Blind Baked Pie Crust Recipes

Steps:

• Whisk sugar, salt, and 2⅔ cups flour in a large bowl. Add butter and, using your fingers, smash each piece into a thin disk. Take your time doing this and don't feel compelled to break butter into even smaller pieces. Drizzle ⅔ cup ice water over, dispersing it as widely as possible, and mix with a rubber spatula to bring mixture together into a shaggy mass.
• Turn dough out onto a surface and work together with your hands, pushing and flattening until dough holds together when squeezed in your palm but some streaks of dry flour are still visible. Divide dough into 2 portions.
• Flatten 1 portion of dough into an 8"-diameter disk. Cut into quarters, stack pieces on top of one another, and flatten dough with a rolling pin to about half of its original height. At this point dough should hold together with no dry spots remaining, and have nice big flakes of butter showing. Use a bench scraper or a large knife to clean any clingy bits of dough from surface. Dust surface with flour, then dust top of dough with flour. Roll out to a ¼"-⅜"-thick round. Wrap dough around rolling pin and transfer to a standard 9"-diameter pie dish. Unfurl into dish, then lift edges and allow dough to slump down into dish. Trim overhang to an even 1" (there will be some excess). Fold overhang under and crimp as desired. Cover and chill until very cold, at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours (cover tightly if chilling longer than 1 hour). Repeat process with remaining dough and another pie dish. Or form into a 1½"-thick disk, wrap in plastic, and chill up to 3 days (or freeze up to 1 month).
• Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat oven to 400°F. Lay 2 sheets of parchment paper over dough and fill with pie weights or dried beans (they should fill the dish). Set on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (this will keep any butter drips from smoking up your oven). Bake until edges are golden brown and bottom is opaque (carefully lift parchment to check), 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 300°F. Lift out parchment and weights. Bake crust until evenly chestnut brown all over, 10-15 minutes. If baking both crusts, turn oven dial back up to 400°F and let oven preheat; repeat with remaining crust.

Steps:

• Roll out your pie dough, place in pan, trim or crimp edges. If you need a recipe, type "Pie dough" into the search window for recommendations.
• Place a piece of parchment paper or an opened up round coffee filter in the bottom of the pie.
• Pour in the pie weights, dried beans or raw rice to fill the pan up about half way. Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes (this helps prevent shrinkage).
• Preheat oven at 375 deg F.
• Bake for 20 min., remove from oven.
• Remove the paper and the weights. Save the weights for next time - the rice or beans should not be cooked.
• If you need a partially baked crust (if the filling is going to be baked in the crust), check that the bottom is dry and flaky, but still pale. If it looks moist, return to the oven for a few more minutes.
• If you need a fully baked crust, as for a cream pie, prick the bottom with a fork, and return to the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Steps:

• Using a whisk, combine the flour and salt. Cut the margarine in with a pastry cutter. You can use a food processor also.
• Add the ice water and form the dough into a disc.
• Roll the dough out between two sheets of wax paper. Peel one sheet off the dough and place it in your pie plate.
• Make sure you get all the air pockets out of the crust around the sides. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill.
• Preheat your oven to 350'F.
• For the Blind Baking:.
• Put a piece of wax paper on top of the pie crust and weight it with dry beans or rice.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Then, remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. Then remove the wax paper and weights.
• Prick the pie crust all over to make sure no air bubbles form.
• Put a foil lining around the edge of the pie to prevent it from burning and pop it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.
• Cool it thoroughly and add your prepared filling.
• Of course you can use this with uncooked pie fillings as well. Just follow the directions. You can double this recipe if you need to have a top for your pie.
• Bon Appetit!