having used my dried beans as pie weights, can I still cook them?

[Bob Loblaw]

Hi All -
The thread title says it all, or most of it, anyway.
I used some red beans as pie weights yesterday. 30 mins @350.
Hoping on still cooking them. They seem so solid that I was optimistic about just soaking them and cookign them, but they're not looking so hot as they soak. (I did let them cool first).

I suspect that, at most, this will be a texture issue, but wanted to find out if anyone here had any experience with this.
Thanks,
-Charles

[Bob Loblaw]

Reporting back:
Beans were fine. Not great, but fine. I had used around 2/3 as pie weights, and couldn't tell the difference in the final product. Did take a long time to cook.

The pie crust? enh. Certainly edible, but a bit hard. I'm not blaming the beans, though.

-Charles

[sueatmo]

No. Use them for pie weights forever. Beans are cheap. You can buy more at the grocer.

[chefj]

Here are a couple of earlier threads on just this subject
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/797165
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/731551

[Omeghan]

no you really shouldnt
save them in a zip lock or a jar and keep them for your next blind baking.

[todao]

I agree with Omeghan. Although there's no reason why you couldn't cook them, the end result would be iffy and the savings minimal. As previously noted, keep 'em for future pie weights and cook up some fresh beans.

[hotoynoodle]

+ 2 on just keeping them as pie weights. beans cost pennies for a serving. not worth it. they won't kill you, lol, but they won't cook up properly.

[Bob Loblaw]

They've already been soaking for a while, so that ship has sailed.
It's very rare that I bake a pie, and this the only time I can ever remember blind baking a crust. So I wasn't planning on saving them to reuse them (I know they're cheap, but space in our kitchen isn't).

[greygarious]

Yes you can. I had a glass jar of dried white beans in my cupboard for at least a decade. I used them as pie weights only a couple of times. Once I bought pie weights (on sale)
I thought I had nothing to lose by soaking and cooking these ancient beans. My frugality bona fides would have been besmirched by discarding them. They took a very long time to soften, and had a rather cardboard taste, but I put them into soup to mask that, and it was fine.

[Rella]

Hmm. I'm wondering if you will never make pie again? I just put mine in a jar, ready for the next pie.

I realize that this doesn't answer your question about cooking them, but ... sorry.