How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust: A lot of pie recipes call for “blind baking” the pie crust. Blind baking sounds confusing, but it’s a lot simpler than it seems!

Take your DIY to the next level and make your own butter before baking! I love using my Buttery Pie Crust recipe whether I need one crust or two, and then after learning to blind bake use it to make Banana Cream Pie.
What is “blind baking” and how do you blind bake pastry crust?
Blind baking is a culinary term that refers to pre-baking a tart crust or pie crust before any filling is added. This will keep your pie from having a soggy bottom crust.
The process of blind baking involves putting a bottom crust into a pie plate, creating vent holes, weighing the dough down, and then baking it. It’s really quite simple, but we’re going to walk you through it step-by-step in this post.
How long do you blind bake for a pie?
This will depend on the recipe (it will tell you how long to blind bake a pie crust for that specific filling), but as a general rule it’s 20 mins with the weights in and 5 mins without the weights.
Jump to:
Ingredients
You can use your favorite homemade pie crust recipe or store-bought dough to create a pie that calls for blind baking (we like this butter pie crust recipe, it makes a flaky pie crust that works for any filling).
Whip up a batch of your favorite dough, or grab one at the store, and let’s get started.

Equipment
You will need a 9-inch pie plate (glass or metal will work best for blind baking) and something to weigh down your bottom crust.
In this recipe we show you how to use sugar as a pie weight, but you can also use:
- ceramic pie weights like these pie weights
- steel pie weight chain like this pie weight chain
- dry beans or uncooked rice / dry rice (we would recommend saving these and using them as your pie weights again – the dried beans and rice aren’t good for cooking once they’ve been baked)
Instructions
- Make pie dough using this pie crust recipe, or if you are using a store-bought pie crust, you can skip to step 6.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease a glass or metal 9-inch pie pan. Thick Ceramic pie pans tend to distribute heat unevenly and may not work for blind baking this pie crust.
- Remove the larger disk of your homemade pie dough from your refrigerator and let it sit for 5 minutes or long enough for it to become workable but still cold. Sprinkle a flat workspace with flour as well as your rolling pin.
- Starting in the center of the dough disk, roll the dough outward in all directions from the center to the edge until you have a ⅛-inch thick round pie crust.

- Place the pie crust over your pie dish using your rolling pin by rolling the pie crust over the rolling pin and allowing it to carry the weight of the pie crust, and then rolling it gently across your pie pan. This will help avoid any stretching or cracks.


- (For the store-bought crust, start here.) Gently press the pie crust down into the pie pan, fitting into the crease all the way around. Trim excess pie dough from around the pan with a small sharp knife and with the tines of a fork, poke holes around the bottom of the pie crust.
These little holes allow venting and prevent air pockets from bubbling up. Place a piece of parchment paper over the bottom of the crust and fill with sugar, using the parchment paper as a barrier between the sugar and pie crust.


Tip: Wondering what to do with the sugar after baking? The yummy toasted sugar can be used in sugar cookies and quick breads for a nice toasty flavor!
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, remove the sugar and parchment paper, and continue baking for 5 minutes or until the bottom of the pie crust is just starting to brown. Cool the blind-baked crust before adding any pie filling.
**Keep in mind that baking time and oven temperature can vary from oven to oven.

Should I brush my pie crust with butter or egg?
This depends on what kind of crust you are looking to create. If you want a nice golden brown crust, brush the top with an egg wash right before baking.
If you want a deep, golden color and intense shine then an egg yolk wash is best! Mix one yolk with 2 teaspoons of water and brush it all over the top crust of your pie, then bake as directed.
Brushing your pie crust with butter will add a bit of extra flavor, but it doesn’t do as much for creating a crisp golden crust as other washes will. Flavor counts, though, so brush away!
Top Tip
If you don’t want to use pie weights, it is possible to blind bake pie crust without weights. You can take a slightly smaller pie plate and set it on top of the crust. This will work the same and prevent the crust from bubbling up.
We wouldn’t recommend baking it without anything on top of the crust as it will result in very large bubbles that will make it hard for you to fill the pie later.
FAQs
It’s best to blind bake a pie crust at a high temperature – we like to blind bake ours at 425° F.
Blind baking a store bought pie crust is very similar to baking a homemade pie crust. You will need to prick the base of the bottom crust to allow for venting, fill the crust with weights of your choice, and bake for 20 mins at 425°. Remove the weights, bake another 5 minutes and then let the crust cool before you fill it!
Par baking crusts means partially baking them, whereas to blind bake pastry crust means to completely bake it. How long to bake pie crust depends on the type of filling you’ll be adding.
Typically a recipe will ask you to blind bake the crust if the filling is not going to be baked, and to par bake a crust if the filling will need to be baked (to prevent over baking the bottom crust). Recipes like pumpkin pie and custard pies usually call for a partially baked crust (par baking).
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Related Recipes
Now that you know how to blind bake a pie you can get to the fun part…making the pie! This easy Banana Cream Pie Recipe would be a great place to start. Or if you’ve made a pie crust and have extras, keep this easy pie crust cookies recipe in mind.
And if you’re looking for some easy, no-bake pies you should definitely check out this Chocolate Cream Pie and our No Bake Peanut Butter Pie. This butterscotch cinnamon pie recipe is absolutely delicious and so easy to make for the summer or for the holidays.
Recipe

How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust
Equipment
- pie weights or dry beans/rice
Ingredients
- 1 recipe pie dough or store bought pie crust
- 1 lb granulated sugar if not using pie weights
Instructions
- Make pie dough using this pie crust recipe. Or, if you are using a store bought pie crust, you can skip to step 6.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and lightly grease a glass or metal 9-inch pie pan. Thick Ceramic pie pans tend to distribute heat unevenly and may not work for blind baking this pie crust.
- Remove the larger disk of your homemade pie dough from your refrigerator and let it sit for 5 minutes or long enough for it to become workable but still cold. Sprinkle a flat workspace with flour as well as your rolling pin.
- Starting in the center of the dough disk, roll the dough outward in all directions from the center to the edge until you have a ⅛-inch thick round pie crust.
- Place the pie crust over your pie pan using your rolling pin by rolling the pie crust over the rolling pin and allowing it to carry the weight of the pie crust, and then rolling it gently across your pie pan. This will help avoid any stretching or cracks.
- (For store-bought pie crust, start here) Gently press the pie crust down into the pie pan, fitting into the crease all the way around. Trim excess pie dough from around the pan with a small sharp knife and with a fork, make small holes around the bottom of the pie crust to allow venting and prevent the pie crust from bubbling up. Place parchment paper over the pie crust and fill with sugar, using the parchment paper as a barrier between the sugar and pie crust.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, remove the sugar and parchment paper, and continue baking for 5 minutes or until the bottom of the pie crust is just starting to brown. Cool the pie crust before adding any pie filling.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Journa Liz Ramirez says
I love this way of making pie crust. It is so quick and easy, and it turned out to be satisfyingly good. Must-try!
Ann t says
I’m so happy I found this recipe! I’ll never make another one again. This is so easy and straightforward.