I’m still waiting for my hens to start laying, but am really looking forward to the day I can make quiche with eggs from my own chickens!
I usually use the quiche recipe in The Fannie Farmer Cookbook: Anniversary but I had seen a quiche recipe in Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours that looked good and intriguing. The first calls for 4 eggs and 2 cups of cream; the second for 2 eggs and 2/3 cup cream. She says there is more filling and less custard than most quiches in the latter. It also had no cheese except for a sprinkling of grated Parmesan on top. In the end, I combined the two because I wanted some cheese but cut the eggs down to 3.
I think it was the best quiche I’ve ever made, except for the crust. By the time I started dinner, I didn’t have time to make and chill either of the tart dough recipes (both books are similar) so I went with the totally easy “mix it in the pan and press it out” pie dough. If you’re afraid to make pie crusts, start with this one. The crust is good but not as good as one made with butter!
Spinach and Bacon Quiche
Ingredients
Mix it in the Pan Pie Crust
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Tbs sugar
- 2 Tbs milk
- 1/2 cup oil
Quiche Filling
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4-6 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled
- 8 oz baby spinach steamed and squeezed dry, then chopped (you could also substitute frozen spinach of course. Cook, let it cool, squeeze it and chop it.)
- 1/3 cup grated Cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup grated Swiss cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup cream or half and half or milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- For the pie crust, you do truly just dump it all and mix it up with a fork. Then use your fingers to press the dough out flat around your pie pan or quiche dish. Take your fork and poke some holes in various places so the crust will stay flat while you bake it. Bake 10 minutes or so, until partially done.
- Cook the bacon if you need to, then lay on paper towels to drain. Crumble it in your hands or chop it up. I had bacon leftover from the other night when I made baked potato soup, so I just crumbled that up.
- If you cook the bacon now, leave some of the bacon grease in the pan and cook the onion and garlic in that rather than oil. If you’re using bacon that’s already cooked, add the 2 tsp oil to a skillet and cook the onion and garlic about 5 minutes over medium heat, until softened. Stir the bacon pieces into the pan. Stir the chopped spinach into the pan.
- Spread the bacon, spinach, onion and garlic mixture over the pre-baked pie shell. Sprinkle the cheeses on top of the filling.
- In a small bowl whisk the eggs and cream together. I usually use half-and-half because I keep that around for my coffee but I have made quiches with milk before and they’re good, but less rich.
- Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes, until set. Let cool slightly before serving, or let it cool all the way to room temperature.
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