Blind baking means that a dough is first pre-baked and then filled. Find out here what exactly blind baking is all about and how the baking technique works in the most resource-saving way possible.
If you plan to bake a (vegan) quiche, tart or pie, you may have to blind bake the dough first. This means that you pre-bake the dough without the filling. When baking blind, this is replaced by a “blind” filling made from dried legumes or uncooked rice. Blind baking is a baking technique that does two things:
The base will be crispy and not soggy when the moist filling is added afterwards.
The blind filling also stabilizes the edges of the dough so that they do not collapse.
You remove the “blind” filling after baking. Depending on the recipe, you can let the dough cool down completely before adding the right filling. Or you can put the filling in immediately and then continue baking the cake.
Bake blind: this is how it works
Blind baking only requires a few extra steps:
Roll out a dough, grease a baking pan and line it with the dough.
Poke the dough a few times with a fork. This way no air bubbles form during baking.
Place a piece of baking paper on the dough and then fill the dried legumes or uncooked rice into the baking pan. The “blind” filling ensures that the base of the dough is weighed down, no bubbles form and the edge of the dough stays in shape.
Put the dough and the filling in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Take the pre-baked dough out of the oven and remove the legumes and the parchment paper.
Now you can process the dough further:
Cold filling: If the dough has a filling that doesn’t need to be cooked, you can put the pre-baked dough back in the oven without the blind filling. This makes the base nice and crispy and gives it a golden yellow colour. Then let the base cool down before you put the right filling on top.
Warm Filling: Some fillings require cooking. So put them on the pre-baked base and finish baking the dough including the filling.
Sustainable blind baking: Here’s how
Save energy: You don’t need to preheat the oven when blind baking the dough. Preheating is usually only useful for very sensitive dough. Depending on the oven, it may take a different amount of time for the dough to pre-bake. So make sure that your dough doesn’t get too dark during blind baking. Also, use the time that the dough is blind-baked and prepare the filling in the meantime.
Reuse: You can use the baking paper several times. You can also use the legumes more often for blind baking. Just let them cool and store them in a screw-top jar. Label them as baking legumes appropriately, because you shouldn’t cook them after they’re baked. Incidentally, special blind baking balls are also available in stores, which you can use as often as you like.
