Description
Below you will find guidance for both making pie dough and parbaking or blind baking it. This trusted method will ensure your crusts do not shrink in the oven and will prevent your finished pies from having soggy bottoms.
Here are a few recipes that benefit from a parbaked crust:
- Bourbon Pecan Pie
- Roasted Butternut Squash Pie (i.e. The Best Pumpkin Pie)
- Salted Maple Pie
Notes:
- Plan ahead: Ideally, make your dough 12 to 24 hours before you plan to roll it out. Doing so allows the flour to fully hydrate and allows the gluten to relax. This makes rolling the dough out more easily and also helps minimize shrinking in the oven.
- To make a double batch: do not load your food processor with double quantities. Make the dough in separate batches — no need to wash the food processor in between batches.
- To make a half batch, see quantities in the notes section below.
- Favorite Pie Plate: I swear by my ceramic Emile Henry 9-inch Pie Plate.
- Do not bake pies directly on the rack — butter will seep out and when it hits the oven floor (or Baking Steel), it will make a smoky mess. Instead, place your pies on sheet pans and use parchment paper, if you wish, for easy clean up.
- Dough Storage: Dough can be made up to three days in advance and stored in the fridge or made weeks in advance and stored in the freezer. To thaw, place dough in the fridge overnight before baking.
- Once you roll out your dough and fit it into your pie plate, don’t freeze it — the crust will not bake properly directly from the freezer.
- Parbaked Crust Storage: Once you parbake your pie shells, let them cool completely; then store in an airtight vessel or bag — a 2-gallon zip-top bag works well. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Pie-Making Schedule: This is a great schedule to follow if you are making pies for Thanksgiving or any holiday:
-
- Tuesday (or 2 days before you plan to serve your pies): Make the dough and chill it.
-
- Wednesday: Parbake the crust.
-
- Thursday: Fill and bake the pie.
-
Ingredients
- 2½ cups (320g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (25 g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) kosher salt
- 16 tablespoons (227g) unsalted or salted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (142g) ice water
For baking and storing:
- pie weights or dried beans/rice — I always use dried beans/rice. You need more than you think — over 3 lbs. per pie. You can use them forever and ever. I store mine in this OXO vessel.
- parchment paper — I like the large size of Reynolds for parbaking.
- Jumbo ziptop bags — the 2-gallon size is particularly helpful
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt together. Add the chilled, cubed butter. Pulse at 1-second intervals until butter is the size of peas — should be about ten 1-second pulses. Add the ice water and pulse again about 10 times until the mixture is crumbly but holds together when pinched. (To make without a food processor: In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, and salt together. Add the butter to the flour mixture, and using the back of a fork or a pastry cutter, incorporate it until it is in small pieces. Add ice water and continue to stir with a fork until mixture is crumbly but holds together when pinched.)
- Lay two clean tea towels on a work surface. Dump half of the crumbly dough mixture (roughly 350 grams) into the center of each. Grab the four corners of the towel together and twist to create a beggar’s purse, pressing the dough into a round. Use your hands to pack and flatten the round. Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper, place in ziplock or other airtight bag/vessel, and stash in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but ideally 12 to 24 hours or for as long as 3 days. You also can store it in the freezer for as long as 3 months.
- To parbake or blind bake the pie crust: Heat your oven to 425ºF. If you have a Baking Steel or pizza stone, place it on a rack in the lower third of your oven. (Steels and stones retain heat well, and they encourage proper and even browning on the bottoms of pie. They also help keep the oven temperature’s even as you open and close the door to check on your pie.) On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one of the chilled rounds of pie dough, flipping the round over every few strokes, until you have a circle roughly 15 inches in diameter. Note: If you are using very chilled dough, you may find it helpful to pound it gently with your rolling pin before beginning the rolling.
- Transfer the round to a pie plate. Trim any excessive overhanging pie dough — there should be roughly one inch of dough overhanging the edge. Save the scraps in an airtight container in the fridge. Tuck the overhanging dough behind itself; then use your fingers to crimp the edge into a fluted pattern — video guidance here. If time permits, chill the shell for 30 minutes. Lay a sheet of parchment across the pie plate and pour pie weights or dried beans into the center until they reach the top of the pie crust. Use your hands to press the weights down and fit them into the edges of the fluted crust.
- Transfer the filled pie crust to a parchment-lined sheet pan and transfer to the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to color — do rely on the visual cues here. It sometimes takes my crusts a little longer to take on that light color at the edges.
- Remove the pan from the oven and carefully remove the pie weights or dried beans (which you can use again and again — let them cool completely; then transfer to a storage bag). Return the pan to the oven. For a parbaked crust, bake the shell for another 2 to 3 minutes — it should take on only the slightest bit of more color all around. For a blind-baked crust, return the shell to the oven for another 10 to 12 minutes or until the crust is evenly golden brown.
- Once you parbake or blind bake your pie shells, let them cool completely; then store them in an airtight vessel or bag — a 2-gallon zip-top bag works well. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. From here, proceed with whichever pie recipe you are making. I use this pie crust for every pie I make. See notes above.
Notes
Half Recipe Quantities:
- 1 1/4 cups (160 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon table or kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons (114 g) cold, cubed butter, salted or unsalted
- 1/4 C. + 1 T. (71 g) ice water
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven, Food Processor
- Cuisine: American, French
