How do I stop my pastry shrinking? So I line a flan tin with shortcut pastry. It's quite a nice deep pan (sides are maybe 2 to 3 cm) so it looks like there's going to be plenty of room for a filling.

But after 20 mins baking blind, I get the pastry out. The sides have shrunk right down to about 0.5cm in height. Almost no usable depth for a filling.

Is there anyway to stop the pastry shrinking like this?
This has happened to me on occasion when I got lazy and tried to skip steps. My pastry walls were melting and sliding down the pan before they were able to set.

There are several best-practices that will help solve this:


Keep your dough chilled. If the dough is warm or if it is built into a warm pan it will melt in the oven before it has a chance to set.
Make a better lip (if there is one). A more substantial edge around the pastry will give some physical support to prevent falling.
Use foil and pie weights to reinforce the structure during the beginning of baking.