How To Blind Bake Pie Crust

Dreaming of perfect pies with flaky, never-soggy pie crusts? Blind baking is your answer! This guide will unveil the secrets of blind baking, including both fully baked and par-baked methods, so you can conquer any pie recipe with confidence. Let’s ditch the soggy bottoms and bake like a pro!

This ultimate guide on how to blind bake pie crust walks you through the process step by step. Plus, I’ll share all my favorite tips and tricks for mastering this baking technique and how to prevent pie crust from shrinking!

I usually use this easy shortcrust pastry recipe or my grandma’s flakey pie crust recipe with shortening for blind baking, but you can also use a store-bought pie crust!

🤷🏼‍♀️ Why Blind Bake a Pie Crust?

Blind baking might seem strange, but it’s a lifesaver for certain pies! Think of it as giving your pie crust a head start in the oven.

Blind baking is a simple technique that pre-bakes your pie crust before you add the filling, ensuring a flawless base for your favorite baked pie. It is often used for making tart shells, quiche crusts, as well as pies.

It also prevents soggy bottoms from juicy fillings like peach pie and ensures your crust gets perfectly crisp without burning when paired with faster-cooking fillings like pumpkin pie.

This is especially important for pies with fillings that don’t need baking themselves, like cheesecakes, puddings, or cream pies.

⚖️ Fully Blind Baked vs Partially Baked

Fully baked means your pie dough is 100% cooked and ready for a no-bake filling, whereas Partially baked is exactly like it sounds – your crust is just barely brown and will need more baking time once it has been filled.

So, blind bake or not to blind bake? That is the question!

It all depends on your pie recipe. If it calls for a fully baked shell, like a banana cream pie, you’ll bake it all the way through. For other pies, you cook the filling and crust together like a quiche. Some of these pies still need a head start for the crust, which is where blind baking pie crusts come in.

The good news? The process is the same for both fully and partially blind-baked crusts, only the baking time changes.

Fully Baked Crust: Perfect for no-bake pies like coconut cream, where the filling doesn’t need any oven time.

Partially Baked Crust: Or sometimes called Par Bake. This is your pick for pies where the crust needs to cook longer than the filling, like quiches or a brownie pie. Even for something classic like apple pie, a partially blind-baked crust can give you an extra crispy treat!

We’ll show you both methods below, so you can conquer any pie recipe that comes your way!

👩🏻‍🍳 How to Par-Bake Pie Crust

Line and weight: Cut a large piece of parchment paper to fit inside the pie plate. Gently press it into the dough, making sure it covers the bottom and sides.

Weigh it down: Fill the parchment paper with pie weights or dried beans. This helps prevent the crust from shrinking or puffing up in the center and bulging while baking.

Bake for 10-15 minutes: or until it’s light golden brown and set. Remove the pie dish from the oven and carefully lift out the parchment paper with the weights.

Cool completely: Let the par-baked crust cool completely on a wire rack before adding your filling.

🥧 How to Blind Bake Pie Crust

Line and weight: Cut a large piece of parchment paper to fit inside the pie dish. Gently press it into the dough, making sure it covers the bottom and sides.

Weigh it down: Fill the parchment paper with pie weights or dried beans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes: Remove the pie dish from the oven and carefully lift out the parchment paper with the weights.

Optional: Brush with egg wash (for a golden brown crust): If you want a nice golden brown color on your crust, whisk together one egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and brush it over the bottom and sides of the pre-baked crust.

Pro Tip: To prevent the edges from browning before the bottom is fully baked, use a pie shield or wrap the edges in aluminum foil to prevent them from burning.

Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes: This will ensure the crust is fully cooked through.

Cool completely: Let the pie shell cool completely on a wire rack before adding your filling.

🧊 How to Prevent Pie Crust From Shrinking

There are multiple factors that are in play that cause a pie crust to shrink. Here are the top 6 ways to prevent our crust from shrinking.

1. Chilling the Dough: This might be the most crucial step. When the dough is chilled, the fat stays solid. As the pie bakes, the fat melts, creating steam pockets that puff up the dough and contribute to that delightful flakiness. Without chilling, the fat melts too quickly, leading to a denser, shrink-prone crust.

2. Letting the Dough Rest: After rolling out the dough, giving it a short rest in the fridge allows the gluten to relax. Gluten development is great for chewy breads, but not so much for pie crusts. Relaxed gluten means a less elastic dough, which is less likely to shrink and pull in on itself during baking.

3. Docking the Pie Crust: Think of docking as poking tiny holes in the bottom of your crust with a fork. These holes allow steam to escape as the pie bakes. Without them, the steam can build up and push upwards, causing the crust to bulge or shrink unevenly.

4. Don’t Stretch the Dough: This might seem counterintuitive, but rolling the dough out evenly is key. Stretching or pulling the dough as you line the pie tin can lead to the dough wanting to contract into itself as it bakes, causing it to shrink and deform shape.

5. Using Pie Weights: Pie weights, or even dried beans, are your secret weapon for a uniformly baked crust. They weigh down the bottom of the crust as it bakes, preventing it from doming or shrinking in the center. This ensures a nice, even shape and prevents the bottom from becoming soggy from pooling liquids.

6. Allow a Little Dough Overhang: While you don’t want a massive overhang, having a little extra dough around the edges helps prevent shrinkage. This extra bit acts as an anchor, holding the rest of the crust in place and preventing it from pulling inwards as it bakes. Once baked, you can simply trim the excess and crimp the edges decoratively.

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