Everyone’s Favourite Quiche

Hi again!

So this week my boss asked me to make her a quiche (and I love to help out with cooking). It’s a little arrangement we have: when someone comes over, or she just doesn’t feel like cooking but also doesn’t want to have pre-made food, I make her a quiche. Over time, I can say I have tried some interesting combinations. That’s the beauty of a quiche: you can put virtually anything you want in it, it always comes out beautiful and leaves you wanting more. This recipe will be for my all-time favourite combo, but you can always make it your own!

However, an issue I have experienced over and over was that some of my quiches came out a bit dry and tasteless. So, I went into The Lab (that’s what I call my kitchen lol) and set myself out to creating an amazing quiche recipe. So here it is:

Ingredients:

• 1 roll of shortcrust pastry – I would advise you to not go for light pastry; it’s dry, messy and overall just not the same
• 300 ml double cream or cream alternative
• 4 large eggs
• 150 g bacon lardons
• half of a sweet pepper
• 150 g baby mushrooms
• 100 g shredded cheese of your choosing
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg
• herbs de provence

Method:

• Preheat your oven at 170ºC, and grease and flour a round springform pan.
• Take the bacon lardons, and in a pan season with a bit of pepper and some herbs de provence. Let it brown for some 4 – 5 minutes. Let cool.
• Take your peppers, and slice or chop them – it’s up to you, really. I like mine roughly chopped for a bit of a crunch.
• Slice or quarter your mushrooms – again, it’s up to your preference!
• Mix the cooked bacon lardons, the peppers and the mushrooms together, to incorporate the flavours.
• In a bowl, mix together the double cream, the eggs and the cheese. Combine and season with a bit of salt, pepper, herbs de provence.
• My secret step: add nutmeg to the egg and cream mix, quite generously. This will bring out flavours you might not have noticed before! Set the mixture aside.
• Flour a clean surface, and prepare your pastry. I usually stretch it out a bit with the rolling pin, because I prefer it less thick than it comes on the box. Be careful not to overdo it, otherwise you might end up with holes on the pastry.
• Put the pastry in your previously greased pan, and press it down with your fingers in place. If needed, you can pleat the pastry around the pan.
• Add the bacon, pepper and mushroom mixture, and spread it around evenly.
• Add the egg, cream and cheese mixture and make sure everything is evenly distributed in the pan.
• Sometimes, I like to take some leftover pepper and make a little decoration on top before I put the quiche in the oven. But this step is entirely optional.
• Put the quiche in the oven for at least 40 minutes, checking every 5 minutes after that to make sure it doesn’t dry out. You can also do a “toothpick check” to see if it’s fully cooked through.
• When it’s nice and golden, take it out of the oven and give it 10 – 15 minutes before cutting and serving – this will allow everything to set.
• Enjoy on its own, or with a nice green salad!

Here is my quiche:

This is a really good option if you have friends over and want to do something in advance, if you’re having lunch on the go, or if you want to disguise some veggies and other good things for the kids to eat!

I hope you like this recipe. Please let me know in the comments if you’ve tried it, what you thought, and maybe even send a picture of your quiche!

Happy cooking!