What can I use for blind baking a pastry case?
When it comes to home-made desserts, tarts are always popular. They can be divided into two basic types: those cooked with their filling, such as an apricot and almond cream tart, and those where the filling is added after baking the pastry case, such as a strawberry tart or chocolate tart.
For tarts where the filling will be added later, we need to cook the pastry case "blind” , as pastry cooks say.
It won't do to simply to line the tart tin with the pastry and bake it empty – the pastry will puff up unevenly in big bubbles which will harden as they cook and the sides are likely to fall in. In short, a disaster. And this is even worse with puff pastry.
To avoid this problem when baking blind, we need to put something in the pastry case to weight it down and keep the base flat, and also hold up the sides. It needs to be easy to remove afterwards, too. Let's take a look at the various possibilities.
For tarts where the filling will be added later, we need to cook the pastry case "blind” , as pastry cooks say.
It won't do to simply to line the tart tin with the pastry and bake it empty – the pastry will puff up unevenly in big bubbles which will harden as they cook and the sides are likely to fall in. In short, a disaster. And this is even worse with puff pastry.
To avoid this problem when baking blind, we need to put something in the pastry case to weight it down and keep the base flat, and also hold up the sides. It needs to be easy to remove afterwards, too. Let's take a look at the various possibilities.
110 K 4.5/5 (25 reviews)
Last modified on: May 2nd 2017
What can I use for blind baking a pastry case?
1) Pie-weight chain
2) Baking beads
3) Dried lentils/beans
Of course, they can be kept and used again and again. I must have been using the same lentils for 25 years!
You will have noticed that I have a preference for lentils, but you should form your own opinion and see what works best for you.
Worth noting, whatever you choose:
- It's a good idea to put a sheet of cooking parchment between the pastry and the lentils or beads. This makes it much easier to remove them after cooking.
- To know when the pastry is done, check the edges: when the top of the pastry crust is nicely browned, the bottom of the case should be cooked.
- After baking, the bottom of the pastry case might well still be very pale, unlike the browned edge. If this bothers you, remove the lentils and paper towards the end of the baking time and leave the pastry to cook uncovered in the top of the oven for a further 5 minutes.
- Always leave a tart case to cool completely before filling, possibly on a wire rack, as this will help the pastry to stay crisp.
To sum up: For blind baking, lentils make the best pie weights. Line the pastry with a sheet of cooking parchment before pouring them in.
Note: When I say that the trick of using dried beans or lentils is as old as the hills, it's because that's how I make my own tarts (maybe you, too). That's how I still see my mother make her tarts now, and how she saw my grandmother do it, and so on…
Lasts posts
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20251,218
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...August 26th 20254,4235
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?August 25th 20254,7425
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20252,9495
Add a bay leaf
Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...July 31th 20253,0585
Other pages you may also like
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20251,218
A few tips for effective kneading at home
When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.June 23th 2021280 K 23.7
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?July 28th 20253,259 13
The 3 secrets of Parisian flan
A flan Parisien, or boulanger, is a simple yet delicious cake. A cream, a mixture of milk, eggs and sugar, is poured into a raw pastry base and baked in the oven until the pastry and cream are cooked. This is the simplest version of the recipe, probably the original one, but nowadays the cream...July 21th 202313 K4.7
85 grams of eggs?
Some time ago, I already spoke to you about the difference between baking and pastry-making, I emphasized, among other things, the precision of pastry-making which requires grams, cm, degrees and minutes. That's why, on the one hand, you have baking and cooking, where a certain tolerance is...November 26th 201854 K4.6
Post a comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.