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I am making small pies (in muffin tins!) for a party. I plan on pre-cooking the filling (ground beef and veggies), then finishing the pies at the location. Would it be helpful (either for transport or for shortening the on-location cooking time) to par-bake the pie crusts in the tins?

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The reason to par-bake your pie shell is because it would not cook through in the same time that the filling does.

So it depends on what type of filling you are going to use. For example, if you are using a traditional short crust with a cream (custard) filling, the custard will probably cook faster than the crust would, so you would want to par-bake the shell.

On the other hand, for an apple pie with a deep layer of fruit, by the time the fruit is cooked through, the crust usually is too, so par baking is not required.

In your specific example, you have not said what the filling is, that you are precooking. However, if it is essentially fully cooked, you could blind-bake your shells then just put them together to heat through for service. You would need to share more details to get more specific advise.

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  • Does par-baking mean fully cooking the shells, ie "blind baking" as it is called in the UK?
    – GdD
    Mar 15, 2013 at 15:16
  • Sorry, you are quite right, I meant to say blind bake in the last bit. Par-baking is partially cooking, blind-baking is fully cooking without the filling.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Mar 15, 2013 at 15:18
  • thanks for the clarification. So you par bake or blind bake depending on the filling and whether/how long it requires cooking.
    – GdD
    Mar 15, 2013 at 15:31
  • @GdD Exactly....
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Mar 15, 2013 at 15:39
  • Full blind baking is used when the filling isn't cooked at all after being added to the shell Mar 15, 2013 at 17:10

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