What is blind baking?

Question

I am making a quiche. The recipe tells me to "blind bake" the crust at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes. What is "blind baking"? Is it anything more complicated than baking something partially?

To avoid making this a general reference question: why is it necessary to blind bake things? And, why is it called "blind" baking?

Answer

Blind baking is indeed just baking without a filling - it can be fully or partially. Typically you do this because your filling will either need to bake for a shorter time than your crust (a quiche for example) or not at all (a pie filled with some kind of pre cooked/set custard). It can also be done to help 'set' a crust against a filling that will make it rather soggy.

Often times you will want something neutral in the shell to keep it from becoming a big bubbly, puffed up crust. This may be in the form of formal 'pie weights' or just a piece of parchment paper and some dry beans will suffice.

I have no idea why its called blind baking, but the english.se site is notoriously good at word origins.

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