My favorite quiche of all time has to be from Homemades by Suzanne in Ashland, VA. This is always a stop for political candidates during their campaigns and a staple for Randolph Macon students as well and located in the cutest little town. I surprised my mom for her birthday recently and took her to lunch and I swear, the quiche she ordered was spectacular and is the inspiration for me trying to make my own at home.
I got excited and wanted to make this recently but didn’t realize that you need to refrigerate your crust overnight . . . so I had to wait and make it the next night. I could have bought a pre-made crust, but where is the fun in that?!
Let’s make the crust first so you can have this for dinner tomorrow . . .
What You Need:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick of cold, unsalted butter (cut into chunks)
6 tablespoons of ice water
1 egg white
8-9″ pie pan
Combine flour, salt and butter into the bowl of your food processor. Use the “pulse” button to blend the ingredients together until they look like course crumbs.
Now, run the motor on the slowest speed and add in your tablespoons of ice water one at a time. Once they are all in, switch to pulsing the machine until a big ball forms. I didn’t realize that food processors could make dough – but mine really turned out awesome!
Next, transfer your dough to a lightly floured surface (I just used parchment paper on the counter) and flatten it out to make a disk. Once you’ve gotten the disk formed, cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight – I went ahead and stuck mine in the pie tin that I was going to use and just covered that with the plastic wrap to refrigerate.
Let’s move onto night two of your quiche crust – start by removing crust from the refrigerator and preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your crust on a lightly floured surface (if you don’t have a rolling pin, just use a tervis mug, etc. to roll it out) to fit your pie pan – you might need to let your dough come to room temperature a little bit before rolling if it seems too hard.
Fit your dough down into your pie pan and crimp the edges around the pie plate as pretty as you can! Admittedly, mine is not gorgeous – I just used a fork to make the edges a little more acceptable. I feel like practice will make perfect with this step. Cover and refrigerate for 30 more minutes.
Butter one side of a piece of aluminum foil large enough to fit in your pie pan and fit butter-side down against your crust (I literally took some butter in my hand and just smeared it on the foil).
Fit pie weights or uncooked rice over the foil and bake for 12-15 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
Take off the rice or pie weights off and remove the aluminum foil. Return to the oven for 10 minutes and bake until your crust begins to harden and brown a bit.
When it comes out of the oven, take an egg white and gently brush it over your crust – this forms a “waterproof” seal that helps keeps your crust from getting mushy when you add in your filling.
While your crust is cooling (you can even stick it in the fridge if you want), we can make the star of the show – the filling!
What You Need:
4 oz. pancetta, diced (you could also use ham or bacon, diced)
1 shallot, thinly sliced or diced
4-5 sprigs of fresh Thyme
1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
dash of salt and pepper
First, cook your pancetta (or other meat) until done and place on a paper towel to soak up the excess grease. With the remaining grease in the pan, add in your shallots and thyme and cook until the shallots are caremelized and clear. Remove the large Thyme sprigs and drain the shallots.
Next, scatter your shallots over the bottom of your crust as well as the pancetta and then add in your grated cheese on top of everything.
In your food processor (this gets the filling really fluffy but you could also just use mixing bowl), throw in your eggs, heavy cream, nutmeg and salt and pepper and combine using a few quick pulses. Pour this into your pie pan over your cheese and meat to fill it up until just the top of the crust is showing.
Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for about 40 minutes until the custard is set and the quiche crust is golden brown. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
totes delish 