How to Salvage a Quiche When Everything is Going to Hell

All I wanted was quiche for my Certified Cicerone exam day breakfast.

Nothing in the world like a golden, brown, and delicious quiche cooling to be eaten.

I love quiche, but like my good friend Marielle, I usually default to frittata. In fact, a draft post on this very blog that I haven’t been able to make come together is about frittata.

But, in truth, while I make frittata regularly, quiche is the “egg pie” I actually want to be eating. Why? Because it’s custardy! It’s delicious! It HAS CRUST! So, sometimes even when I’m not up to making pie crust (and, trust me, my skills are mediocre currently1), I make quiche. By buying pie crust.

The bad news is it’s been impossible (so far) for me to find in PDX the deep dish pie crusts I prefer for quiche. The good news is that purchased pie crusts often come in packs of two. What? No, I’m not making two quiches. This is a small family here.

It’s good that there’s two because inevitably one breaks badly and the other breaks or cracks a little. And then you can use the very broken one to patch the mildly broken one.

Of course, that patching happens before you pre-bake the crust, because you patch to prevent major cracking in your crust. I’ve never had this be unsuccessful in the past.

A baked pie crust containing three large cracks; not suitable for quiche.

Ok. Well. I have to be honest, that was my fourth store-bought pie crust for one single fucking quiche to get me through my big exam. I nearly cried. I nearly gave up. But I really had my heart set on some quiche and some tea to get me through my exam. So, after a pep-talk from my friend Twice Sifted, and in a fit of frustration, I gave in and searched the Web for “crustless quiche.” I learned that it kinda needs something to support it, and commonly that something is bread crumbs. I was thrilled! I was sure I had bread crumbs!

I did not have bread crumbs. I was goddamn doomed not to have this fucking quiche, wasn’t I?

Well, I didn’t have bread crumbs, but I did have a cracked as hell pie crust and some nervous energy and rage…

A baggie full of broken pie crust pieces. Destined to become crumbs, then rise to a new, crusty nature!

The rest, as they say, is history.

Caramelized Onion, Sun-dried Tomato, Goat Cheese Quiche

My desire for quiche was rooted in a need to eat a protein-heavy and comforting meal before a big exam. My choice of this particular kind of quiche came from occasionally eating a slice of this style from Julius Meinl near my old work place. I loved it. The “recipe” is rooted in The Kitchn’s “foolproof” quiche recipe, not their crustless quiche, and modified to fit what I wanted and what I had around.

Ingredients:

One baked and completely cooled pie crust
Parmesan

~1/4 c diced sun-dried tomatoes (not the ones packed in water or oil; the dry dried ones)

~1/4 c diced caramelized onions (consider making a bunch)

~2 oz goat cheese

3 large eggs

1 c whole milk

1/2 c cream

1 teaspoon salt

butter for greasing the pan

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F

Stick the pie crust in a plastic bag and, by any method you like, pulverize it. It’s softer and more crumbly than bread, so this part won’t take long. Once that’s all pulverized, butter a deep dish pie pan and thickly sprinkle some of the pulverized pie crust all over the buttered pan. You won’t need all of it, but do make sure there’s a good layer on there. I don’t know if it’ll help make getting the quiche out easier, but it certainly will taste better later!

Grate some Parmesan cheese over the bottom of the pan. It’s an extra layer of “crust-like” tastiness. Again, use as much or as little as you like. Then sprinkle around the bottom the tomatoes and onions. Once that’s all done, dot the goat cheese around as evenly as you can.

The quiche-in-progress, showing the delightful pie crust crumbs forming a new crust!

Finally beat together the eggs, milk, salt, and cream. You want it pale white and frothy. I’m bad at this step, but patience does the trick. Then pour this mixture into the pie pan over all that tastiness and bake for 30 – 40 minutes.

Cool overnight, then eat in the morning. Preferably with a beverage you know will make you happier, smarter, and wiser. In my case, this was a gift of tea from my friend JP.

Notes:

This makes an intensely flavored quiche. I loved it after my exam, but it was a bit much for the morning of my exam. So bear that in mind.

About a sixth of the quiche was not quite enough to hold me through five hours of testing and tasting without feeling hunger, though that was the goal. Honestly, that’s not unreasonable. The exam lasted about an hour and I probably ate about an hour or two before it started. But be aware.

In the future, I’d make it heartier by adding another egg and more milk and cream. That would also be good, and probably mean the deep dish pan is a requirement.

Enjoy!



1 And I plan to work on this in part by practicing with a recipe I’m developing and in part by using this tutorial from Angela over at The Kitchenista Diaries

7 thoughts on “How to Salvage a Quiche When Everything is Going to Hell

  1. The proportions I use in my quiche are very different! Twice as many eggs and half the milk/cream! I wonder if I’m making something that’s not really quiche. Like an omelet in a pie crust. Still tasty, but now I’ll have to try it your way to see what the difference is. Here’s my recipe, for reference:

    What’s for Dinner – Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

    And what pre-made pie crusts are you using that keep cracking like that? I never ever have cracking problems with the Pillsbury ones if I let them warm up a little first. Does PDX not have deep dish pie crusts (the kind already in a pie plate and ready to use) in the frozen section in their grocery stores?

    • Yeah, I’ve made & enjoyed yours before, but this is much more “custard-y”, which I like. Still, I’m not sure it’s the best “big” breakfast, as I’d hoped. Yours likely would have been better.

      As for the pie crust, I’ve actually never had this issue before. This was some dramatic cracking. The “cracking while frozen” happens a lot, but since it’s easy to fix, I never cared.

      As for PDX and what they do and don’t have, you’re not the first person to ask me that. And the answer is: I don’t know. But the grocery stores I went to only had non-deep-dish, all-butter pie crusts. Gluten-containing and gluten-free.

      • Have you tried making oil-based pie crusts? Super easy. Tender rather than flakey. Flour, salt, oil, and water .

          • I have a really old pie cookbook (Ladies’ Farm Journal perhaps) with a good recipe. And another that only varies in the order you stir the ingredients in an old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I can look them up tonight for you.

            • typing interrupted by cat – not sure if it posted so I’ll enter it again.

              from Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook

              Pastry for 2-crust pie (with oil)

              2 cups flour
              1 tsp salt
              1/2 cup oil (I use canola)
              3 Tbsp cold water

              mix flour and salt. Add oil and stir with fork. Sprinkle water over and mix well. Form into ball (if too dry, add more oil). Divide ball in half and flatten slightly. Roll out (I roll between sheets of waxed paper).

              For quiche, I often use a 2-crust recipe because I like thick crusts and use a deep pie pan. extra dough makes tasty ‘cookies’ – sprinkle extra with cinnamon sugar (butter optional) and bake 8 minutes or so.

Comments are closed.