No, You Don’t Need to Blind Bake Your Pie Crust! (2024)

FAQs

Do you need to blind bake pie crust? ›

You do not need to pre-bake a pie crust for an apple pie or any baked fruit pie really, but we do freeze the dough to help it stay put. Pre-baking the pie crust is only required when making a custard pie OR when making a fresh fruit pie. you should probably get: Pie weights are super helpful to have for pre-baking.

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.

It depends on the type of pie. If you're making an apple pie or a cherry pie there is no need to blind bake. If you're making a pie with pastry cream like a banana cream pie or coconut cream pie, or if you're making a custard pie or a lemon meringue, then you must blind bake.

Blind baking is done by preparing your pie crust in the pan, leaving it to chill, then filling it with crumpled parchment paper and pie weights of your choice. The weights stop the crust from fully puffing while in the oven.

Blind baking isn't the only factor in getting a perfect golden brown crust. Other things that can impact your crust looking and tasting the part include your cooking time, whether you've brushed the outside with an egg yolk or water and the temperature of your oven.

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.

When Do You Need To Blind Bake a Crust? There are two times when blind baking is necessary: When we're making a custard pie or when the pie filling is unbaked. With a custard pie, like a pumpkin pie, the moisture in the filling can make the crust soggy before it has time to actually bake.

You need a par-baked or fully baked crust if you're making quiche, no-bake pie, custard pie, cream pie, pudding pie, or simply want an extra-crisp pie crust. If you're making a pie that doesn't require a baked filling, you still need a baked crust.

Otherwise you can absolutely use frozen and then defrosted puff pastry or pie dough. I only gave my pot pie a top crust, because I feel like the bottom crust always gets soggy. If you do want to add a bottom crust, I suggest blind baking it.

Blind Bake the Crust

One of the fool-proof ways to ensure a crisp bottom pie crust is to do what is called blind baking. This simply means that you bake the crust—either fully if you are adding a custard or cream that won't be cooked, or partially if the whole pie needs to bake—before adding the filling.

Can I use rice as pie weight? ›

Pouring uncooked white rice into a pie crust before blind baking can provide many of the same benefits as traditional pie weights. You don't need much, just enough to completely cover the parchment paper over the bottom of the crust, which even near-empty pantries usually have.

*Wondering what to use instead of baking beans? Dried beans or even dried pasta work just as well.

If you don't blind bake with weights, or poke holes into the bottom of the crust, the bottom of the crust can puff up.

Baking blind (sometimes called pre-baking) is the process of baking a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. Blind baking a pie crust is necessary when it will be filled with an unbaked filling (such as with pudding or cream pies), in which case the crust must be fully baked.

Too many pumpkin pies have soggy crusts that never fully brown. To avoid this, recipes often call for blind baking your crust. That is, baking the empty crust before the filling is added. This gives the crust time to firm up and brown, time it typically doesn't get if the faster cooking filling is added first.

Assemble Your Pie

The recipe yields 2 crusts—one for the bottom and one for the top—which is what you need for this pie. You don't need to par-bake the crust because this pie bakes for so long.

One of the fool-proof ways to ensure a crisp bottom pie crust is to do what is called blind baking. This simply means that you bake the crust—either fully if you are adding a custard or cream that won't be cooked, or partially if the whole pie needs to bake—before adding the filling.

What Can You Use Instead of Pie Weights? Instead of pie weights, you can use dried beans or rice, granulated sugar, popcorn kernels or steel ball bearings. If you are not using pie weights, the idea is to mimic what the pie weight does and to make sure that the alternative is oven-safe.