Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Kitchen Collection [39]

I make a lot of pie crusts for French-style tartes aux fruits and quiches, which are one-crust pies. Pies with two crusts are usually called tourtes. For the one-crust pies, my pâte brisée is always better when I've blind-baked it before filling it.

To do this, I put the crust in its buttered pan, poke some holes it in with the tines of a fork, then line the crust with a piece of kitchen parchment, or papier sulfurisé as it's called here. Then the pie weights go in.

I've heard that you can use beans or rice, but I got these ceramic weights from a kitchen store back in San Francisco many years ago and they work great. The weights keep the pie crust from rising up out of the pan while it pre-bakes without a filling.

After about fifteen minutes in a hot oven, the crust is ready to cool a bit and be filled with good stuff, then it goes back into the oven for the final baking. The crust is always done and never soggy.

3 comments:

  1. I have apples and no crust... You know the address for the FedEx shipment.

    ;-)

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  2. I remember my mother using beans!
    Quite an interesting photo, actually. I would never have guessed what it was.

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  3. My mom gave these to me for Christmas last year, and I must confess, I've only used them twice. I am not the master crust maker that you are, Walt, but I'm going to keep trying. I'm sure I'll be using them again around Thanksgiving.

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