Quiche
Can I make a flaky pie crust AND bake a silky egg custard to truly bake a quiche? Do you hear trepidation in my question? You bet! With the weekly supper challenge theme, “eggs,” I set myself up for a challenge. The best quiche I ever had, was creamy, custard smooth and perfectly seasoned. I also enjoyed this “best quiche ever” over lunch several weeks prior; thus, I was both inspired and petrified of the bar I set for myself.
Many cookbooks and French chef YouTube videos later, I think I understand some of the technical aspects of this French dish. So, goodbye Costco double pack, I can cook this dish myself now! And you can too!
SmellaQue Thought: The best thing about a quiche is that once you understand how to cook it, the variations in flavors and ingredients are endless!
SmellaQue Tip: It is SO SO SO important for the quiche to cool after it bakes. The egg proteins need to relax. If you slice into the pie and its watery, it has not finished resting. You can reheat the quiche gently in the oven after cooling if you like it warm, but resting will ensure the egg custard is smooth like silk.
Quiche
Ingredients
- 2 pre-made pie crusts store bought or homemade
- ½ medium sized onion finely diced
- ¼ cup bacon chopped
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme minced
- 5 sprigs green onion diced
- 7 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- ½ teaspoons pepper
- ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ cup parmesan or gruyere cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F
- Partially cook aka blind bake pie crusts for 13 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Set aside.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350F
- Dice and chop bacon and cook in pan. When partially cooked, add diced onion.
- Once cooked, take pan off the heat and add thyme to infuse flavour
- Place pie crusts onto large baking sheet, so its easy to slide in and out of the oven.
- In a >4 cup bowl or measuring cup, whisk together all quiche ingredients: bacon, onion, green onion, eggs, whole milk, heavy cream, pepper, salt and cheese.
- Gently pour egg cream mixture into tart shell until ¼ inch below the edge of the crusts – the eggs will puff up during cooking. Try to distribute the bacon and onion bits evenly in the pie crust
- Bake 40-50 minutes where the top of quiche is lightly browned but the middle is still jiggly (like jello) as you are trying to gently cook the egg and allow the heat of the quiche to finish cooking the middle outside the oven with residual heat. Some recipes say the quiche is ready when you insert the tip of a knife 1 inch from the crust and the knife comes out clean. I just look for a jiggly middle and less jiggly around the edges