Wednesday 1 June 2016

Bacon, Onion and Mushroom Quiche

I love quiche. I also like to try and convince myself it's healthy...which it would be without the cheese and double-cream (and pastry, and bacon...)...but I totally associate it with salad, so it must be healthy.

I decided to whip out the big flan tin for this one, but didn't make enough pastry, so ended up rolling it a bit thin and having to do a bit of patchwork...it still leaked a bit, even with a couple of layers of egg glaze baked onto the pastry. Despite this, it was delicious, and served very well as an on-the-road meal as I made the trip to Shrewsbury to get beasted going round the town centre. You definitely need more pastry than I made here...

Bacon, Onion and Mushroom Quiche

Pastry Ingredients

  • 250g plain flour
  • 2g salt
  • 90g cold butter, cubed
  • ~30-40ml cold water
Note - I'd probably do 10-20% more than noted here...

1) Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor with the blade attachment

2) Whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs

3) Continue to whizz, and slowly add the cold water until a dough begins to form

4) Remove the dough, and knead gently until a firm ball of dough is formed

5) Flatten it to a thick disc, wrap in cling-film and chill for 20 minutes

6) While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling

Filling Ingredients

  • 200g Mature Cheddar (grated)
  • 150g smoked bacon (I prefer smoked bacon flavour)
  • ½ large onion, sliced
  • 7-8 mushrooms, sliced
  • 1tbsp sunflower oil
  • 4 large eggs
  • 100ml milk
  • 200ml double cream
1) Put the oil into a frying pan over a medium heat

2) add the onions, and fry until soft

3) Add the bacon, and fry until it starts to go golden at the edges

4) add the mushrooms, and cook for 5 minutes

5) Remove from the heat to cool

6) Whisk the eggs, cream and milk in a large jug, until thoroughly combined and smooth

Baking/Assembly

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200'C

2) Remove the chilled pastry, and roll until large enough to line a 30cm flan tin (I had to go down to ~2mm, however 3mm is preferred...hence make more dough as noted above).

3) Line the tin, ensuring the sides are pressed in well.

4) Trim the excess off the top by pressing down with a rolling pin

5) Prick the base with a fork all over

6) Line with cling-film and dry rice/baking beans

7) bake in the oven for 15 minutes

8) Remove the cling-film and baking beans, and bake for a further 7 minutes, until the pastry is turning golden on the base
Note - if you're worried about leakage, or a soggy bottom you can apply an egg wash to the inside of the pastry after the first bake...this will seal the pastry and should prevent wet mixtures soaking in. I don't mix the cream, eggs and cream together until after the pastry is doing the second part of it's bake, so I can use the beaten eggs to wash the inside

9) Remove from the oven, and reduce the temperature to 160'C

10) Sprinkle the cheese over the pastry case

11) Add the cooled onion, bacon and mushrooms, spreading evenly

12) Pour the egg mixture into the pastry case, ensuring that it does not overflow

13) return to the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the centre is just cooked (it will rise as it bakes)

14) Remove to a wire rack to cool completely