Can you eat beans after using them as pie weights?
I'm making a recipe that involves using pie weights when pre-baking a pie crust, and suggests using dried beans as an alternative if you don't have purpose-made pie weights.
Can you eat the beans after using them for this purpose? Does it change how long you'd cook them or anything else about how you'd prepare them?
If not, can you re-use them in subsequent pies?
Best Answer
Beans are already dried, but it's certainly possible that baking them dries then further, or cooks them without softening. It's worth testing, for which I'd use chickpeas - I buy them in bulk, and they soften quite easily (plus I cook them on their own too make hummus while my other beans cook in chilli etc). I'd rinse them and put them on to soak once they've cooled a little, rather than storing them.
For reuse as baking beans I'd be concerned about two things: safety, and scorched beans giving an off flavour. The latter is addressed by not reusing them if they start to brown, and for the former, it's important to keep them dry, as dry beans keep indefinitely. If the beans are in direct contact with the pastry during blind baking, I'd rinse them briefly (to get any flecks of pastry off then return them to the cooling oven to dry quickly).
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Quick Answer about "Can you eat beans after using them as pie weights?"
If you have dried beans in your pantry, these can come in handy as pie weights, too. The type doesn't matter, so use chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans, even lentils. After using them a couple times, retire them as pie weights and turn them into dinner.Can you eat pie weight beans?
The pie-weight beans were a bit firmer than the never-cooked beans and might have benefited from 10 more minutes of cooking, but they were creamy, intact, and entirely acceptable.Can baking beans be reused?
Once the rice or beans have been used for baking then they are not really edible, but they can be cooled, stored in an airtight container and used time and time again for baking blind. You can also buy specially made ceramic or metal baking beans (often labelled as pie weights) that can be used time and again.Can I eat the rice used for pie weights?
If you have used the rice several times as a pie weight, it will not cook well. I would recommend either using the same designated bit of rice every time as a pie weight (keep in a separate baggie/jar) or use the rice only once as a weight before cooking it as a meal.Gear Heads | The Best Pie Weights for Perfect Pie Crusts
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