How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Make sure you are starting with a frozen pie crust, not defrosted. Your pie crust should been in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

Use heavy duty aluminum foil, pressing the foil against the sides and bottom of the crust, allowing the foil to extend by a couple of inches on two opposing sides. Stick-free heavy duty foil works well for this, to help keep the crust from sticking to the foil when you remove it. You may need two sheets of foil to get full coverage.

Fill the pie crust to the top with pie weights. You can use ceramic weights, dry beans, rice, or white sugar. Sugar works well because of its small granule size; it distributes the weight more evenly against the crust. (Baking the sugar this way also lightly caramelizes it, making it even more flavorful if you want to use it later for baking recipes.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes if making a crust for a pie that you will cook further, like a quiche. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes if making a crust for a pie that will need no further baking.

Remove the pie shell from the oven. Using the excess foil on 2 sides of the pie shell, lift out the pie weights from the pie shell. Let the pie weights cool. Store them for future use.

When baking a pie with your pre-baked pie crust, I recommend protecting the rim from getting over-baked with aluminum foil or a pie rim protector.