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Baking an Empty Crust for a Tart or Pie
Appears in
Published 2014
Baking a tart or pie crust ‘blind’, or unfilled provides a crisp crust and is often done for pies that will have a creamy filling. It’s easy, but requires a little advance planning, because your crust should be baked and cooled before you proceed with the remaining steps of the recipe.
- Chill your crust - Ideally, overnight - before you start the process.
- When you’re ready to bake, set a rack at the middle level in the oven and preheat to 190°C/gas mark 5.
- For a large pie or tart, pierce the dough at 2.5cm Intervals all over with the tines of a fork.
- Line the dough with a disk of parchment paper or lightweight foil. If you use foil, spray the surface that will come in contact with the dough to avoid any possibility of sticking. Never use heavy-duty foil - a fold in the foil can easily cut through the dough.
- Fill the lined pastry shell with dried beans. You’ll need about 350g of beans for a large pie or tart, or about 60g per 11.5cm pastry shell. For small Individual tartlet crusts about 6.5cm in diameter, you can cut down cupcake paper liners to line the tins; alternatively, if you have enough extra little tins, spray the backs of some and use them Inside the dough-lined ones. Set Individual tarts or tartlets on a Swiss roll tin.
- Place the tart, pie or loaded Swiss roll tin in the oven and decrease the temperature to 180°C/gas mark 4.
- For large tart or pie crusts, bake until the dough is set and is no longer shiny and raw looking when you lift the paper to look, about 15 minutes. Carefully remove the paper and beans and continue
baking for about15 minutes - Individual and miniature crusts take much less time to bake and might be completely done in less than 15 minutes. Begin checking them after 8-10 minutes.
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