What does bake blind mean ?

charlies_mum

I want to make a lemon meringue and the recipe says to put the pastry case into the oven and bake blind - what does that mean

reverie

It means that you bake the pastry case on its own before you but the filling in. You normally put greaseproof paper filled with uncooked lentils or rice in to hold the middle part down. Cooking it first means that the pastry doesn't go soggy when you fill it.

lindens

Baking blind means that when you have lined your cake tin with pastry you need to cover it with greasproof paper when cooking as you don't want to "brown" the pastry just cook it. YOu usually need something to keep the greaseproof paper down flat, people use baking beans or you can just use a handful of pasta. I'm sure others will be a long in a minute telling you other ways of doing it.

charlies_mum

Thank you, I'm sure they told me that in Home Economics, but that was many moons ago :rotfl:

dumpling

Basically it means baking the pastry on its own before adding the filling. You can use greaseproof paper and baking beans if you need a flat base but personally I never bother especially if you are going to be filling it with lovely lemon pie filling..Yum!

DawnW

It means without the filling. Usually, you do this by putting some greaseproof paper on the bottom of the unbaked flan with some baking beans on top to sort of weigh it down, to avoid it rising and going a funny shape. You can get special baking beans or just use some ordinary dried ones, that you can keep in a special marked jar and use over and over again for this purpose.

Iguana

Baking beans are supposedly better because apparently they conduct heat.

Pink.

There are some more suggestions that may help with baking blind on this older thread:

baking beans

Pink

ebaybaby

Im making a tart and the recipe says:

"Blind bake (!!!!! with fork and place a piece of greaseproof paper with some baking beans on pastry) Bake for 15 minutes"
What is "blind bake"? and what can I use as I dont have baking beans?

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

Do you have any dried beans or peas? you can use them.. and i have seen heston blumenthal line his with greaseproof and then throw in any loose change he has..apparently he reckons the coins heat up better and give you crisper pastry !!!!

Blind bake is just baking the case without the filling in -so that the pastry doesn't go soggy and sometimes fillings don't need much cooking. If you have a big baking tin put it in the oven whilst it is heating up and then pop the pastry case dish onto that and it will help your pastry cook quicker too

thriftlady_2

Have you got a cake tin with a removable base ? You could pop that on top of the greaseproof.