1. Thank you, a delicious coconut cream filling went in this shell.

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  10. I love making (and eating!) pies. It makes me happy just looking at the photo of your beautiful pie shell! I put my pie shells in the freezer for a bit before popping them into the oven, and I never use pie weights; the freezing seems to do the trick.

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  11. I always blind bake my pastry crusts and I have a jar of porcelain baking beads for the job! Your crust looks FAB! Karen

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