Baking beans, also known as pie weights or pastry weights, are an essential baking tool used to weigh down pastry and help it maintain its shape while baking. But what exactly are these magical little beans made of? I’m so glad you asked!
As an avid home baker and pastry enthusiast, I’ve used my fair share of baking beans over the years. Through trial and error, research, and one too many sunken pie crusts, I’ve learned everything there is to know about baking bean composition, effectiveness, and proper use
In this complete guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about one of the most underrated but beneficial ingredients in every baker’s arsenal: baking beans. Let’s dive in!
The Most Common Baking Bean Materials
Baking beans can be made from a variety of materials, but the most common include:
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Ceramic: Ceramic baking beans are hugely popular due to their excellent heat retention abilities. The ceramic construction allows the beans to get piping hot and maintain high temperatures so they can transfer heat evenly to the pastry.
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Metal: Aluminum, stainless steel, and lead are all used to make metal baking beans. Stainless steel and aluminum are lightweight and durable, while lead allows for even heating.
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Glass: Glass baking beans are loved for their reusable and easy-to-clean nature. They also conduct heat well to prevent pastry dough from puffing.
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Dried beans or rice: In a pinch, dried beans or rice can be used as pie weights. However, they don’t conduct heat as evenly as ceramic, metal, or glass pie weights.
Why Use Baking Beans?
As I briefly mentioned earlier, baking beans play an important role in helping pastry maintain its shape while baking. Here are some of the top reasons why bakers rely on baking beans
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Prevent shrinking and slumping: The weight of the baking beans flattens the pastry dough, preventing air pockets from forming and causing it to shrink down or slump during baking. This results in an evenly shaped and crisp crust.
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Avoid bubbling: Baking beans prevent the dough from bubbling up while it bakes, which can cause uneven cooking. The beans keep the surface smooth and level.
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Blind bake: When blind baking a pie or tart shell, baking beans are absolutely essential for proper browning and cooking of the crust before filling it.
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Promote even browning: The beads promote air circulation and conduct heat evenly across the dough’s surface for uniform browning from edge to edge.
How To Use Baking Beans
Using baking beans is a cinch once you know the proper technique:
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Line the pastry shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil. This will prevent the beans from sticking.
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Scatter beans evenly over the bottom and up sides. Spread them out in an even layer so they completely cover the dough surface.
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Bake according to recipe instructions. Typically, they’ll bake for 10-15 minutes before being removed.
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Remove beans and parchment. Carefully lift everything out once the crust is partially baked.
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Finish baking the crust. Bake a few more minutes until fully browned and cooked through.
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Cool beans completely before storing. Once cooled, store in an airtight container for reuse.
Handy Baking Bean Tips and Tricks
Follow these tips for flawless results every time you use your baking beans:
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Weigh down the edges and corners extra well to prevent excessive browning and shriveling.
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For easy removal, grease the parchment paper before adding beans. The beans won’t stick.
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Buy more beans than you think you’ll need. It’s easy to use more than you anticipate.
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Metal and glass beads maintain heat better than ceramic. Great for extra crisp crusts.
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Let beans fully cool after use. Storing hot leads to condensation and rusting.
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Don’t eat beans after using them to bake. They absorb food odors and become unsanitary.
Frequently Asked Baking Bean Questions
If you’re new to the world of baking beans, chances are you have some questions. Here are answers to some of the most common baking bean FAQs:
Where can I buy baking beans? Check baking supply stores, kitchen stores, craft stores, or order online. Most grocers don’t carry them.
Can I reuse them? Absolutely! Allow them to fully cool before storing for later use.
How can I use beans if I’m gluten-free or vegan? Baking beans are naturally gluten-free and vegan. They’re safe for alternative diets.
Should I preheat my baking beans? No need to preheat. Simply use them at room temperature.
Do I need special beans for different crusts? Nope! Standard baking beans work for all types of pastry dough.
How do I clean them? Wash with soap and warm water or run through the dishwasher. Avoid soaking – beans will absorb water.
Can I use substitutes like rice or dried beans? You can, but these won’t conduct heat as evenly as metal, glass or ceramic beans.
How can I reuse dried beans or rice? Cook them fully after using for baking since they absorb moisture. Then enjoy eating them!
Time to Weigh Down That Dough!
Now that you know what baking beans are made of and how to use them, it’s time to grab a bag and start weighing down those pie crusts, tart shells, and quiche batter! Properly used baking beans will take your pastry to the next level with perfectly crisp, evenly baked crusts every time.
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What is blind baking?
Ceramic Baking Beans in unbaked pie crust. Ready for blind baking. (KROCKSHEAT Ceramic Baking Beans – Amazon)
On The Great British Baking Show, Mary Berry, Prue Leith, and Paul Hollywood all complain about soggy bottoms and make a big deal out of it. Their eyes are like hawks for this mistake, which is luckily very easy to avoid by baking the pastry, crust, or shell without a lid. It’s a shame to put so much work into a pie and not have it turn out. Even if the soggy bottom isn’t the end of the world. So what is this blind baking and why does it involve baking beans?.
Simply put, blind baking is pre-cooking a pies crust. This is done to solve 1 problem, soggy bottoms, which can occur for a few reasons.
When you bake things like fruits or meats that are more likely to have juices in them, the crust might not cook all the way through. During the baking process water needs to evaporate before the crust starts to cook. This may take a long time, and the bottom may turn brown, but the part of the pastry between the bottom and the filling will still be raw. If the crust was already baked, it may soak up some of the liquid. This will need to dry, but it will dry out a lot faster than baking.
Second, if you’re cooking something that doesn’t need to be in the oven for a long time, the crust won’t have time to bake. The crust only needs 15 minutes at 325 degrees, while the filling needs 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Math and physics are not on your side. Blind bake the crust, take it out of the oven, put your pie in place, and then bake it at the right temperature for the right amount of time. Just like that, Robert is your fathers brother.
How do you blind bake?
Lucky for you there are myriad ways to blind bake a pie. Most of them are at 375 F for 20 minutes – just keep that in mind.
First – the wrong way – put your pie crust in the oven. If you do this the crust is simply going to shrink in and crumble under its own weight. Before it is baked the crust simply does not have enough integrity to hold itself up. It will weaken and fall into the middle, even if it is on the edge of the pie pan. Bonus horror – it is also going to bubble up in the middle. So if youre looking for an amazing way to ruin a pie crust – you. are. welcome!.
We now know why we need to blind bake and why putting a pie crust in the oven alone isn’t enough. Let’s look at some creative ways to fix these problems. Basically, we need something that will hold the bottom down, keep the sides up, and be about the same size as the filling. It shouldn’t stick to the crust.
The wont stick to the crust is the easy part of this equation. Putting down a layer of parchment paper (Reynolds Single Sheet Parchment Paper on Amazon – love these things) will keep anything from sticking to your crust. Enjoy step 1 – line the pie crust with parchment paper.
Step 2 is to find something to accomplish all the other tasks. And here you have some options. Putting a second pie pan on top of the parchment that is the same size as the first one might be the easiest thing to do. You can bake this at 350F because the metal conducts heat well. The shape and weight are almost perfect, and it’s almost impossible to mess up (except for washing the bottom of a pie tin). You can see bakers on The Great British Baking Show using the same method when they want to keep puff pastry from rising too much.
Other things you can put over the parchment paper include: sugar, rice, or literal beans. All of these can’t really be eaten in other meals after being used for blind baking, so save them for other blind bakes. Lastly there are some made-for-the-task tools, one of which we have seen on The Great British Baking Show.
Some of these are blind baking pie crust holders, which look like the inside of your pie pan but are usually made of plastic, which I try to stay away from. Baking chains are usually made of metal beads on a cord that lie on top of the parchment paper and let the sides fall down. Metal baking beans – also known as baking weights are a decent option. Keep an eye out for anodized aluminum or stainless steel. Anodized aluminum transfers heat well and won’t leech into food, while stainless steel heats more slowly but doesn’t leech and can be washed in a machine. Other metals may be harmful. Lastly we have ceramic baking beans. The Great British Baking show provides ceramic baking beans to their bakers for all their blind baking needs.
Baking beans holding it down & ready to bake.