Can I use sugar as a pie weight when blind baking at 425F?
I found a recipe by Brave Tart (Stella Parks) for pie crust that's blind baked at 350F. I'm using it for one pie but I have a Cook's Illustrated Dutch Apple Pie recipe that uses a different recipe for the crust and bakes it at 425F. The recipe calls for using white sugar to weight the crust when blind baking, which is really awesome because I don't have any pie weights and I've been really concerned about using dirty pennies.
I'm worried that the sugar will melt at this temperature. Will I need to find different pie weights or can I bake the pie crust for longer at the lower temperature and have it come out nicely?
Best Answer
Unfortunately sugar decomposes at 367F/186C, so I don't think using it at 425F is a good plan.
That said, I think that lower-temperature blind baking will work on pretty much any pie crust recipe. I've used it on both the Stella Parks recipe you mentioned, and Kenji's easy pie dough and it worked fine.
The benefits of using sugar and of blind baking at a lower temperature are described in yet another article on Serious Eats. The lower temperature reduces the puffing and deforming, and the sugar is just easy and effective. None of it is associated with any specific pie crust recipe, so again, should be fine on the Cook's Illustrated recipe.
Of course, you can also always just pick your favorite plain crust recipe and use it on every pie you ever make that calls for a plain crust, even if it includes its own unique variation, and then you'll know exactly how to deal with blind baking it (with sugar).
Pictures about "Can I use sugar as a pie weight when blind baking at 425F?"
Can I use sugar instead of pie weights?
Fill the pie crust with pie weights: Fill the pie crust to the top with pie weights. You can use ceramic weights, dry beans, rice, or white sugar. Sugar works well because of its small granule size; it distributes the weight more evenly against the crust.Can you blind bake with sugar?
Use Sugar for Better Blind Baking (and Toasted Sugar) What I love most about this tip is that unlike blind baking with dried beans, the sugar can still be used after baking in the pie shell.What can I use in lieu of pie weights?
5 Best Pie Weights Substitutes That You Already Have at Home- Uncooked Rice. Dimitris66Getty Images. Put that big bag of rice in your pantry to good use! ...
- Popcorn Kernels. Eskay Lim / EyeEmGetty Images. ...
- Sugar. YelenaYemchukGetty Images. ...
- Dried Beans. FotografiaBasicaGetty Images. ...
- Another Pie Dish.
What can be used as weights for blind baking?
If you're blind-baking and don't have pie weights, try using: \u2460 Dried beans: Set parchment paper or foil on top of the dough, then fill 'er up with dried beans. \u2461 Rice kernels: Use parchment paper or foil here, too, plus rice.How to Use Pie Weights to Blind-Bake a Pie
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Alisha Mishra, Mick Victor, JÉSHOOTS, Pixabay