Debate: blind bake your pie crust or just wing it?

I used to always skip blind baking for fruit pies. Just dumped the filling in raw and hoped for the best. But after a soggy bottom disaster last Thanksgiving with my apple pie I finally tried pre baking it with pie weights. Now I'm split because I feel like the crust gets too hard sometimes. Do you guys always blind bake or only for certain fillings? I need to know what works better for a standard cherry pie.

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley_grant331mo ago

And another thing with blind baking is you gotta let the crust cool completely before adding the fruit, otherwise the butter melts into the filling and you're back to square one with a soggy mess. For cherry pie specifically I do a partial blind bake now, just 10 minutes with weights then pull them and bake another 5 minutes, and that gives me a sturdy bottom without the concrete texture. The key is also brushing the crust with egg wash before the final bake to seal it up, which makes all the difference.

pat_murray161mo ago

Is blind baking really that deep though? Like I've thrown frozen pie crusts with cherry pie filling straight from a can into the oven and nobody ever complained. Maybe if you're entering a county fair or something it matters.