Quiche

[Jason Perlow]

Quiche #2, with the weighted, blind baked crust:

This one has the Spinach/Mushroom/Shallot/Salumi filling (with the addition of chopped up marinated artichoke hearts) with fresh mozzarella and Parmigianno-Reggiano.

[Mottmott]

Robyn,

By all means, make custard in pie shell.  Nothing worse than a foodie snob making someone feel bad about the way they cook.  Russ's comment is perfectly put.

The problem with a pie shell I don't care who cooks it in a ring mold but i hope people learn to make the distinction between the two.  What concerns me is that the custard in a pie shell became the standard. But then its becoming a pervasive American habit: to make mediocrity the standard.

That said, I have to add that for a country that so often baffles me, an egg pie generating so much discussion—well, every now and then a misanthrope finds reason to be genuinely hopeful about humanity.

M

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No one can make me feel bad about my cooking. I eat at enough fine restaurants to know that I'm far from a world class chef - and at enough lousy restaurants to know that I'm not half bad . Moreover - my husband and I don't define who we were are by our cooking. It's simply a way to put a decent meal on the table when we don't feel like going out - or when we'd like to have some people over. IOW - we're in the middle - between the home delivery pizza crowd - and the artisan home cooks. Probably like a lot of people here. And I doubt after 35 years of marriage that we're going to change. Still - if I can say something here that might induce someone to try something at home that they're afraid to try because doing it all from scratch seems too hard - I will.

Along those lines - I suspect you read Mark Bittman's column in the NYT this week about using frozen veggies for cooking. It was a great column. Because it's easier to keep bags of frozen veggies in the freezer and whip stuff up at the last minute than it is to run to the grocery store at 7:00 pm because you need to find some fresh peas. I in fact not only have a great recipe for spring pea soup from frozen peas - but it calls for all the bits of leftovers (you can mix the bag ends from English peas - snap peas - snow pea pods - whatever). If I ever find Bittman's email address - I'll send it to him.

Anyway - enough philosophy - I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the problem with a pie crust is that "the custard is too shallow to cook properly and still maintain a crisp crust." Are you talking about a crisp crust on the pasty - or the custard? I assume the pastry - but I'm not sure.

With regard to the ring mold - people here have said that it's 2". Do you fill it all the way to the top? I measured the Mrs. Smith's pie crust filled to the top (which I do) - it's a bit over 1 5/8". Like I said - my instructions (passed down from a friend) call for partially pre-baking the pie crust before putting the custard in. I use frozen pie crusts for several things - including pies - and all the recipes I have call for anything from no baking to complete baking of the crust before putting the filling in (different fillings have different cooking times - but you always want the crust to be as nicely done as possible).

As long as we're talking about crust - what does everyone here do with the cheese? I buy blocks of cheese and put cubes in the food processor and grind them up with the metal blade until they're like little pebbles. If there are 20 people here following this thread - I'm sure you do it 20 different ways. How do you do it? Robyn

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You and I are exactly the opposite. You make the filling but not the shell; I make the shell but not the filling. I make the shell for my DIL when she needs one for entertaining. As for me, when I eat that much fat, it better have some sugar in it.

[Anonymouze]

I love quiche but wouldn't attempt to cook it (I hate labor intensive things or getting my hands "dirty") heh... but looking at these recipes make me think maybe I may want to try just once! I usually buy them at A&P in woodcliff lake.

[Rachel Perlow]

FYI - the second quiche has the same amount of filling as the first. But, because it was weighted and blind baked, the crust is thinner, allowing for more filling to be used. Alton warns against overfilling, saying that the eggs cause it to puff. However, it only puffed in the middle. The edges were at the same fill line as at the start. So, next time I'd add more solids and another egg & 1/2 cup half & half.

[MsMelkor]

Melkor and I made the quiche from Bouchon again. We've made it a couple of times already, so now it's very easy.

I think the key with the dough, in addition to what everyone has said here and on the Bouchon thread about this recipe, is to make sure there are no visible pieces of butter, as these will cause a seemingly impermeable crust to crack. I also try not to fold the crust onto itself inside the ring mold.

Once that was blind baked and cooled (I know Russ and others say to fill the crust while it's hot, but I've had good success with a cool crust), we worked on the filling: chanterelles and black trumpets foraged over the weekend, and beef bacon we cured recently.

The mushrooms were sauteed in the bacon fat, along with minced shallots and green garlic from the garden, and everything drained on paper towels to keep the moisture to a minimum.

We then layered the Gruyere, custard, and mushroom/bacon mixture, filling it right up to the top. Keller says to bake for 90-105 minutes, but after 75 minutes it was puffed and set.

Once it cooled, Melkor trimmed the crust.

Final product, with a wilted spinach salad:

The crust was great - not at all soggy. The top could have been a little less brown, although I think we caught it just in time, since it wasn't tough. In the past the flavor of the mushrooms has gotten a little lost in the quiche, but this time they shone through. Good thing it came out well, as we'll be eating this for many days to come....

[Marlene]

melkor and ms. melkor, that looks great. I'm going to have to try that. Are you using a springform pan there? If not, how do you get it to turn out of the pan so perfectly?

Oh wait, I think you said you used a ring mold. So pour into the ring mold directly onto the silipat?

[MsMelkor]

Yeah, we use a greased ring mold on a silpat on a baking sheet.

[Beebs]

Dredging up an ancient topic....

I'm hosting a brunch and would like to do a quiche, but I want it to be crustless. Reason is because I'll be making a bunch of other stuff and it's probably a carb-heavy meal as it is. And I'm too lazy to bother with the hassle of the crust. I'm inspired by the Thomas Keller quiche mentioned up-thread (here it is on Ruhlman's website: http://ruhlman.com/2013/02/quiche-lorraine-recipe/). I can probably just follow the recipe for the filling minus the crust, but are there any pitfalls I need to watch out for? Baking temp & time issues? I've got a round baking/casserole dish I can use.

TIA!