To bake a pastry case empty, without its filling, so that it sets crisp and fully cooked before wet ingredients are added. The technique prevents the dreaded soggy bottom in tarts, quiches, and pies: the pastry is lined with baking parchment, weighted with ceramic beans or dried pulses to stop it puffing and shrinking, and baked until firm. For fillings that need little or no further baking, such as chocolate ganache or fresh fruit, the case is baked completely; for quiches, a partial blind bake suffices before the filling goes in and finishes together. Removing the weights for the final minutes browns the base. It is a small discipline that separates professional-looking pastry from amateur attempts, trading a few extra minutes for guaranteed crispness.