[Sca-cooks] Pastry Question

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 26, 2008, at 10:41 PM, osermart at msu.edu wrote:

> After the crust had baked for 10 minutes, I took it out to remove  
> the beans I'd used to weight it and the the sides of the crust had  
> slumped over in spots!  I was able to use my long icing spatula to  
> press everything back up against the sides of the pan and it stayed  
> that way for the rest of the baking.
>
> The pan I used was a straight-sided 8-inch round cake pan (the  
> recipe called for an 8-inch springform pan, which also has straight  
> sides).  Husband says I should have filled it with beans high enough  
> up to hold the sides up as it baked.  Is this the case, or is there  
> some trick to sticking the pastry to the sides of the pan so it  
> doesn't slump while baking?

Piling the beans high enough to give a little added support to the  
sides couldn't hurt, as long as there's enough time for the heat to  
get to the sides in baking (you can get artificial pie beans made of  
aluminum that are a little more heat-conductive).

Some recipes do specify greasing the bottom but not the sides of the  
pan for this reason, but I believe that's mostly a cake thing.

In general, though, piling the beans a little higher and being  
prepared to fix it while the pastry is still warm, moist and flexible,  
as you did, should the problem arise, is what most people do.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter