The pockets of steam are necessary for the buttery, flaky layers of crust ... Typically, you would blind bake a pastry crust, ...

aren't an ideal choice for blind baking pie crust because they don't heat up evenly, and when they do it takes forever. Why does this matter? If you've ever worked with shortcrust pastry, you'll know ...

Gluten is good in puff pastry as these sheets develop into flaky layers ... an extra thick crust (the best bit in my opinion!) Blind baking is a trusted technique to avoid the much maligned ...

And a word about blind baking: I used to switch off if a recipe called for pre-baking the pastry by filling the shell with beans, rice or baking beads, but hear me out. I do a cheat’s version of ...