Tips from professional Chef Tallyrand:

Food tip on blind baking

What is it, why is it done, what is its importance, is it necessary and how do you achieve it? Well Tallyrand is here to explain all those questions and more . . .

Blind baking is the technique cooks and chefs use to pre cook a pastry, when the filling it will be used for:

• needs little cooking itself so pre-cooking the pastry shell is important so as not to serve a raw pastry
• is wet or a liquid, so pre-cooking or blind baking is required to stop the pastry absorbing the moisture and being a wet mess
• is dense, so we pre cook the pastry to ensure it is cooked

To blind bake:

• Roll out the pastry (no more than ½ cm thick) and line your flan case, ensure you do not stretch the pastry or it will cause it to shrink during cooking
• Pick up the flan case and gently drop it onto your work surface a couple of times; this will ensure the pastry gets into the corners and helps in case you have stretched the pastry
• Trim with a knife (do NOT run the rolling pin over it…this encourages the pastry to lift up and stretch)
• Pierce the pastry with a knife all over with a fork to ensure there are no air pockets, (if there is they will expand on cooking and your pastry case will be lifted, be uneven and full of bubbles). This technique is called docking.
• Allow the pastry case to rest for at least an hour before baking. This helps to stop the pastry shrinking on baking.
• Cut a large circle of greaseproof paper (must be at least 2cm larger than the flan case), place in the flan case and fill with baking beans, raw rice, dahl, lentils or similar (these can be re-used for blind baking). This is done to stop the pastry rising during cooking and also protects it from browning
• Bake at 170° - 180°C for approx. 30 minutes (take care that it does not brown), remove from the oven, remove the beans and baking paper.
• Brush the pastry with a little beaten egg (called an eggwash) and place back in the oven for 5 minutes or until pastry is cooked. This is done to seal the pastry and ensure it will not absorb any moisture and gives the pastry a nice golden colouring.
• Fill and use as required

Short pastry for quiche

Butter	125		gm
Cream cheese	125		gm
Plain flour	250		gm

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese together
2. Add flour and combine quickly to a smooth homogenous paste
3. Refrigerate for one hour or allow to rest covered at room temperature
4. Remove from chiller and allow to come up to temperature before rolling
5. Enough for 1 x 24cm flan ring

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Published 30 October 2000