A Pie Per Week: Cheese Pie

Brian:  One of the common questions we get about our pie blog is "When are you going to stop?"  And the conversation turns to "How many different pies can you possible make?"  And ultimately, I'm not sure how long we will blog or continue "pie day," but the options are seemingly endless to me.  There are probably at least 52 different apple pie recipes out there, and that would be a year of pies alone.  However, I must say I am intrigued by trying unique pies that one normally wouldn't hear of, and cheese pie certainly fits the bill.

Angie:  People are often curious about what puts the "cheese" in cheese pie, and the ingredient is cottage cheese.  However, it also has a secondary tie in that I will discuss later.  Brian pretty much did this pie all on his own, so I'll let him continue.

Brian:  This will definitely go down as the easiest pie we have made yet.  All you need is cottage cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, a graham cracker pie crust, and a blender.  You put all the ingredients into the blender and then you blend well.  The biggest piece of advice I was given by by friend Nick, who provided the recipe, is that a hand mixer will not do a sufficient job.  You need to get a blender and blend the heck out of it to achieve the desired consistency.


Once you have the ingredients blended, you simply pour the contents of the blender into the pie shell, and bake the pie for about 40 minutes.  One thing we did find is that for us, 40 minutes was not enough.  The pie was still a bit soupy, so I baked it for an additional 20 minutes to make sure the pie set.  Some cottage cheese pie recipes you will find add flour as a thickening agent, and also lemon zest if you are going for a slightly different flavor.  I liked the pie as is, but would like to experiment with those different variations in the future.  It is a very unique pie, but I really enjoyed it, and you worry about that a bit when you are making it.  It is like, am I really making a cottage cheese pie?  :)

Angie:  The pie had a great flavor, but the texture really is different.  It has a consistency that is reminiscent of baked ricotta, but the flavor was fantastic!  Everybody in our family that tried the pie gave it the thumbs up.  The taste of the pie was a cross between sugar cream pie and cheesecake.  This explains why it is poured into a graham cracker shell, and the similar taste to cheesecake may be another way the pie received it's name.

Pie Recipient of the Week:

Our pie recipient of the week is my friend and colleague Nick.  Nick and I worked together in the home building business, and we now work for a software company specializing in digital marketing.  We often see each other for coffee in the morning, and one day we talked about the blog. He mentioned he had this unique family recipe.  I think we was worried that we may not like it, because it is so unique, but I must say we found it to be quite tasty.

Recipe:

1 Pint Cottage Cheese (small or large curd)

1 Cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla

Pinch of Salt

Mix all ingredients well with a blender.

Pour into a graham cracker crust, dot with butter and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350, then 30 minutes at 325.

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