The blog of cooking-ez.com

The right weight of pastry for a pie


The right weight of pastry for a pie
Let's try to solve a thorny problem: How much dough will I need when I make my next pie?

You're planning to make a pie, you're going to use your favourite mould or circle, but how much pastry will you need to fill it completely with a well spread pastry, without being too thin, or on the contrary end up with a lot of extra pastry?
57K 42 4.3
Grade this page:

Last modified on: March 20th 2020

Keywords for this post:BakingTipsWeightDoughPiePanDiameter
The right weight of pastry for a pie
This is not at all obvious actually, as ideally once the mould is lined it should only stick out about 1cm.

pie dough sticking out of the pan



You can of course use your own judgement, but at home I often use a 22 cm diameter (the small one), or sometimes 26 (the large one), and in any case I always get a 300 gr cake. And of course sometimes the big one is good, and sometimes the small one is too much. Well, it's not a tragedy either, if I have extra dough, I take advantage of it to make a few more tarts and it's fine.

excess pastry pie



By the way, if it's shortcrust pastry, there will never be any excess pastry, because it will be eaten, as soon as my back is turned, by the raw pastry aficionados I have at home...

Well, it's not all that, but can we do a little better than au pif? Yes, it's a pastry chef's trick, this weight of dough thing, and as they are people of numbers, of rigour, of precision, of grams and degrees, they have invented a kind of magic formula for that, linked to the diameter of your mould. It looks like this:

Weight of dough needed (gr) = diameter of the mould (mm) + 20.

For example, you have a 22 cm mould => 220 mm + 20 = 240 => you need 240 gr of batter.
Another example, 26 cm mould => 260 mm + 20 = 280 => you need 280 gr of batter.

plum tart



Very simple, isn't it? Well, be careful we're only one cow away anyway, and if you're not comfortable with a rolling pin to roll out the dough feel free to increase the magic number, and go from 20 to 30, or even 40.

In summary: To determine the right weight of pastry you need with your tart tin, you can apply the "magic" formula: pastry weight in gr = tin diameter in mm + 20.

Back to top of page

Lasts posts
Toss the salad
Toss the salad
When you've finished preparing a salad, green or otherwise, it's usually time to add the dressing and toss. It's often said to "toss the salad", which means to season and mix. Is it easy? Not so easy...
1,0115 March 8th 2024
Half milk, half cream
Half milk, half cream
In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...
1,372 February 27th 2024
Cutting soft cheeses
Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.
1,4945 February 20th 2024
It's spinning too fast!
It's spinning too fast!
When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...
4,4555 November 12th 2023
When I was a kid, I didn't like...
When I was a kid, I didn't like...
Maybe you've already made this strange observation: when you were a kid, there were things you hated, but as an adult it's almost the opposite? For example, you used to hate spinach or chicory, but now you love it?
4,0755 November 5th 2023
Other pages you may also like
Egg yolks and caster sugar
Egg yolks and caster sugar
We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
71K 24.4 February 15th 2018
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
118K 14.1 February 7th 2017
The so-called "nervous" meats
The so-called "nervous" meats
You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...
22K4.5 April 16th 2021
Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?
Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?
Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
36K4.3 February 28th 2018
Baking cakes
Baking cakes
Where we see that to put a cake in the oven, once the dough is finished and in its mould, there is no hurry and that the cold is your friend.
38K4.1 June 28th 2019
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.
I am not a leaving thing
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.

Back to top of page