What Does Blind Bake Mean?

What does blind bake mean?

In this brief article, we will tell you about blind baking, its reason, how to do it and five additional tips to avoid melting the pie.

Blind baking or pre-baking is the process of baking a pie or crust without the filling. The crust is rolled on the baking dish and baked without anything holding it down. It is used when doing partial baking or complete baking after pre-baking of crust.

Why Blind bake?

Blind baking is pretty common, especially when you make quiche, no-bake pie, custard pie, pumpkin pie, pudding pie and an extra crisp pie crust. It is also a perfect way to bake your pie partially. Some recipes require partially baked pie crust, and blind baking is the way to do thatHow to Blind bake Pie?

The process sounds quite simple as it is just partial baking of the pie. But it is not as simple as it says; there are some problems too. One of the primary concerns when Blind baking a pie is the steam puffs up the pie if there is no filling present. It worsens as the pie crust melts down, and if there is nothing to hold it, the crust will settle down, ruining the texture.

The solution to the problem mentioned above is the use of Parchment paper. Ensure it is not the filling required by the recipe but something for the crust to hold. Carefully add something that will support your pie and won’t let it shrink down or meltdown

There is something called pie weight too, which you can use on top of your parchment paper. It doesn’t melt or gets baked, but it pushes up the pie. It is good to support your pie if you are using parchment paper alone.

How to dock the pie crust?

The parchment paper holds the pie in its place, but it might affect the baking of the lower layer of the pie. To overcome this problem, you can remove the parchment paper and the pie weight. Do it when you see the corners have turned brown. It indicates that the baking of the upper layer of crust and the pie will hold on.

To avoid the puffing of pie after removing the parchment paper. It would help if you poke holes with the help of a fork or a toothpick. It will let the steam escape and won’t make the pie puff without any filling underneath.

How to prevent the crust from shrinking?

Even if you take all the necessary measures like putting pie weights, poking holes and using parchment paper, sometimes the pie still starts to shrink. You can avoid this by using two methods:

1. Chill your pie before blind baking, and it will make your dough stronger to withhold pressure and heat.

2. Make thick edges for the crust by dough strip method; in this technique, the whole dough is spread out on the baking dish so that dough edges are outside the container. Cut the extra dough edges and roll them around the dish edges. Do it until you have very thick edges. It can prevent the shrinkage of the pie.

Now you have a pretty good pie crust that you can bake partially and use it for your recipes. It is strong enough to withhold partial baking of the crust and doesn’t require much effort. The edges are thick, and you can cut them off after baking. These leftover crumbs are usable as fillings and toppings.

Additional tips:

1. Follow the right recipe; if your recipe requires blind baking, then do it; otherwise, don’t do it. Only use blind baking if the recipe requires pre-baking of the crust

2. Choose the right plate to blind bake your pie; using a heavy ceramic plate will make the pie crust crispy. The heat conduction of ceramic is slow so use something that has high conduction with perfect shape.

3. If you are chilling the dough before baking it, then roll the shape before chilling the dough. That means before keeping the crust in the freezer, roll it in the required shape, which can be according to your recipe demands and how you want it, then freeze it.

4. Keep the temperature of the baking oven low and slow. Some recipes divide the process into two steps, baking the crust for 15 to 20 minutes. Removing it from the oven for quite some time and then bake it again

5. You can also use aluminium to cover the baking dish if you don’t have parchment paper. It is a better option because it covers every part of the pie and won’t absorb the butter.