To bake “blind”

To bake a pastry shell without a filling. In order to keep the sides of pastry shells from collapsing and the bottom from puffing up during baking, place a piece of foil or waxed paper in the bottom of the pastry case, and weight this with dried beans or rice, or a combination of the two. When pastry shells have been baked according to recipe directions, the foil or paper is removed, and the beans and rice are returned to a storage jar, to be used again and again.