I have the bad habit of letting little uneaten nubbins of cheese languish in my fridge until they’re so stale there’s nothing left to do but throw them out. This cheese pie (really, it’s a quiche, if you want to be a stickler about accuracy) is the solution, transforming those once doomed leftover bits and giving them new life as pockets of beautiful melted cheese set in a custard base.
Why this recipe works
- Blind baking the crust before filling it guarantees it’s crisp and flaky.
- Freezing the pie shell, docking it, and using pie weights minimize shrinkage during blind baking, so that the shell will be deep enough to fill.
Note: For ease, you can also use a pre-made pie crust, blind-baking according to manufacturer instructions and following recipe from step 3. This recipe calls for 1 cup each heavy cream and whole milk, but you can also substitute 2 cups of half-and-half.