Partially cooking your pastry before adding moist fillings will seal the surface and result in a crisp pastry case – it’s necessary, because it means your precious pastry won’t turn soggy when it’s filled and baked.
How to blind bake shortcrust pastry
Step 1
After placing the pastry in its tin, use a fork to prick the base all over to remove any air pockets. Line the case with baking paper, then fill with baking weights, or uncooked rice, to prevent the pastry from warping and bubbling as it cooks.
Step 2
Put the tin on a baking tray and place into a preheated 220°C oven for 8-10 minutes. By this stage the pastry should just be beginning to colour.
Step 3
Remove the tray and pastry case from the oven. Carefully remove the baking paper and weights or rice. Place the empty pastry case and tray back into the oven for a further 5-10 minutes or until light golden and dry. Allow the pastry case to cool in its tin before filling or continuing with the next stage of your recipe.
What can I use for blind baking? And can you blind bake without weights?
It’s not recommended to blind bake without any weight, because the pastry will puff up and it won’t cook evenly if there’s nothing holding it down. But if you don’t have traditional baking beads, you can use dry rice, pasta, beans or even sugar! Anything that’s heavy enough to hold down a piece of baking paper.
Can you eat the rice, beans, sugar after you’ve blind baked with them?
Our food team probably wouldn’t recommend cooking your ingredients once you’ve blind baked with them, as it could affect the flavour of the ingredient. But if you don’t want to throw them away, our team keep their “blind baking rice” in a separate mason jar in their cupboard, which they pull out and use whenever they need to blind bake. The ingredients will be good for around a year.
Finally, why is it called “blind baking”?
We’re not sure about this one. But apparently the popular opinion is that because you can’t see the pastry (as it’s covered by baking paper), you’re baking blind. You learn something new every day.
