There are several reasons to prebake — “blind bake” — a pie or tart crust. Prebaking minimizes shrinking and helps produce a nicely shaped crust. It also ensures that the crust cooks through (without overcooking the filling), giving it ideal flavor and color; browned crusts look and taste better than pale ones. And a prebaked crust is less likely to become soggy when the filling is particularly moist. Finally, when the filling is precooked or served raw, you have no other choice than to prebake. Both Flaky Piecrust (page 709) and Vegan Piecrust (page 710) recipes and all their variations can be prebaked.
To prebake, you need butter or oil, foil, and a cup or 2 of raw rice, dried beans, or pie weights. (All of these can be reused for this purpose.) The weight helps prevent the crust from shrinking and bubbling with air pockets while it’s baking. They aren’t absolutely essential — you can prick the bubbles with a fork as they appear throughout the baking — but they make things easier, and your crust will look better.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Be sure the crust is pressed firmly into the pan, adequately pricked with a fork, and well chilled before baking.
Butter or oil one side of a piece of foil large enough to cover the crust; press the foil onto the crust, greased side down. Weight the foil with a pile of rice, dried beans, or pie weights. Bake for 12 minutes; remove from the oven and remove the weights and foil. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking the crust until it starts to turn golden brown, another 10 minutes or so. Continue baking until the crust is completely golden brown if the pie’s filling requires no additional baking; cool on a rack before filling. Or cool, fill, and finish baking according to the individual recipe.
To keep fruit juices from bubbling over and onto the floor of your hot oven, place the dish on a baking sheet; it’ll catch any spillovers as well as encourage bottom browning.
If the crust edges start to get too dark, loosely wrap a ring of foil around them.