Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Easter Quiche

This is the tale of the Easter Quiche that didn't want to be . . .

There once was a woman who saw a delicious and holiday worthy Spring quiche recipe.  It was made in a spring form pan and the height of the quiche made it enticing to make for Easter.  She began by making the pastry dough, chilling it, rolling it out and chilling it yet again before baking.  Once ready she filled it with her old rice that she always uses to weight down pie dough and put it in the oven.  Twenty minutes in the woman checked on the pie to see how it was coming along when she noticed the sides had fallen in because she only used enough rice for a regular size pie dish.  In a panic she pulled it out trying to salvage the sides and filled the pie with pasta.   It looked a little rough (quite sad actually) but she thought it might work.


Once done baking she went to remove the rice and pasta only to realize she had forgotten to line the pastry with parchment and had baked uncooked rice into it.  At this point she had blanched and sauteed all the fillings and was determined to make the quiche.  So she pitched the disaster and started over again.  This time lining the pastry with parchment and the proper amount of rice.


The woman did not use recipes often and when she did she changed them to suit her needs and available ingredients.  She decided to fill her quiche with asparagus, leeks from the garden, fresh peas, mushrooms and garlic.  She didn't have the whole milk and heavy cream the recipe called for but instead substituted the skim milk and half and half that was in her fridge.  Most of the time these substitutions had worked for her but she soon found out that the thinner consistency of these products weren't up to par for this dish.


After the quiche was in the oven about a half an hour she again checked on it's progress to find that the thin egg mixtures had seeped out through a few of the tiny cracks in the crust through the spring form pan and into the pan below that was meant to catch possible bubbling over.  Half of her filling was no longer in the quiche but in the pan below.  Again in another state of panic she decided to crank up the heat to let the bottom set and then would add a thicker egg mixture to the the top.

Thinking her quiche would be done in about two hours, three hours later the quiche still needed a bit more time but it was time for her to depart to a family function.  Already being a half hour late and no other options she turned the oven off and left the quiche in the oven hoping as it cooled down the quiche would finish baking.

Upon returning home she peered into the oven to find the quiche fully cooked.  A bit browner than she would have liked but at last ready to eat.

8 comments:

  1. You are one determined cook! The quiche looks great! I'm one of those cooks who changes the recipes also!

    So, how did it taste?? I bet it was good with the asparagus and leeks.

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    1. It was delicious, although I have to admit the extra cooking didn't help the crust out at all. It was definitely a lesson in sometimes following the recipe.

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  2. At least you had a pan underneath to catch the egg as it came out. Too many times I haven't done that and regretted it.

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    1. I know I was very happy about that, especially because two days prior I had just cleaned my oven.

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  3. Have you tried using a pie pan for your quiche? It would solve the problem of the overflow for sure. That's what I use. King Arthur has as tomato tart recipe that is basically a quiche. Much easier.

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    1. I used the spring form pan instead of a pie pan so that it would be a very tall quiche.

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  4. Wow... what a journey for a lovely quiche! I'm glad it turned out so nice and that your oven isn't covered with quiche overflow. I always make my quiches crustless.. perhaps one day I'll try a pretty quiche with a crust.

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    1. I actually normally make them crustless also, but thought I would try this out for a change.

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