What is Blind Baking?

Our recipe this week calls for "blind baking" the pie crust, so we thought we'd offer a few tips to help your crust (and quiche) turn out great.

First off, blind baking means partially or fully pre-baking a pie crust. This prevents the crust from becoming soggy from the main pie (or quiche) ingredients and helps it to hold it's shape.

Second, you'll want to either "dock" the crust by pricking it multiple times with a fork or fill it with a pastry weight. You don't need to do both, but without doing either your crust will likely bubble up and lose it's shape.

If you opt not to dock, you should line your crust with parchment paper and then fill with dried beans, lentils, or peas or with ceramic or metal "baking beans". Place your weight in a bag so you can easily pull it out to re-fill with the real pie filling.