How to Blind Bake A Pie Crust

Learning how to blind bake a pie crust is essential when you’re  planning to make pie.   It’s really simple to do and it helps prevent the dreaded soggy bottom crust on your pies.  Commonly pies are “blind baked” when the filling doesn’t require baking.  Think lemon meringue or french silk pie. 

This Post will walk you through the equipment you need, the difference between blind baking and parbaking and give some pointers to help you troubleshoot if things don’t turn out as planned. 

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• What is “Blind Baking”?
• Temperature Matters
• What kind of Pie Weights
• How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust
• Troubleshooting
• More Pie Recipes
• Recipe

Ingredients

One recipe of your favorite pie crust.  

Equipment

• Aluminum foil
• Pie weights  [beans, rice or granulated sugar]
• Cookie Sheet
• Fork

What is “Blind Baking”?

Blind Baking is a snazzy term for baking a pie crust with pie weights until the crust is golden brown all over.   The pie weights are added to ensure that the crust doesn’t puff up, and half way through the baking time, the weights are removed and the crust is returned to the oven without a filling until the crust is browned all over.  Blind baking is common where the pie filling does not need to be baked.  Examples would be a fresh strawberry pie or a banana cream pie. 

Blind baking should not be confused with “Parbaking” where the pie crust is baked in the oven without the filling until the pie weights are removed.  Then the filling is added to the warm pie crust and the pie is returned to the oven to bake the filling. Baking the pie crust halfway through gives the pie crust a better chance at turning out flaky, instead of soggy. Parbaking is common for pies like sweet potato or chai pumpkin. 

Temperature Matters

Pie crusts are a lot like buttermilk biscuits.  In order to have a flaky crust,  the fat (aka the butter or vegetable shortening) in the pie crust needs to stay cold.  To make sure everything stays as cold as possible there are two steps to take: 

1. Make the pie crust with frozen butter/vegetable shortening. 
2. After rolling out the pie crust and fitting it to the pan, refrigerate or freeze the crust.   This time in the fridge/freezer allows the butter to solidify. 

What kind of Pie Weights

The overall goal of the pie weights is to weigh down the pie to keep it from bubbling up.  You can achieve this goal in a couple of different ways: 

1. You can use pie weights.  Like these or these.  A word of caution on pie weights– they will be incredibly hot when they are removed from the oven.  Have a bowl ready to place the pie weights into when they come out of the oven.  No one wants to have hot marbles rolling all around their kitchen. 
2. Use Alternatives.  Beans, rice and granulated sugar all make great alternatives to pie weights.   My most successful blind baked crust used sugar.  The best part is that this is a pantry staple.  The sugar is fine enough that it gets in all of the nooks and crannies. Not only do you end up with a crust that is without bubbles, but the sides of the crust have nowhere to shrink.  Perfection. 

How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  While the oven is heating, keep your pie crust in the freezer. 
2. Prep the Pie Crust. Set frozen pie crust on the cookie sheet.  Use a fork to prick holes across the fork. Line the frozen pie shell with aluminum foil.  Place the pie weights on top of the aluminum foil.  Make sure to fill the crust all the way to the top.  
3. Bake.    20 to 25 minutes for pie recipes that required parbaking.  For crusts that need to be completely baked, bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then remove the pie weights and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes.

Troubleshooting

More Pie Recipes

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