Simply Quiche.

Whenever I need a deep dish pie crust (no, I don't usually make my own), I try and buy the Marie Callender brand; smoother crust, bakes evenly; a bit deeper than the no-name store brand types. This is perfect when making quiche as the egg custard tends to puff up while baking; I'd rather have more of it to eat, than cleaning it off the bottom of my oven.



Basic Quiche Recipe

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups half n’ half
4 eggs, beaten
1/8 tsp salt (can be adjusted up or down dependent on ingredients added in)
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 – 9” unbaked deep dish pastry shell

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine half n’ half, eggs, salt and pepper. Pour into pastry shell; bake for 45-50 minutes, or until egg mixture is golden brown and set.



Roy Cokenour
 

Now here's a recap of my basic quiche recipe, very simple.  What I'm going to post today is a quiche using Swiss Cheese, mushrooms and bacon.  Swiss cheese usually comes in blocks and all you need is a hand grater and large bowl to shred it; oh, and lots of muscle would be very helpful.  Oh sure you can go out and buy a fancy food processor, but I've got something much better...a kitchen gnome.  Meet my hubby, Roy; and personal kitchen gnome; he does all the jobs I believe need more muscle than I'm willing to sacrifice.

I ended up making two quiches, one without bacon for my mom-in-law who does not eat pork products; both had the Swiss cheese plus sliced mushrooms.

Preheat oven to 350F.  First mix up your egg custard using the recipe above, set aside.  Now spread out two cups of Swiss cheese over the pie crust; next spread out one cup of sliced mushrooms and one cup of chopped, partially cooked bacon.





Gently pour the custard mixture over the ingredients in the pie shell and use a chop stick to move it between items so there is no clumping; try to keep everything spread out as evenly as possible.






Now to avoid spillage, usually you can put a jelly roll pan into the oven while it is heating up to help temper it; it should not warp and tilt your quiche during the baking process.  I have found that that doesn't always work out the way you plan.  Instead take a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, make edges all around and place on the center rack of your oven.  Then carefully place your filled pie crusts inside, close up the oven and bake as usual.  The foil won't warp from the heat, but still grab any spillage.




Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Quiche

Once baked, let the quiches cool for at least two hours before serving; they may look done, but the center is still loose; cutting it would be a complete mess.  Refrigerating the quiche would help; it can then be served cold, or slightly warm it for 10 minutes in a 300F oven.  Eaten cold or warm, quiche is a complete meal in a slice of egg custard goodness.



Swiss Cheese, Mushroom and Bacon Quiche
 


Enjoy!!!

Mary Cokenour