The other day, a friend and former co-worker asked if I could make a quiche with spinach and bacon in it. I have never made a quiche before, and actually never really eaten it either, so I welcomed the challenge. How hard could it be, right? Harder than I thought apparently! I made two attempts at it and had my friend try both to tell me which was better and give me her constructive criticism. The second apparently tasted much better and fluffier and much more quiche-like. Anywhooooo, here is the recipe along with hers and my tips:
Quiche Dough (makes 2-3 crusts):
(I would recommend buying pre-made pie dough for the quiche crust. It tastes the same and MUCH easier if you are in a time crunch... BUT if you would like it all homemade, here is the recipe)
1lb 2 oz. all purpose flour
0.4 oz. salt
9 oz. unsalted butter, cold
3 eggs
1. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.
(flour and salt and paddle attachment)
(plus butter)
2. Whisk the eggs together to blend, then add them slowly to the dry ingredients. Blend only until the dough comes together in a ball. Be careful not to over mix.
(whisked eggs)
(dough!)
3. Remove from the mixer, cover and chill until ready to use.
Now, to put it together, take 1/3 or 1/2 of the dough, depending on the size of your quiche pan or pie plate. I would recommend using a pie plate/dish until you get good at rolling out your dough and cooking it properly. This was my problem. Mine kept having tears, holes, or would be uneven and half of the custard mixture (recipe below) would spill out the side or bottom.
So, once you have your desired amount of dough, roll it out with a rolling pin (on a floured surface to prevent sticking) until it is about 1/8 inch in thickness.
Transfer dough to ungreased dish. The easiest way of doing this (and I so wish I had pictures to help me explain...) is to fold the dough in half, then fold that in half again so that it looks like a triangle. Put the tip in the middle of the pan/dish and unfold it the reverse way you folded it.
Trim off the excess dough except a small amount (maybe 1/2inch leftover?). Fold the half inch under and crimp it with either a fork or your fingers (washed first of course!). Why do we crimp? It has no culinary value except for presentation. True story. It was on my test. Soooo, if you couldn't care less what your quiche looks like, you can skip this step :)
(this was my first attempt, in a quiche pan)
Once it's unfolded and tucked, line it with parchment paper, fill it with dry beans and/or rice (to weigh the dough down so it won't shrink too much during baking-- this technique is called "blind baking") and pop it in an oven set to 350F until it is slightly golden brown. You don't want to completely cook it because it will finish cooking once you have filled it with the custard mixture.
Once it is done cooking, remove the beans/rice/parchment and let the crust cool while you make the filling as follows:
Quiche Lorraine (makes one 10 inch quiche):
4 oz. bacon, cooked and diced
2 oz. shredded swiss, Gruyere, or whatever cheese you would prefer
4 oz. cooked spinach-- this recipe actually didn't call for spinach, so I'm just guessing on the amount... adjust it to your liking
4 eggs
16 fl. oz. milk
4 fl. oz. heavy cream
salt and pepper as needed
nutmeg as needed
1. Cook the bacon, let cool, and dice. (I put mine through a food processor to make it more bacon-bits-like)
2. If you are using fresh spinach, wilt it. If you are using frozen, thaw it. To wilt fresh spinach, place a bit of water in a larger pot, fill with spinach, cover and cook, stirring occasionally. I know it will look like a lot when you first put it in, but look how much it wilts down!
3. Place the bacon, spinach, and shredded cheese in the baked pie shell
4. To make the custard, combine the eggs, milk and cream, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg as needed.
(four eggs)
(16 fl. oz. milk)
(4 fl. oz. heavy cream)
(mixture, plus salt, pepper, nutmeg)
5. Pour the custard over the bacon and cheese and bake at 350F until the custard is cooked and reaches an internal temperature of 160F, about an hour.
(this was my second attempt, in a pie plate, notice how the filling still spilled over the right side)
(first attempt, finished, in the quiche pan. The nice thing about a quiche pan is that the bottom comes out, so you can remove the whole thing from the pan. Very nice for presentation, assuming you cook it correctly haha. Mine had holes in the crust, so a lot of the custard escaped out of the bottom and out of the whole dish, resulting in a very thick, dense quiche.)
(second attempt, finished, in a pie pan/plate/dish. Due to the non-removable bottom, the custard was not able to escape out of the pan, resulting in a fluffier, more quiche-like quiche. Yum! But, as you can see, I made the crust WAY too thick.)
Approximate Nutrition: serving size- 1/8-quiche Calories- 330 Total Fat- 25g Sat. Fat- 11g Cholesterol-105mg Sodium- 420mg Total Carbohydrates- 14g Protein 12g
Quiche is good for pretty much any occasion... It's delicious for breakfast, brunch, lunch, fourth meal, dinner... ;)
