1,613 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

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.

115 K 4.5/5 (25 reviews)

Last modified on: May 2^nd 2017

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

1) Pie-weight chain

Pie-weight chain

This is a long string of stainless-steel beads which can be coiled in the pastry case. It's not too bad for keeping the bottom flat, but does little to stop the sides falling in.

2) Baking beads

Baking beads

These are either metal or ceramic and can be poured in to give an even layer in the pastry case. They are quite effective (just don't use the aluminium ones), even for the sides. But they tend to be fairly large, so not good for small tarts.

3) Dried lentils/beans

Dried lentils/beans

This method is as old as the hills and cheap: simply fill the pastry case with dried beans, peas or lentils – they are very effective.

Small tarts baked blind

Use lentils if you can, as their small size makes them ideal for all sizes of tarts, even tiny ones and vol-au-vents.

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

Added cocoa powder: why it makes your cakes dry

Are you making a recipe—a cake, for example—and want to turn it into a chocolate version? Adding a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder seems like the simplest solution. However, the result is often disappointing: you end up with a cake that’s drier, denser, and goes stale quickly. This is due to...
November 10^th 20266615

Season to the right level

When you need to salt something—for example, fish fillets before cooking them—you’ll naturally sprinkle them with a pinch of salt using your fingers. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this very ordinary gesture, which is done all the time in the kitchen, and yet there’s a...
October 14^th 20261,8385

How to Properly Fill a Jar

When you have a jar in your kitchen that’s almost empty—flour or almond flour, for example—you’ll probably refill it before it’s completely empty. And that’s a great way to go about it—no one wants to run out of an ingredient right in the middle of a recipe. Once you’ve...
October 2^nd 20261,2545

Serving Temperature for Wine

When it comes to serving wine, you may (like me) have a fairly simple rule of thumb: red wine at room temperature, and white, rosé, and yellow wines in the fridge until it’s time to serve them. It’s very easy to remember, but it’s a bit simplistic, and you’ll see that there’s a much...
September 23^th 20261,2885

Hot Emulsified Sauces

In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9^th 20261,7195

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other articles you might also like

Fruits which can ruin your jelly

There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...
March 6^th 201382 K4.0

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201772 K 24.2

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.
February 15^th 201887 K 24.3

Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting

In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...
January 30^th 201566 K4.0

One should cover a pan while heating?

You've probably heard it before: "Cover your pan, it'll boil faster", but is it true? Let's find out.
February 27^th 201534 K 13.4