Flaky buttery crust, creamy and eggy filling, it can only be a quiche. To be honest, I really love quiche, it can basically be customized depending on your mood and the custard that forms from milk and eggs cooking is just heavenly. I’m mostly given up on eating dairy when I can cause I’m lactose intolerant, but quiche is one of those things that I haven’t been able to let go.
This recipe has been in use since my high school days of helping my mom host brunch parties, and believe it or not, it can be customized to be completely dairy-free. Hooray!! Yes, I’ll admit that it’s not as good without the buttery crust, but heck, the quiche filling is still as creamy and glorious when made with soy milk or almond milk…just make sure it’s unsweetened and unflavored…trust me, vanilla flavored quiche is just NOT good.
I would not try and tweak the egg to liquid ratio – I’ve tested so many ratios and found that 1 egg to 1/2 cup of liquid produces the best results. With this ratio, the egg proteins hold just the right amount of liquid and you get a really creamy and soft, but not liquid-y custard.
You can make the quiche in either a sloped pie pan or a straight-edged cake pan, really it doesn’t matter! If you want to be fancy, traditional quiches were made with straight-edged pans, but I always find that the crust tends to shrink away from the edges while the sloped-edges of the pie pan holds the crust in place better. It really is up to personal preference though!
This recipe calls for spinach and mushroom, but you can fill it with anything you want: peppers, bacon pieces, cheese, the list goes on and on. With vegetables that exude a lot of liquid, just make sure to cook most of that liquid out first. I made this quiche for my food science lab friends and if it means anything, it was gone in less than 10 minutes. The most important thing is to make sure you chill the crust so that the gluten proteins have time to relax and you don’t end up with a tough and doughy crust. Other than that, it really is a fool-proof recipe! Seriously, give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.
SPINACH & MUSHROOM QUICHE | Makes 8-10 slices
INGREDIENTS
for filling
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup mushrooms – sliced
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups milk/cream (any type works, the lower the fat content, the less creamy, soy or almond milk works too! Just make sure it’s unsweetened)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
for crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup unsalted COLD butter – in 1/2″ cubes
- 3-5 tbsp cold water
DIRECTIONS
- In a medium skillet, cook mushrooms on high heat until golden brown. Salt and pepper to taste then remove from pan. Cook spinach until wilted on medium heat. Salt and pepper to taste as well. Set mushrooms and spinach mixture aside.
- In a separate large bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Whisk together until well combined.
- In a food processor, combine flour, salt, baking powder and butter. Pulse until butter is in small pea-sized pieces. Then, with food processor running, drizzle in water a tablespoon at a time until a dough ball forms. Pat dough into a flat circle to make rolling out the dough easier and refrigerate until firm (~1hr).***If using hands, cut cold butter into flour until mixture resembles fine sand. Then add water a tablespoon at a time until mixture forms dough. DO NOT OVERWORK DOUGH.
- Preheat oven to 425 (F).
- Once dough is firm , roll out into circular crust about 1/8in thick and 12-14 inches depending on size of your pan. Place crust over pan and crimp edges to form a raised crust.
- Spread mushroom and spinach mixture evenly on top of crust before pouring egg mixture on top (make sure to whisk again before mixing to make sure salt and pepper is evenly distributed).
- Bake quiche at 425 (F) for 10 minutes to prevent crust from getting soggy before reducing temperature down to 350 (F) and baking an additional 15-20 minutes until quiche is set. Quiche will be done when it wobbles ever so slightly when shaken gently.
- Cool before slicing. Quiche will stay fresh up to 2 days in the fridge.
Enjoy!
dumplings&donuts 