Blind baking

Some pies never return to the oven after they are filled, and others do not stay in it long enough to bake the crust beneath them. King Arthur names cream pies in the first group and custard pies and quiche in the second. Milk Street says a shell for a no-bake filling must be baked completely, since there is no later chance to cook it, and calls custard pies prime candidates for at least a partial prebake. Gisslen recommends the partial version for soft pies when the crust cannot otherwise be cooked through without overcooking the filling.

The empty crust tends to puff on the bottom and slide down the sides. King Arthur’s method chills the lined pan for 30 minutes to relax the gluten and firm the fat, lines it, fills it about two-thirds full with beans, rice, pie weights or sugar, and bakes it 20 minutes at 375°F. With the liner removed, the crust is partially baked; pricked with a fork and baked 20 to 25 minutes more, it is fully baked. Gisslen docks the shell well, sets a second pan inside it and bakes the pair upside down at 450°F, so the dough cannot slip into the pan. King Arthur offers the same upside-down method for crusts with flat edges.

King Arthur tested weights in 2025. An unweighted control crust shrank markedly and slid down the pan. Ceramic weights, rice and sugar on parchment all held the crust, though the sugar fused into a solid mass and ceramic weights usually come in quantities too small to fill a pan. A perforated silicone pouch of stoneware weights, nearly 4 1/2 pounds, was easiest to handle. Milk Street fills the liner three-quarters of the way up or to the top and advises against glass weights. The same King Arthur article attributes slumping chiefly to fat melting in the oven, and notes that crusts with some shortening slump less than all-butter crusts.

Bakers disagree about when a prebake is worth the trouble. Dorie Greenspan, quoted by King Arthur, prebakes whenever possible, and Keia Mastrianni of Milk Glass Pie always prebakes single crusts for custard pies. King Arthur advises against prebaking for double-crust pies, because a baked bottom and raw top crust seal poorly, and recommends a crust shield when a prebaked shell goes back into the oven with a fruit filling. Stella Parks writes that her high-butter dough keeps even a cherry pie’s bottom crust crisp with no par-baking at all. Milk Street adds a step for custard: pour the filling into the shell while it is still hot so the residual heat starts the cooking.