While you might be able to get away with a slightly soggy base, serving up a pie where the crust still feels like dough or which doesn’t even hold together is inexcusable. Plus, its fine texture ensures that it won’t leave behind any unwanted bumps or lumps in your crust. Generally, you'll want to blind bake a pie crust destined to hold a filling that requires little to no oven time itself. Well, few of us are strangers to the disappointing soggy pie-crust base that can result from recipes that contain very wet fillings.

When the dough is about 5cm larger than the tin, lift it up draped over the rolling pin and lay it across the flan tin. Just place some birdseed in between two sheets of parchment paper and place them on top of your pie dough before baking it – just like you would with regular blind-baking beans! This is entirely understandable, as once the filling is baked to our liking, we have to remove the pie to prevent it from burning or over-cooking. Before baking blind, chill the pastry case for at least 30 minutes, to firm the butter so that the pastry will hold its shape. Popcorn kernels are an excellent alternative to regular baking beans because they’re inexpensive, easy to find, and they do a great job at preventing your crust from puffing up while it bakes.Dock the dough by piercing the base with a fork in several places to allow airflow and prevent bubbles.

I use mine with a piece of baking parchment to line pastry bases to cook them before adding the filling thus preventing the dreaded soggy bottom! Finally, if you find that the sides of your crust are burning during blind baking, cover them with foil or use a silicone pie crust shield to protect them. To ensure that your crust comes out looking even, golden, and crisp, you need to either allow the steam to escape or hold the dough in place. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. It helps the steam escape, and can reduce the amount that a crust puffs up, but the sides can still be a problem and wet fillings can seep through these holes into the crust, making it soggy.

Re-use the sugar several times before using it in your favorite recipe for a toasted, caramel flavor. Add a layer of dried beans or ceramic baking beans and fold the edge of the paper over the edge of the flan ring. Now there’s really no excuse for not blind baking that crust – you’re one step closer to the perfect pies you’ve always dreamed of baking!