How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust

Many sweet and savory cake recipes call for pre-baking, or “blind baking,” a crust. No one really knows where the term got its name from, but “blind baking” means baking without any filling.

Why blind bake a crust?

Some cake and tart recipes have fillings that are not cooked at all and must be placed in a fully cooked pie shell.

Some recipes, such as quiches, recommend partially cooked pie crusts, otherwise the baking time would not be long enough to fully cook the batter.

Pre-baking a crust can ensure your pie or pie crust is fully baked and browned and not soggy.

Using a homemade pie crust? Or a store bought frozen crust?

Pre-bake a store-bought crust

Most store-bought frozen crusts contain much less batter than a typical homemade crust, so they brown much faster than a homemade crust.

If you’re par-cooking a store-bought frozen packaged crust, I recommend following the package directions to par-cook that particular crust. Most directions require you to thaw the crust, prick the bottom of the crust all over with the tines of a fork, and bake at 375°F to 450°F for 10 to 12 minutes.

Par-cooking a homemade crust is a whole different matter, because homemade crusts can have twice the batter and higher fat content than store-bought crusts.

How to blind bake a homemade crust

The toughest problem you’ll come across when pre-baking a homemade crust is falling sides. Homemade crusts in particular have a high fat content. The fat will melt when heated in the oven and if there is no filling to support the sides of the pie crust it may collapse.

Another problem is surging air pockets in the middle. Unless you blind bake with weights or poke holes in the bottom of the crust, the bottom of the crust may puff up.

For years I’ve par-cooked crusts like most people did, about 15 minutes at a high baking temperature with foil or parchment and pie weights, then removed the pie weights and foil and pricked the bottom of the crust with the tines of a fork, and more without the lid Bake for 20 minutes.

This method works, but I’ve always found it a bit finicky. And even if you pierce the bottom of the crust with small holes all over the place, sometimes you still get air pockets rising at the bottom.

I’ve recently started using a method I learned from Stella Parks at Serious Eats and it gives consistently good results, even on hard-to-bake crusts like my infallible sour cream pie crust.

Stella advocates lining a frozen crust with foil, filling with pie weights, and then baking at an even temperature of 350F throughout the bake time. No removing the pie weights midway, no poking the bottom with a fork.

It works out! The pressure of the pie weights keeps the bottom of the crust from ballooning and the sides from sagging too much.

Sugar, rice or beans for pie weights

Another thing Stella recommends is using it sugar for cake weights instead of beans or other weights. Why sugar? Because of its small grain size, sugar distributes the weight more evenly against the sides of the crust.

You can also reuse the sugar in baking. Cooking the sugar this way actually caramelizes it slightly, adding more flavor.

You can also easily use uncooked rice or dry beans. I’ve tested all three extensively; they all work. I’ve found that sugar consistently produces better results and helps hold the sides in place better.

Tips for successful blind baking

• Use a dough that is easy to pre-bake. A dough with a ratio of 1 cup flour to 4 ounces fat (1 stick butter) is a high fat dough and is more likely to sag during pre-baking. A dough with a ratio of 1 1/4 cups flour to 4 ounces fat has better texture and is less likely to collapse. (See our all-butter crust recipe.)
• Roll out your dough a little wider than usual, so you can curl the edges of the tart pan a little higher than usual. If the edges are higher or wider to begin with, they have more room to shrink.
• Freeze the uncooked pie crust Bake for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour, before blind baking. If the crust is frozen when it goes into the hot oven, the outside edges have a better chance to set before the fat melts.
• Line the crust with heavy-duty foil. Heavy-duty foil tears less than regular foil when you shape it into the crust or when you remove it and the pie weights. I used parchment, but it doesn’t mold to the edges of the crust as much as foil.
• Use sugar for pie weights. Dry beans and rice work too, but sugar works even better, especially if you’re using a batter that’s higher in fat, like my favorite sour cream pie crust.
• Fill the weights to the brimthey will hold the pressure against the sides of the cake better.