High sided pastry shells

[gfron1]

I want to make pastry shells that have 1.5 - 2" sides on a flat sided pastry form - mine is square. I just made a batch and lined with foil and beans, and there was quite a bit of disformation. Is there a trick to keeping the walls in place during baking? I did freeze first.

[P1800Girl]

gfron,

I'm not sure what you mean by 'flat sided pastry form,' so forgive me if this in not applicable, but I've made formed shells by stacking mini-muffin tins -- one with the dough and another nested in it to keep them well formed.

-sabine

[Edward J]

gfron,

I'm not sure what you mean by 'flat sided pastry form,' so forgive me if this in not applicable, but I've made formed shells by stacking mini-muffin tins -- one with the dough and another nested in it to keep them well formed.

-sabine

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Another way is to line out your form as per normal, then put a matching form inside of this and bake upside down. I have to say, I use this method only with disposable pie forms, not proper steel forms with removable bottoms, but I don't see why it couldn't work.

With this technique you're not fighting gravity, you're making gravity work for you.

Musta done several thousand 6" deep pie forms this way for quiches.

[gfron1]

I'm using steel rings, not forms with bottoms, so I can't do the stacking thing, although that is a good idea.

[JeanneCake]

maybe empty cans would work in the same way that stacking two pans together, although finding the right size can is probably not going to be easy - I'm guessing tuna cans are too big

[gfron1]

and again, mine are square which is presenting a differnent problem - putting something into the corners.

I pulled my shells out of the form last night and they were way ugly which in a way made them really cool. I'm wondering if it would be easier to (using someone's earlier suggestion) bake the dough on the outside of the form, line with parchment and then wrap with foil.

[Patrick A.]

and again, mine are square which is presenting a differnent problem - putting something into the corners. 

I pulled my shells out of the form last night and they were way ugly which in a way made them really cool.  I'm wondering if it would be easier to (using someone's earlier suggestion) bake the dough on the outside of the form, line with parchment and then wrap with foil.

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That sound like a good idea, but remember you will get shrinkage as with anything else.

[HungryC]

I think upside down is the way to go...I do this with mini pie shells. Dough pressed inside tiny muffin tins swells up too much to hold a decent amount of filling, so I flip the pan over and press the dough onto the outside of the cups, prick thoroughly, and bake. The crust browns & crisps, but stays relatively flat.

[JeanneCake]

I missed the part where you said square forms, sorry. Are they hollow (no top/bottom) or do they have a removeable bottom? For baking inside the forms, I wonder about cutting tiles (quarry tiles or pizza stone types of tile) to fit, cover them with foil and use those instead of rice/beans. Or maybe it'd be enough to use by putting the dough on those stacked and covered tiles.

Would one of the new square muffin tins be the right size for your forms? Those could fit inside or you could bake on the outside of those too.

[gfron1]

They are hollow, so I'm not sure I could do the upside down trick. But if I fill it with tiles like you're suggesting, line it with parchment, that would do the trick.

[andiesenji]

I have six 4"x4" x 2 in. deep square cake pans that I use upside down on a sheet pan to make square pastry "coffins" for quiche and meat pies.

I roll the dough then roll a docker over it before cutting it into + shapes (I use a pattern cut from a patty board) before applying it to the pans. Sometimes the dough will sag a bit but I use a sharp knife to trim the edges evenly as soon as it comes from the oven and is still a bit pliable.

I reserve the cut-out pieces and cut little leaf shapes which are baked on parchment and applied to the top edges after the shells are filled.

I bought my pans at a restaurant supply out here but Fantes carries the same pans.

Fantes, item # 9104 - for future reference.

And they also have a 3x3x3 square pan further down the page.

Edited March 19, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[alanamoana]

i don't think anyone asked (and you might not have explained clearly), how exactly are you getting the dough into the mold? in other words, are you punching the bottoms with your squares and then using strips to line the sides, making sure to seal the edges together before lining and baking? or are you trying to do it with one piece of dough and you're possibly stretching out the sides and corners when inserting into the squares?

i've had success with odd shaped and high sided "rings" by doing the punch and strip method. also, using coffee filters with dry beans to line and fill the shells for the first bake.

1. punch bottoms, chill

2. cut strips from dough, keep chilled while working

3. line sides of mold with strips and make sure to seal the edges that meet by smearing the dough a little along the bottom seam

4. chill well or even freeze for at least an hour

5. line with coffee filters, making sure to get into all the corners

6. fill with weights (dry beans work great) pack the beans into the corners and fill all the way to the top of the molds

7. bake until the edge of the dough takes on a touch of color (to insure that it has set up enough to not lose shape in second bake)

8. remove beans and coffee filters (gently!)...usually while hot/warm so that the cold butter doesn't cause the liners to stick

9. finish baking until golden brown

10. remove rings while still warm and allow to cool

[gfron1]

On this attempt I did one whole sheet. I figured out during the attempt that I should have tried your method. I did do the freeze, line, fill, bake, but you can see in the bottom of this pic that my walls are ugly because I had to trim the corners and make it fit.

[lamington]

What about baking with overhanging pastry to reduce distortion? I don't imagine you'd want to trim the pastry after baking though... so how about trimming the edges *before* the end of baking time. Hopefully the rigidity would be sufficient to keep the walls neat for the remaining few minutes of baking, and the cut edge would ruffle slightly so that it looked less clinically neat.

[baroness]

What about baking with overhanging pastry to reduce distortion? I don't imagine you'd want to trim the pastry after baking though... so how about trimming the edges *before* the end of baking time. Hopefully the rigidity would be sufficient to keep the walls neat for the remaining few minutes of baking, and the cut edge would ruffle slightly so that it looked less clinically neat.

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You can trim after baking as well, if you desire the 'clinically neat' effect.