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pie crusts: when do/should you pre-bake?

post #1 of 4
3/21/11 at 12:30am
Thread Starter 

I've been making some savoury pies. I tend to pre-bake them when the filling is going to be fairly moist. Is this absolutely necessary?

What are you all doing?

Does it also depend on the type of dough you use?

 

I've been looking at a lot of recipes and there seems to be no consistency in this.

 

I'm in going to do some non-savoury pies in the near future, so I would like to know for pate sucre as well.

Thanks

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post #2 of 4
3/21/11 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by butzy View Post

I've been making some savoury pies. I tend to pre-bake them when the filling is going to be fairly moist. Is this absolutely necessary?>


Pretty much. With liquid fillings there is always the struggle to prevent a soggy bottom crust. Pre-baking helps to remedy this. Generally speaking, you would pre-bake a crust when the filling is liquid or when the filling itself is not baked - like a pastry cream filling, for example.
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post #3 of 4
3/22/11 at 12:30am
Thread Starter 

Thanks Jock,

The pies we do for the restaurant use the "classic" short crust pastry (recipe from Jaques Pepin) and we pre-bake them.

 

At home I don't normally have butter, so started experimenting with olive oil crusts. It seems to work.

Last time I did 2, One pre-baked without beans to hold the crust down and the other with beans.

For the one without beans, I put holes (well, pin pricks) in the bottom to prevent it from coming up , but this did not work totally. It did result in a much nicer crust though than the one with beans.

The bottom of the one with beans stayed a bit soggy, even after baking it for about 15 minutes. I then took the beans out and pre-baked it a bit longer, but the bottom started coming up slightly so I stopped and took it out of the oven. This crust didn't crisp up as nicely even after baking it with the filling as the one without beans did.

 

Did I do anything wrong?

 

 

 

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post #4 of 4
3/22/11 at 4:45pm
No, you are not doing anything wrong. What you are describing with the beans is a common phenomenon. You can deflate the bottom crust after it comes out and to help "waterproof" it a bit more, brush the crust with some beaten egg white in the last 5 minutes of baking.
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