Baking trials: What’s the best way to prep a pie crust for prebaking?
There’s a practical solution to this weighty problem.
Date
October 8, 2025
When your pie recipe calls for prebaking the crust — what do you do?
There are several options for prebaking the crust for chocolate cream, coconut, banana cream, pumpkin, and similar custard-type pies, or those with a no-bake filling. And all of them attempt to solve the same challenge: keeping your empty crust from shrinking as it bakes, or (worst case) sliding down the sides of the pan and puddling at the bottom.
If you’re okay with flattened crust edges instead of a decorative crimp, you might try the gravity method and bake your crust upside down. But if you want a stand-up crimp for added height — or simply because crimps look impressive and pretty — you need a different solution.
The prebaking options
Pie crust’s tendency to shrink and slip as it bakes is mainly due to its fat: As the fat melts while baking, the crust can collapse. For this reason, a crust made with vegetable shortening, or a combination of shortening and butter, is less likely to slump than one made with just butter, since shortening has a higher melting point than butter.
Filling your crust with something weighted is key to preserving its shape: Both the bottom and sides of your crust need something heavy to keep them flat and smooth as they bake. We decided to test some popular options to discover which works best:
- Dry rice, beans, or grain berries with parchment (rice is heaviest volume-wise, and thus the best choice)
- Ceramic pie weights with parchment
- Perfect Pie Pouch, a silicone pouch holding glazed stoneware weights
- Granulated sugar with parchment
What about a stainless steel pie chain? They may keep the bottom of the crust from puffing, but they lack sufficient weight and coverage to prevent shrinkage and slumping along the sides.
The prebaking test
Using our recipe for Classic Double Pie Crust (25% shortening, 75% butter), I prepared five crusts, each with a slightly raised crimp. After refrigerating the crusts for 30 minutes to relax their gluten (which also helps prevent shrinkage) and docking them, I left one empty as a control and placed the weighted silicone pouch in the other.
I lined each of the remaining three crusts with a 12" square of parchment, then filled one with ceramic pie weights, one with dry rice, and one with granulated sugar. (Since I've used dried beans in the past and found them similar to rice, I didn't use them in this test.) I baked the crusts for 20 minutes at 375°F, then removed the weights and continued to bake for an additional 30 minutes, until light golden brown.
The prebaking test results
The control crust shrank markedly, sliding partway down the sides of the pan. Each of the remaining four crusts successfully passed the shrinkage test, with one performing marginally better. But there was a marked difference in ease of use among them — with one standing out.
The winner: Perfect Pie Pouch
This perforated silicone pouch filled with glazed stoneware pie weights checks all the boxes when it comes to prebaking pie crust. It fared just slightly better than the other options in keeping the crust in place, but was a clear winner in ease of use.
Pros
- The combined heft of the silicone pouch and stoneware weights (nearly 4 1/2 pounds total) proved the most effective of all of the options at keeping the crust in place.
- The filled pouch is large enough to fully cover both the bottom and sides of a 9" x 1 1/2" pie pan.
- The weights, securely enclosed in a silicone drawstring pouch, are a snap to move into and out of the crust.
- The silicone pouch and weights are endlessly reusable — unlike parchment, which eventually needs to be replaced.
Cons
- The silicone liner leaves a few small ripples in the pie crust’s sidewalls, though they disappear once the filling is added.
The runners-up: parchment with ceramic pie weights or uncooked rice
These options performed well in shrinkage control but were all challenging to use.
Pros
- While the crust pulled back significantly from the flat edges of the pan, it didn’t slump downward at all.
Cons
- Most sets of ceramic weights come in 2.2-pound (or less) containers. You need to purchase more than one container for full, top-to-bottom coverage of any but the smallest pies.
- It’s challenging to move the weighted parchment out of the crust midway through baking. I found myself wanting three hands to prevent the rice or weights from escaping their parchment sling and spilling all over the countertop and floor!
Effective but more difficult: granulated sugar
Despite being a pantry staple and always available, granulated sugar isn’t a great option for prebaking pie crust because it can be tricky to reuse. (Though if it’s all you have access to, by all means go for it!)
Pros
- It worked as well as rice or ceramic weights in holding the crust in place.
Cons
- It was awkward to move out of the baked crust.
- The bottom half of the sugar hardened into a solid mass as the crust baked. To reuse it, I had to grind it in a food processor; this extra step simply isn't worth it if other, easier-to-use options are available.
A final pie tip
Before you move any weights and their liner out of a partially baked crust, decide where you’re going to set them down! The bottom of the liner will be slick from the fat in the crust and, in the case of weights with a parchment liner, the parchment will flatten and the ceramic balls, rice, beans, or sugar will spill out. I found a large frying pan is an excellent spot to place your hot parcel.
Need help with making basic pie pastry? See How to make the best pie crust.
Cover photo by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
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