This weekend I learned all about blind baking a pie crust on the Cooking SE site. They were stumped on why, exactly, it's called "blind baking", however.
For the uninitiated — the highlights of the Cooking 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.
I have no idea why it's called blind baking, but the English.SE site is notoriously good at word origins.
Anyone have any theories or ideas?
Best Answer
Most people will say the defining characteristic of "blind-baking" is that you haven't put the pie-filling in when you cook the pastry. You may fill it with small stones, dried peas, etc. to stop the pastry from buckling up, but that's not inherent to the method.
But my source (an experienced "semi-professional" chef) tells me it's highly relevant to note that you don't normally use either elapsed time or sight to decide when it's "done". You use your nose.
Thus "blind" relates to the means of determining baking time.