QUICHE

A quiche is a mixture of egg and milk or cream baked in pastry. Quiche can be made a day or more ahead of serving it. It can be served hot or cold, and can be served for any meal of the day, breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
The dairy can be whole milk or anything with more fat, half-and-half, cream, or a mix. The fat content of the dairy will affect how thick and the custard will be after baking firm (because of the amount of water in the dairy; milk=more water=softer, cream=less water=more firm). 
It can be filled inside with anything that goes well with eggs. Traditional garnishes include spinach, mushrooms, and gruyere but you could use potatoes, goat cheese, roasted poblano peppers, Mexican chorizo, Monterey jack cheese.

The ratio of egg to dairy can differ from recipe to recipe but a good ratio for quiche is 1 part egg to 2 parts dairy, by weight. A standard large egg weighs two ounces and 1/2 cup of dairy (whole milk) is four ounces. This will give you a quiche that is slightly creamy but not too firm or soft when set.

Knowing this ratio makes it easy to increase the amount of eggs and milk based on the size of your quiche.
For a standard 9-inch quiche, use 3 large eggs (6 ounces) and 1 1/2 cups of whole milk or cream (12 ounces) to fill the crust.

Quiche Pastry
YIELD: Makes 1 single crust
The following recipe makes a consistently flaky pastry that is easily rolled out.

Ingredients 

• 6.25 ounces all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 oz cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 
• 1.5 ounces (3 tablespoons) cold water 

Procedures 

1. Combine 2/3rds of flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor or mixer. Pulse to mix. Spread butter chunks evenly over surface. Pulse or mix until no dry flour remains and dough just begins to collect in clumps. Use a rubber spatula to spread the dough evenly around the bowl of the food processor. Sprinkle with remaining flour and pulse until dough is just barely broken up, about 5 short pulses. Transfer dough to a large bowl. If you don’t own a processor you can cut the butter into the flour by hand. Continue past the normal “pea size” bits of butter until the mixture starts to clump together. At this point mix the reserved flour into the  butter/flour mixture with a spatula until the mixture is broken up and crumbly. Continue as below. 
2. Sprinkle with water and, using a rubber spatula, fold and press dough until it comes together into a ball. Form into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking. If too cold and firm leave at room temperature until workable.

Quiche Lorraine
Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• canola oil as needed
• savory pie dough (see recipe above)
• 1/4 pound bacon fried until crisp
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 8 oz milk
• 4 oz cream
• 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard (optional)
• 3 eggs (6 oz)
• 1 teaspoons kosher salt
• small pinch of nutmeg
• ½ cup grated Gruyere or Emanthaller cheese

For six individual quiche:

• 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
• canola oil as needed
• savory pie dough (see recipe above)
• 2 oz bacon fried until crisp
• pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 4 oz milk
• 4 oz cream
• 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard (optional)
• 2 eggs (4 oz)
• 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• small pinch of nutmeg
• 4 oz grated Gruyere or Emanthaller cheese

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch. Place a 9-inch pie pan or 10 inch tart pan on a baking sheet pan. Lay the dough into the pan, trim and crimp the edges so they extend above the top of the pan.
3. Reserve a small piece of dough to fill any cracks that might open in the dough as it bakes. Line the dough with parchment or foil and fill it with dried beans or pie weights so that the crust bakes flat. Bake for a half hour, remove the weights and parchment or foil. Gently patch any cracks that may have formed with the reserved dough, and continue baking until the bottom of the crust is golden and cooked, about 15 more minutes. Remove it from the oven and patch any cracks that may have opened; this is especially important as the batter may leak out. 
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
5. Sauté the onions over medium heat in two tablespoons of canola oil. Cover them for the first 15 minutes to get them steaming and releasing their moisture, then uncover. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue cooking them until they are cooked down but not overly brown. This can take awhile but you want them to lightly caramelize without burning.
6. Drain the bacon of excess grease and combine with the onions.
7. Combine the milk, cream, eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg, mustard and, using a hand blender, standing blender, or in a large bowl using a whisk, blend until frothy.
8. Layer half of the onion-bacon mixture into the shell. Pour half the frothy custard over the mixture. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Layer with the remaining onion-bacon mixture. Re-blend or whisk the batter and pour the rest into the shell. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top. Bake in the 325 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the center is just set and starting to puff around the edges.

Alternate fillings:

Spinach: Stem and wash one large bunch of spinach. Saute the spinach in butter or oil. Chop it fine and season with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. Line the bottom of the tart shell with the spinach, pour the custard over the top, and bake for 30-40 minutes until custard is set. Sauteed onions and/or cheese may be added to this tart.

Mushroom/shallot
Use about one pound mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms in two tbs. butter with one clove of chopped garlic, two chopped shallots, salt, and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are tender. Put the vegetables into a pre baked tart shell and slowly pour the custard mixture in until the tart shell is full.  Cheese (gruyere, cheddar, goat or any other) may be added to this tart. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until custard is set.
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