Blind Baked Pie Crust
I am reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy and it’s messing with my mind. Yes, I am late to the party. I held out because I am a bit of a book snob. When I saw the movie trailer, however, my stomach did a flip. It was the elevator scene that did it. So here are my thoughts thus far: There are so many red flags with Christian Grey, and yet I still want him to be my boyfriend. What is happening to me?! Oh, and the plot has “jumped the shark” too many times to count, but I will not and cannot put it down. And why hasn’t Anastasia gotten a UTI by now? Does she really want to have sex with him ALL OF THE TIME? Maybe she would like to just relax and watch TV one night eating Cheetos. And speaking of the sex scenes… does the author have to describe each one in such great detail? One or two times certainly, but she could just write, “and they did it” or “they did it again.” Fifty Shades of Grey walks a fine line between a beautiful love story and a creepy Dateline murder mystery entitled “Flogged In The Night”. I think it might be the most exciting book I have ever read. Okay, let’s learn how to blind bake a pie crust.
Blind baking is required when you do not need to bake the filling at all (pudding pies), or the filling takes a shorter baking time than the crust. Here are a few tricks to help you blind bake a crust perfectly:
- Prick the pie shell with a fork before baking. This technique is called “docking” and it ensures that the pie dough will retain its shape while it bakes.
- To prevent the dough from puffing up in the oven, line the shell with parchment or greased foil and fill with pie weights.
- Once the crust has set (about 15 to 20 minutes of baking), remove parchment and pie weights. Dock the crust once again and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- To help retain crispness once the pie is filled, coat the crust with a thin layer of egg wash, chocolate, or even caramel in the last 5 minutes of baking.
Oh, and here is my recipe for pie dough.
Roll out your pie dough.
Gently place dough in your pie plate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick your chilled pie dough with a fork. This is called “docking”.
Trim the edges a bit, and pinch them under, to create a uniform look.
Create a decorative edge. I cut a half inch in around the dough.
Then I bent in every other cutout.
Place appropriately sized parchment paper, or greased foil on pie dough and fill with pie weights, dried beans, or in my case, dried lentils.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Then remove pie weights and parchment. Dock the crust with a fork again and bake for another 5 minutes.
Blind Baked Pie Crust
