Quiche

You can make a quiche with almost any combination of cheese and veggie – just be sure to pre-cook items to remove as much moisture as you can so you will avoid a soggy quiche! Onions should have a good golden color, but not be totally caramelized for the best flavor. The trick to a great quiche is to give the crust a head-start by “blind baking” it until it just starts to brown lightly. Starting it in the lower third of the oven gives the bottom a blast of heat. Moving the rack to the center of the oven and reducing the temperature when you add the egg filling ensures that the mixture cooks more slowly avoiding a rubbery quiche. When mixing the eggs and cream, whisk gently so they don’t froth and create a lot of bubbles. If you do have a very bubbly mixture, you can tap the bowl hard on the counter a few times or pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Baking times can vary a lot with pie dough and quiches, so use the visual cues as much as the timing notes. If you consistenly get a quiche that is filled with tiny cavities or empty bubbles, it’s because the eggs cooked too fast and squeezed out their moisture creating cavities in the rubbery filling – try baking the quiche for a shorter time or even reducing the temperature to 325 degrees F. If you find it hard to move the quiche around when the egg filling is added, try pouring the egg mixture into the shell while it is already on the oven rack, or place the entire pie plate on a larger baking sheet.

Ingredients

  • 6 large eggs

  • 1 cup cream

  • 1 cup milk

  • ¹/₂ teaspoon dried thyme

  • ¹/₄ teaspoon kosher salt

  • several grinds freshly ground black pepper

  • 6-8 strips cooked bacon, crumbled

  • ²/₃ cup grated cheese

  • ¹/₃ cup cooked onion, minced

  • 1 9-inch uncooked pie crust

Directions

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, salt and pepper until well blended. Set aside.

  • Adjust the oven rack to the lower 1/3 of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

  • Carefully ease the rolled pie crust into a 9” diameter pyrex pie plate. Trim the excess dough around the edge to about 3/4-inch. Gently fold the overhanging dough under making a double thickness around the edge of the pie plate. Pinch the dough, or use the tines of a large fork, to make a decorative edge.

  • Cut a round of parchment paper large enough to line the bottom of the pie shell and to come up the sides of the shell and just over the top edge. Place a layer of dried beans or pie weights on the paper in the pie shell and bake the pie shell 10 minutes, or until it is not raw but also not browned. CAREFULLY remove the paper holding the pie weights and return the pie crust to the oven. Bake until the crust is just beginning to brown lightly and it looks “dry”, about 10-15 minutes more. If the dough wants to puff up, you can carefully prick it with a skewer or tip of a sharp knife. Remove the crust from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and adjust the oven rack to the middle of the oven.

  • Sprinkle the bacon, onion, and grated cheese evenly over the bottom of the pie shell. Carefully pour the egg mixture over the filling ingredients – you may have a bit of extra egg mixture depending on the amount of other filling ingredients you are using. Transfer the quiche to the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the tip of a sharp knife comes out clean when inserted into the center of the quiche and the mixture remains a bit jiggly, but not liquid, in the very center. If the edges are getting too brown, cover with a ring of foil or pie-crust shield.

  • Let the quiche rest on a cooling rack for 5 minutes before serving. Quiche can be served hot, room temperature or cold! Leftovers should be well-wrapped and refrigerated for up to 2 days.