[lee_loreya]

When you cook the crust of a pie or quiche "à blanc" -with aluminium and any kind of beans - to avoid the filling putting to much moisture in it, is it possible to replace beans by raw rice?

[Rainey]

When you bake a pie crust blind, you can line it with foil and use rice instead of beans. You can also place a second pie plate inside the one with the pastry after the first 4 or 5 minutes and return it to the oven to finish. Then, I've heard of brushing the hot baked crust with a light eggwhite wash and letting the carry-over heat seal that or using a very light wash of warmed and thinned non-assertive jelly like apricot or apple to act as a barrier. Do this after it's cooled so the carry-over heat doesn't just let it run into a puddle.

I've never done the sealing/barrier thing. I rarely do pie. When I do, it's typically gone in the same day so the crust doesn't have a chance to go soggy.

I forgot to say that what I, personally, never do is "dock" or prick the crust. I know everyone else does, but I think that just provides a route for the liquids that make things soggy directly into the crust. Just a thought.

[lee_loreya]

thanks for the advice !
the second pie plate trick seems very convenient when one has neither rice nor beans in the cupboard.

[SWISS_CHEF]

I just have one question...can you cook the rice/beans after you do that? or just save them for the next pie? I seem to remember that I tried cooking the beans once but they were VERY tough and I cooked them for hours I wonder if it was because they were precooked.
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The sound of a cork being removed from a bottle of wine is surely the sound of a man opening his heart.

[monkey]

while you can reuse your "pie beans" over and over in pie crusts, once you bake them, they are pretty much ruined for eating.
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monkey

nothing brings primates together like a good snack!
www.TheresAMonkeyInTheKitchenAndHesGotAKnife.com

[lee_loreya]

I think you can but you might need to add an extra 15 minutes of cooking since the oven dries beans/rice out.
but the best thing, if you're a big pie baker, is to have a special bag of beans for baking, and some beans in a can for cooking.

[SWISS_CHEF]

BEANS FROM A CAN??? EWWW! I cook my dried Tuscan Barlottis (best beans in the world, don't argue with me! ) and there is absolutely no comparison with canned Barlotti beans. Texture and flavor is superb. Try making a batch of each some time and you will become a "dried bean believer"!
Ed


Barlotti beans, from Tuscany, are also called Tuscan beans. Normally found in their dried form, borlotti beans are plump and round in shape, having a pinkish-tan background speckled and streaked with crimson. They are similar (but not the same as) the cranberry bean and can be intrchanged with them. In Italy, members of this family of small, kidney-shaped speckled beans are sought out in their specific regions of cultivation They include the varieties lamon, stregoni, scritti, and saluggia. All of them share a meaty flavour and mild earthiness. Borlotti beans are used either fresh or dried. The small ones soften during cooking and taste bitter-sweet. The large ones are used in many Italian dishes, and an indispensable ingredient in minestrone.
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The sound of a cork being removed from a bottle of wine is surely the sound of a man opening his heart.

[Rainey]

I have to completely agree that cooked dried beans are emminently superior in every way to canned beans. And also that you can re-use beans as "pie" beans forever. You might just as well since they're well past being edible at that point.

[rebecca]

Has anyone tried or do they own the fancy pie weights or pie beads? They have the same function as the dry beans, only they are a permament member of your kitchen and come in a lovely silver color. If so, how well do they work?

[Rainey]

I'm a gadget whore and I wouldn't spend money on them. They are pretty to look at. But it's such an unnecessary expense.

Have you seen the weighted beads that King Arthur sells? Same principle but if you grab a single bead you can lift the whole strand out.

[rebecca]

I'm all about kitchenalia, and I'm not sure I would buy them either. But they are nice to look at in the fancy-schmancy foodie shops. Speaking of pie paraphenalia, my mom bought some crust protectors at an upscale shop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They are little crinkled crescent moons of tin that fit over the edges of a pie crust so it doesn't get overly browned during baking. I initially scoffed at them--I make my own little crown for my pie out of aluminum foil right before putting it in the oven--but she made me use them while baking my Christmas Day cherry pie and I found them to be really quite useful.