The Recipe
Print this recipeSo, you’re attending a Sunday brunch and you’re wondering what to bring. Let’s face it, we’re not all Julia Child and your schedule is jam packed as it is. There’s no need to add extra stress to your week. But what dish could be simple enough to save you time, and wow your crowd at the same time?
Look no further than the Quiche, a classic French savory tart made of short crust and eggs. Sadly, quiches were never popular in our families while growing up, so we had very little to draw upon when we dreamed up this recipe….but we knew exactly what we wanted in the quiche. So we set off to deliver the tastiest, healthiest and easiest quiche recipe you can find. And we succeeded.
So what exactly did we set out to accomplish?
We wanted our crust to be just the right balance of sweet and salty, with a crisp crunch that would complement the rich and creamy consistency of the eggs. We wanted the flavors within the eggs to be subtle, to allow them to play off each other, and we wanted just the right egg to ‘stuff’ ratio. We also knew we wanted bacon. Nom nom nom. Bacon.
And so today, on the 1st of May 2012, we present to you another In Our Kitchen original recipe: A Leek and Bacon Quiche recipe. In France this dish is known as Quiche aux Poireaux avec Lardons. There isn’t much more to be said about the quiche recipe, so read on past these pretty words and images and make yourself a most delicious quiche courtesy of In Our Kitchen.
Notes
- Feel free to substitute the leek and bacon for just about any other ingredient. Make sure you keep the ratio the same, about 1 cup of ‘stuff’ for every 6-8 eggs. Make sure the ‘stuff’ you end up using has low water content, you don’t want a watery or runny egg mixture.
- Make sure to use pie weights when pre-baking the pie crust, this will ensure the crust does not bubble up and does not shrink.
- Our crust recipe was one of many we tested and our final version was simply sourced from Larousse Gastronomique: The World’s Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia
The Formula
Ingredients
Crust
- 2¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup butter, cut in pieces
- generous pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp very cold water
Egg Filling
- 8 eggs
- 1 cup 2% evaporated milk
- 3 leeks
- ½ cup bacon cooked and diced
- ¼ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Directions
Crust
- In a food processor, mix all of the ingredients until pea sized crumbs bits are formed.
- Roll dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap.
- Place dough in refrigerator and chill for at least a few hours, or overnight.
- Then roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch.
- Line a tart tin with the dough, bringing the edges of the pastry slightly over the sides of the tart tin.
- Prebaking the crust before adding the other ingredients keeps it crisp is referred to as blind baking.
Blind Baking
- To blind bake, prick the crust all over with the tines of a fork, then place the pan in the freezer for at least twenty minutes.
- Remove from the freezer, line the pan with foil and pie weights or beans and immediately place in the oven set at 400°F for 12 minutes.
- After baking the crust, allow it to cool for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients.
- Using a pastry brush, paint the bottom of the crust with egg white after it comes out of the oven. This will put a seal on the crust and make it crisp.
Quiche
- Rinse the leeks and dice the whites of the leeks. Heat olive oil in a pan and saute the leeks for approximately 20 minutes, over medium heat. Set aside once very soft.
- Cook the bacon and chop roughly into ½ strips.
- Mix eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper, leeks and bacon together. Once mixed, pour into the baked tart.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 400F (200C). Serve hot.
Twitter