Home › Home & Kitchen › Kitchen & Dining › Bakeware › Tart & Pie Pans How to Use a Tart Pan Published: July 9, 2026 · Updated: July 9, 2026
Press your pastry into a fluted tart pan with a removable bottom, easing it up the sides, and trim the top edge, then chill and usually blind-bake it. To unmould, stand the baked pan on a can or bowl so the outer ring drops away, then slide the tart off the base — never lift the pan by its loose bottom.
Recommended Press dough up the fluted sides, blind-bake, then push the ring down off a can to unmould — A tart pan's whole trick is the removable bottom, which lets you release a delicate crust cleanly, so the technique is about getting the pastry in and the ring off without breaking either. Grease the pan, then lay the rolled pastry in and gently press it into the flutes and up the sides without stretching it, so it doesn't shrink back when baked; roll the pin over the top or press with your thumb to trim the overhang level with the rim. Chill the lined pan for 20–30 minutes to firm the butter, then blind-bake most tarts — line the pastry with paper and baking beans, bake, then remove them and bake a little more — so the base is crisp before a wet filling goes in. Set the pan on a baking sheet to move it, since the base isn't fixed. To turn it out once baked and cooled slightly, rest the pan on top of a sturdy can, jar or bowl smaller than the ring, and let the outer ring slide down and off; the tart stays on the metal base. You can serve it on the base or slide a long spatula between the tart and the base to move it to a plate. Don't pick the pan up by the loose bottom, or the whole thing drops out.
