Day 17: Quiche!

It's complicated Saturday wheeeeeeeeeee~~~!

Following in stride with yesterday's post, I'm showing you how to make an entree rather than a dessert. It can also be made vegetarian if ya like!

Today, we are making a quiche, baked in our own homemade pie crust.
Pssst. Wanna know a secret? Even though this recipe is supposed to be complicated, it's not really - it just looks complicated!

The Filling

The filling recipe is a concoction of my mother's. My mom makes quiche regularly often, so this is a bona fide good recipe. It's also a pretty "whatever" recipe; she normally doesn't actually measure the ingredients, just eyeing how much she puts in and making sure the end product is satisfactory, so don't feel you need to follow this recipe to the dot! Just make sure your end product is thick enough and to your personal satisfaction.

Ingredients

• 12 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• ~2 cups cheddar cheese (shredded or chunks)
• Sandwich meat
• Frozen spinach
• Onion
• Tomatoes
• Pepper

This is the amount for two quiches.

Garlic is also pictured, but I actually accidentally forgot to put it in. Whoops! You can add it if you please. You can also use garlic powder.

I used whole milk, but only because we were completely out of skim milk, so it was the only option! You can really use whatever, even cream or buttermilk if you have it. Just make sure the end consistency is thick enough; if you use skim, you may want to use less (at least at first), or add another egg.

I didn't actually measure how much cheese I used, so the amount is an approximation. Just look and decide how much you need/want. You also don't have to use shredded cheese; you can take a few slices and just break it apart into smaller chunks - very easy!

Use however much of each veggie as you wish. I used approximately 1/3 of an onion, 2 small tomatoes, and 12oz of frozen spinach.

The same whatever-ya-please ideology goes along with the sandwich meat. I used 4 slices of ham. You can also completely opt out of meat and make this a vegetarian dish!

The Process

Whisk together your eggs and milk.

Thaw your spinach (you can cheat through this step by just microwaving it). Squeeze out the extra water.

Chop up your other vegetables and sandwich meat.

It's okay to mourn for the deceased onion, but know he has fulfilled his purpose.

Add the spinach, vegetables, and ham to your egg and milk mixture, and stir it up real good.

Now add the cheese and pepper and mix it in.

Check to make sure the consistency is thick enough so that it'll bake!

The Pie Crust

The recipe for the crust comes from food.com. As always, it's super short, so please go ahead and read it and just follow along here!

Ingredients

I doubled the amounts listed so that I'd have enough dough for two 9" crusts.

The Process

Make the crust as directed (super easy!). 

I decided to roll out the dough so that it'd be even throughout the quiche.

If you're making two quiches, divide the dough into two equal parts. Then ball up one portion, and roll it out evenly in all directions with a rolling pin. You don't need to flour your surface or rolling pin, as there is enough oil in the dough to make it non-sticky. Repeat with the other portion of dough.
Now, your rolled dough probably isn't in the shape of a perfect circle. (If it is - you aren't human/teach me your ways.) This is perfectly a-okay!

Place your pie dish nearby your dough. Quickly lift the dough and drape/place it in the pie dish. Flatten the dough to the edges of the dish.

With your uneven dough, there may be places on the edge that are bare or have dough hanging over. Rip off the dough hanging over, and firmly meld it into the places that are bare. Do the same for places that seem thin (check the places where the dough folds over, as it often gets stretched thin there!). Make sure that the added dough is completely combined with the dough already there, otherwise it will separate again and you'll be left with a hole!

Putting It All Together

Preheat the oven to 350°F (you may wish to do this earlier, possibly when you start rolling your dough).

Mix your filling again to make sure nothing has settled on the bottom.

Use a ladle to evenly spoon the mixture into each pie dish.

Bake the quiche for an hour. After an hour has passed, check to see if the quiche is completely done by taking it out of the oven, and see if it there is still any visible liquid, or if it is jiggly. You can also puncture it slightly to see if any liquid comes out from the inside.
If the quiche is not done, keep baking in 5-10 minute increments. If available, consider placing a crust guard around the edges to prevent it from burning.

The Final Product

Some Notes

The reason I didn't add any salt into the filling was because the cheese already had enough salt, plus the dough had salt in it as well.

I baked my quiche for an hour and ten minutes.

The dough on the bottom of my pie dish was soft; not uncooked, but not crunchy. Soft.

If I Could Do It Again....

I might place the dough in the oven for 5 minutes before putting in the filling, to make the bottom dough crunchier. Maybe; not sure.

I'd add more pepper than I did this time.

Probably use skim milk to make it healthier.

The Final Verdict

Yummy as always! And pretty easy to make. The hardest part was rolling out the dough, which was sorta optional.

Just as it's been made for many years past, I definitely will be making this for years to come!