Pie Weights A must have, to keep your pie crust from bubbling up in the middle. Ten foot stainless steel chain. They also come in a box of separate balls.
I just don't make pies - lousy at pie making . Besides I like the inside of pies better than the crust
We once used dried beans, then I got my wife ceramic balls. Now that she cannot eat grain, we don't have pies except when she bakes them for other people. She has canned a lot of apple pie filling this year, so maybe there is hope....
You only need pie weights if you're pre-baking the crust. Usually just pricking the dough with a fork will be sufficient, especially if you watch the crust and prick any bubbles that form.
You can dump dried beans onto the crust to weigh it down when it bakes (lining the pie first with foil or parchment paper), but I always heard that you gotta throw the beans away. Well, my looking at the internet in order to refresh my memory finds an article by America's Test Kitchen where they tested once-used pie weight beans against virgin ones, and found little difference other that the pie weight ones took a little longer to cook. Apparently they are 12% moisture and don't dry out much because the water can only escape through the tiny opening where it was attached to the pod. Another article says they take on a funny smell "after several uses," and recommends using rise instead (because toasting it in the oven makes it tastier.) I wonder who reuses the same dried beans to make several pies and then decides to cook them... Here are the ceramic pie weights: They are much heavier than beans.
I gotta docker, and mostly use it for pizza crusts: Now we know what happened to all those curlers from the 50s.
Thank you for this explanation, Beth ! I have never heard of weighing down a pie crust before , either, and I was having a terrible time trying to figure out how anyone can eat an apple pie with a steel chain in the bottom of the pie.
Use weights and dock the crust when pre-baking, @John Brunner. I assume you do that. You don't have to throw the beans away after use as pie weights; they will last for years. Most people just use a fork to dock pastry. Pros like you have dockers.
I'm not a pro, I'm just a sucker for a kitchen gadget. Any excuse will do. I bought that docker when I made rosemary crackers for a church event (they were pretty good.) I'm the same way regarding ingredients. I'll buy stuff for a specific recipe and often not find another use for it. But I don't mind. Cooking is the only hobby I've not tired of. (Wanna buy some Datu Puti cane vinegar cheap?)
Since I know nothing about pie baking, I instead concentrate on the consumption of pies and have become quite good at it.
Well, I suppose we could move on to "pie birds," that make a vent in the upper crust to prevent the filling from boiling over. (And no, I don't use these, either. I just slash the top crust and let the chips fall where they may.)