There are ceramic balls and also metal chains which coil around the inside of the pie crust and are easier to lift out since they re connected.
Can marbles be used as pie weights.
Pie weights are used to keep a pie crust from bubbling and shrinking away from the edge of the pie plate or tart pan when you re blind baking a fancy term for prebaking a crust.
So line your pastry with some butter paper tie the marbles river rocks in a muslin cloth and use them as pie weights.
Some recipes call for a crisp golden crust.
When blind baking the pie crust is usually lined with parchment paper or a substitute and the pie weights go on top of the parchment then the whole thing is baked.
Then once you remove the weights to blind bake the crust.
Without the presence of filling the crust can slump down into the plate as it bakes necessitating pie weights to help keep its shape.
Although if the sides are collapsing it sounds like the dough is too warm when it goes in the oven or the oven isn t hot enough to set the crust.
As far as what kinds of pie weights to use you have options.
I would like to find food safe glass marbles for sous vide cooking.
If you re blind baking and don t have pie weights try using.
Ceramic pie weights another item that can be used like marbles and placed inside a cloth or even a mesh bag.
These will ensure that the pie gets heated evenly.
How to use pie weights.
If you don t own pie weights there are plenty of things in your pantry that you can use instead.
They can be used for keeping bags from floating to space out ingredients in a bag or even as filler space in a chamber vacuum to get a higher level of vacuum sealing.
Make sure to spread the weights around so they re evenly distributed from the edge to the center and not all just piled in the center.
Set parchment paper or foil on top of the dough then fill er up with dried beans.
Remove your weights and foil or paper half way through blind baking to allow the crust to bake fully and develop some color.
It can be filled with water to give it more weight.
You can find both for around 10 to 15.
You can use glass marbles as pie weights just let them cool before removing from the pan to avoid temperature shock which could cause them to break.
If you don t already have any of these they may be purchased here.
But you can also use dried beans.
A cabbage leaf placing a cabbage leaf on top of your ferment and tucking the sides down works well.
Now you won t want to eat the beans after baking them.
You may need two layers of dried beans but only one of steel balls.