The crust is the inspiration of most pie recipes and plenty of of these recipes name for the crusts to be blind baked. Blind baking is once you partially bake (or typically absolutely bake) the crust earlier than including the filling, which helps be sure that the completed pie and crust mixture will each be fully cooked via.
Most pastry doughs have layers of butter or different fat which can be supposed to make the baked pastries tender and flaky. Additionally they are inclined to puff up throughout baking in the event that they aren’t weighed down – so bakers have a tendency to make use of pie weights to maintain the crust in place whereas its within the oven. You should purchase pie weights at most baking shops, however dried beans are a generally advisable substitute. However what when you don’t have beans to make use of as pie weights? Study use rice as a pie weight as an alternative!
Rice is extraordinarily straightforward to make use of as a pie weight and it’s my go-to on the subject of baking pie crusts. You have to 1-2 cups of raw rice to weight down your pastry for a median 9-inch pie. To make use of the rice as a pie weight, roll out your pie crust and form it into your pie dish. Gently press a chunk of aluminum foil excessive of the unbaked crust, then fill the foil with the raw rice. Bake the crust as directed by your recipe.
When the crust is baked – both partially or absolutely – elevate out the aluminum foil and pour the raw rice right into a plastic bag or small storage container to make use of for the following time. You should use parchment paper instead of foil, however the foil is a bit simpler to press into the corners of the pie and can usually provide you with higher protection. There isn’t any have to grease the foil, since there’s loads of butter or different fats in your pastry crust already.
Rice works superbly right here for a number of causes. First, much more folks have rice readily available than raw beans. Second, the rice actually fills the pie crusts evenly, entering into small corners the place beans and different pie weights discover it troublesome to suit. Lastly. raw rice has little or no moisture, so it doesn’t change form and cools down simply after baking.
