[Q] Pie Pastry - explain instruction

"Eric" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

Thank you.

I didn't look at the url, but what you are describing is called 'blind baking' the shell. This is
usually done for pies that won't go back into the oven. And NO, you don't fill the pie shell with
beans/rice/whatever. Just a layer or two on the bottom is sufficient. They also sell 'pie weights'
(do a search) made of stainless steel, ceramic, etc.

To my knowledge, there is nothing you can do with the beans/rice when you're done, except save them
for the next time.

Eric said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

Well, put down some parchment paper on top of the crust and pour a cheapo bag of beans on it. This
will keep the pie crust from puffing up. People keep the same beans for the same purpose, but I
don't think they cook with them. Just keep making pie crust with them.

nancy

Quoted message said:

(Eric) asks:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

The rice/beans act as a weight, helps to ensure that the pie crust does not bubble up or otherwise
distort during baking... filling about half way should be plenty, about a pound of either should
work well... and they are reusable. Rice costs pennies a pound, no more than two bits... a pound,
beans perhaps four bits... I use whole dried peas, 39¢/lb. If you bake a lot of pies you may want to
invest in a package of ceramic/aluminum beads made specifically for that purpose, for maybe a couple-
three bucks. Some bakers use a few feet of small link chain from the hardware store - much neater to
work with, you'll think so too - after the first time you need to pick up a pound of spilled beans
from your kitchen floor.

---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =--- ---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =--- Sheldon
```````````` "Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

"Eric" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

Thank you.

bake blind

An English term for baking a pastry shell before it is filled. The shell is usually pricked all
over with a fork to prevent it from blistering and rising. Sometimes it's lined with foil or
PARCHMENT PAPER, then filled with dried beans or rice, or metal or ceramic PIE WEIGHTS. The French
sometimes fill the shell with clean round pebbles. The weights and foil or parchment paper should
be removed a few minutes before the baking time is over to allow the crust to brown evenly. ©
Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd
edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst

This is done for severasl reasons - first if the filling has a tendency to produce a lot of liquid
it does tend to keep the bottom crust from becoming too soggy. Secondly if the filling would set
(cook) before the crust would have enough time to bake this technique gives the crust a head start.

Dimitri Dimitri

Eric said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

They just add weight to keep the bottomof the pie shell from puffing up away from the bottom of the
pan. If you are planning to bake single crust pies in the future youmay as well buy some of those
pie weights and use them. they are just little round weights that will keep the bottom crusts from
warping upward.

I was in college. I had no one to teach me how to cook so I got a lot from books and a lot from
trial and error. I was never the most practically minded person in the world.

The recipe, like yours, said to fill the pie crust with rice. I did so.
The crust was wetter than it should have been, but how was I supposed
to know what it should have felt like? I poured in the rice and baked.

The rice all stuck to the crust, didn't just pour out. I had raw rice baked in. I got the tweezers
and started removing rice one grain at a time. I got bored after the first few. I handed it to my
boyfriend. That man must have been smitten with me because he did it! Anyone else would have told me
I had to forget it, but he removed rice with tweezers.

I no longer remember what I was trying to fill that pie crust with. Maybe quiche.

I recommend putting parchment paper in the crust before the rice, or use kidney beans which
are larger.

--Lia

Eric said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

Thank you.

"Eric" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

Thank you.

I use glass marbles.

Nancy Young said:

Eric said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

Well, put down some parchment paper on top of the crust and pour a cheapo bag of beans on it. This
will keep the pie crust from puffing up. People keep the same beans for the same purpose, but I
don't think they cook with them. Just keep making pie crust with them.

Oh, I see. So, you can just keep reusing the same set of rice or dried beans for this purpose over
and over again....well, that's good and makes a lot more sense now.

SCUBApix said:

They also sell 'pie weights' (do a search) made of stainless steel, ceramic, etc.

thanks for the suggestion and the information.

Dave Smith said:

Eric said:

I was looking around for pie pastry recipes and came across this one:

fooddownunder.comrecipe.cgiOpen ↗

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

I assume that you fill it entirely to the brim, but this seems like an awful waste of rice or
dried beans.

Can anything be done with the rice or dried bean after they have been used in the recipe?

What, exactly, does putting the rice or dried beans do?

They just add weight to keep the bottomof the pie shell from puffing up away from the bottom of
the pan. If you are planning to bake single crust pies in the future youmay as well buy some of
those pie weights and use them. they are just little round weights that will keep the bottom
crusts from warping upward.

I bake pies in 9.5" or 10" glass pans. When I bake them blind, I put in an 8" foil pan with a small
rock or a few coins in it for the first 5 minutes. An empty foil pan is almost enough by itself to
keep the crust from puffing up.

Best regards, Bob

Eric said:

Nancy Young <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Can someone please explain instruction #10:

Before baking, fill shell with rice or dried beans.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Well, put down some parchment paper on top of the crust and pour a cheapo bag of beans on it.
This will keep the pie crust from puffing up. People keep the same beans for the same purpose,
but I don't think they cook with them. Just keep making pie crust with them.

Oh, I see. So, you can just keep reusing the same set of rice or dried beans for this purpose over
and over again....well, that's good and makes a lot more sense now.

Exactly, it's just to weight down the crust, keep them in a jar for the next time. Good luck
with your pie.

nancy