Blind Baking

whatscooking@thecookingcat.com (The Cooiking Cat), The Cooking Cat
Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:11:59 +0000

Whenever my wife bakes a tart, especially this pumpkin pie recipe, she talks about blind baking. Other chefs or professional cooks also use the term pre-baking. It sounds complicated, but it is a simple process.

Blind baking simply means baking the pastry case or shell without a filling inside. It is an important step in the pie baking process as it allows the pie case to set before filling it with wet ingredients. If not done, the pastry case will not set and can fall apart when baking the pie.

It is easy to blind bake a pastry case or the pastry shell before filling it with wet ingredients. Simply line the pastry, most probably shortcrust pastry, with parchment, fill with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F) for 15 minutes.

There you have it, baking blind, or blind baking or pre-baking is easy but necessary. It is an easy pie preparation technique that can be performed by anyone.

If you use a different technique to blind bake a pastry case, we would love to hear how and what you do.