In a little college town in norther Idaho sits the best coffee house I have ever been to. It's more than a coffee shop. It's a study hall. It's a pub. And it has some of the best food I've ever enjoyed. When I'm there, I get coffee and something for breakfast each day of my stay. Sometimes I choose a cinnamon roll, which are always fresh, made from scratch and are only available to those who get there early. More often I'll get a piece of crustless quiche.
Funny thing, I was never one to eat quiche. I like eggs and will always have cheese when offered, but never cared much for quiche. That changed when I ate a piece of the crustless veggie quiche that Bucer's offers. It was so creamy and had the perfect ratio of eggs to cheese to vegetables. And I'm certain that the absence of a crust was really a plus for selling me on quiche.
Since that first piece, I've ordered quiche over cinnamon rolls many times at Bucer's Coffehouse Pub. I have also tried to recreate the quiche. What I've learned along the way is how to build a quiche. One of the best quiche recipes I made myself during this endeavor is a recipe for a spinach and feta quiche.
Rather than give you another quiche recipe {you could just go to the one I've mentioned above; it's quite good} I plan to help you learn to build your own quiche. The beauty of not following a specific recipe is you can use what you have on hand.
I've found making quiche an excellent opportunity to use up cheese that I have remaining from entertaining. And I am able to use up some of the bulk fresh ingredients that I get at Costo. Have you ever bought a bag of fresh baby spinach or a container of mushrooms just to throw out half of them? You could easily use them in a quiche of your own design.
Don't limit yourself to leftovers though, design a special quiche for an upcoming occasion. They are wonderful for breakfast, brunch and even dinner. You can make the day of your event as they come together quickly. Just allow time for baking and to cool some. Or, make the quiche a day ahead. Remove from the refrigerator about an hour before serving to come to room temperature or reheat in the oven to serve warm.
Basics of Making a Quiche
Milk and Eggs~ 4 Eggs to 1 Cup Milk
The basics of every quiche is eggs and milk. Keep this in mind while designing your quiche. I like to do 4 eggs and 1 cup of half n half. Have fun and try out different types of milk~ whole milk, half n half, cream or buttermilk are options.
When you are mixing the eggs and milk, you can use up to 6 eggs for a standard quiche. Just increase the milk. I suggest 4 eggs to 1 cup of milk, 5 eggs to 1.5 cups, and 6 eggs to 2 cups.
Cheese~ 2 Cups of Grated or Crumbled
Not a requirement of a quiche, but cheese is a wonderful addition. With so many cheeses, quiche possibilities are limitless. As a cheese lover, I use 2 cups of cheese. Use any combination to add up to two cups. In the quiche recipe I give below, I used four different cheeses. Mostly I had many smaller amounts of cheese to use up. You can also use a single type of cheese. It's your quiche! Any cheese that can be grated or crumbled works. I would recommend that if you use a cheese with a strong flavor, use about 1/4 cup of it and then complete the 2 cups of cheese with a milder one. Although, I really like strong flavors so I change that ratio sometimes.
8-10 oz fresh baby spinach
4 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c crumbled feta
1/2 c shredded gruyere
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a standard pie dish.
Place 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet; heat over medium-high heat. Add spinach and toss occasionally to wilt. Once wilted, remove to paper towels. Add remaining oil and mushrooms to skillet; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Saute for 5 minutes.
Squeeze excess moisture from spinach. Scatter the spinach in bottom of prepared pie dish. Top with mushrooms then feta and gruyere cheeses. In large bowl, combine eggs, half n half, parmesan, thyme and pepper; blend well to combine {alternately, use a blender for this step}. Pour egg mixture over ingredients in pie dish. Top with grated fontina. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until golden. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Funny thing, I was never one to eat quiche. I like eggs and will always have cheese when offered, but never cared much for quiche. That changed when I ate a piece of the crustless veggie quiche that Bucer's offers. It was so creamy and had the perfect ratio of eggs to cheese to vegetables. And I'm certain that the absence of a crust was really a plus for selling me on quiche.
Since that first piece, I've ordered quiche over cinnamon rolls many times at Bucer's Coffehouse Pub. I have also tried to recreate the quiche. What I've learned along the way is how to build a quiche. One of the best quiche recipes I made myself during this endeavor is a recipe for a spinach and feta quiche.
Rather than give you another quiche recipe {you could just go to the one I've mentioned above; it's quite good} I plan to help you learn to build your own quiche. The beauty of not following a specific recipe is you can use what you have on hand.
I've found making quiche an excellent opportunity to use up cheese that I have remaining from entertaining. And I am able to use up some of the bulk fresh ingredients that I get at Costo. Have you ever bought a bag of fresh baby spinach or a container of mushrooms just to throw out half of them? You could easily use them in a quiche of your own design.
Don't limit yourself to leftovers though, design a special quiche for an upcoming occasion. They are wonderful for breakfast, brunch and even dinner. You can make the day of your event as they come together quickly. Just allow time for baking and to cool some. Or, make the quiche a day ahead. Remove from the refrigerator about an hour before serving to come to room temperature or reheat in the oven to serve warm.
Basics of Making a Quiche
Milk and Eggs~ 4 Eggs to 1 Cup Milk
The basics of every quiche is eggs and milk. Keep this in mind while designing your quiche. I like to do 4 eggs and 1 cup of half n half. Have fun and try out different types of milk~ whole milk, half n half, cream or buttermilk are options.
When you are mixing the eggs and milk, you can use up to 6 eggs for a standard quiche. Just increase the milk. I suggest 4 eggs to 1 cup of milk, 5 eggs to 1.5 cups, and 6 eggs to 2 cups.
Cheese~ 2 Cups of Grated or Crumbled
Not a requirement of a quiche, but cheese is a wonderful addition. With so many cheeses, quiche possibilities are limitless. As a cheese lover, I use 2 cups of cheese. Use any combination to add up to two cups. In the quiche recipe I give below, I used four different cheeses. Mostly I had many smaller amounts of cheese to use up. You can also use a single type of cheese. It's your quiche! Any cheese that can be grated or crumbled works. I would recommend that if you use a cheese with a strong flavor, use about 1/4 cup of it and then complete the 2 cups of cheese with a milder one. Although, I really like strong flavors so I change that ratio sometimes.
Some tasty cheese combinations I've enjoyed:
Gruyere and Havarti
Cheddar and Blue Cheese
Feta and Gouda
Fillings~ 1~2 Cups or 1~2 Handsful
Meats and/or vegetables can be added to your quiche. Meats are rather easy. Make certain they are completely cooked and chopped. Vegetables will need a bit more work as they are usually full of water. Sauteing and patting vegetables dry will help remove excess moisture so that they work well in your quiche. Tomatoes do well if you sprinkle them with a bit of salt, let sit then pat dry.
Classic fillings are ham or bacon, spinach, mushrooms and onions. Try what you like though. Have fun with it. Don't forget to use some complimentary herbs and spices such as thmye, dill, garlic and pepper. I do not recommend using salt as cheese usually is quite salty on its own.
Putting it all together.
Why no crust? It adds time. And calories. Calories? What about all that cheese and cream?! Exactly. I'd rather splurge on the cheese than the crust, but that is my personal preference. Really, the crust takes more time when making a quiche. Without the crust you have: 1. quicker prep time, 2. less calories to indulge in the cheese, 3. no gluten and low carb! I see it as a win~win~win.
I recommend a pie dish especially since you have no crust. The pie dish will hold all the ingredients together while it cooks. When I made my first quiche, which was a crustless recipe, the directions were to use a spring-form pan. Messy mistake. There was nothing to hold the eggs and cream in the pan and it oozed out. Big waste of ingredients.
Grease a pie dish, either standard or deep dish depending on the amount of eggs and milk you use. Fill the bottom of the pie dish with the meats and/or vegetables. Next, layer on the cheeses. You could save some grated cheese for the very top. Combine your milk and eggs with any seasonings you'll be using. Use of a hand mixer will help blend the eggs well. Pour the egg mixture over the cheese and other filling. If you saved some cheese to top, scatter that on. Bake in a 350F preheated oven for 45~60 minutes. Again, it depends on the amount of eggs and milk you used. If you use fewer ingredients, less cooking time and vice versa. You want your quiche to be golden but not too solid. You are aiming for a custard filling.
If you aren't quite ready to build your own quiche recipe, you can start with this one. I used a combination of four cheeses which were the excess from a cheese plate at a recent brunch. Some fresh spinach and mushrooms were used for filling and half n half rounded out my choices for this quiche.
Crustless Four Cheese Quiche
1-2 tbsp olive oilGruyere and Havarti
Cheddar and Blue Cheese
Feta and Gouda
Fillings~ 1~2 Cups or 1~2 Handsful
Meats and/or vegetables can be added to your quiche. Meats are rather easy. Make certain they are completely cooked and chopped. Vegetables will need a bit more work as they are usually full of water. Sauteing and patting vegetables dry will help remove excess moisture so that they work well in your quiche. Tomatoes do well if you sprinkle them with a bit of salt, let sit then pat dry.
Classic fillings are ham or bacon, spinach, mushrooms and onions. Try what you like though. Have fun with it. Don't forget to use some complimentary herbs and spices such as thmye, dill, garlic and pepper. I do not recommend using salt as cheese usually is quite salty on its own.
Putting it all together.
Why no crust? It adds time. And calories. Calories? What about all that cheese and cream?! Exactly. I'd rather splurge on the cheese than the crust, but that is my personal preference. Really, the crust takes more time when making a quiche. Without the crust you have: 1. quicker prep time, 2. less calories to indulge in the cheese, 3. no gluten and low carb! I see it as a win~win~win.
I recommend a pie dish especially since you have no crust. The pie dish will hold all the ingredients together while it cooks. When I made my first quiche, which was a crustless recipe, the directions were to use a spring-form pan. Messy mistake. There was nothing to hold the eggs and cream in the pan and it oozed out. Big waste of ingredients.
Grease a pie dish, either standard or deep dish depending on the amount of eggs and milk you use. Fill the bottom of the pie dish with the meats and/or vegetables. Next, layer on the cheeses. You could save some grated cheese for the very top. Combine your milk and eggs with any seasonings you'll be using. Use of a hand mixer will help blend the eggs well. Pour the egg mixture over the cheese and other filling. If you saved some cheese to top, scatter that on. Bake in a 350F preheated oven for 45~60 minutes. Again, it depends on the amount of eggs and milk you used. If you use fewer ingredients, less cooking time and vice versa. You want your quiche to be golden but not too solid. You are aiming for a custard filling.
If you aren't quite ready to build your own quiche recipe, you can start with this one. I used a combination of four cheeses which were the excess from a cheese plate at a recent brunch. Some fresh spinach and mushrooms were used for filling and half n half rounded out my choices for this quiche.
Crustless Four Cheese Quiche
8-10 oz fresh baby spinach
4 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c crumbled feta
1/2 c shredded gruyere
4 eggs
1 c half n half
1/4 c grated parmesan
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 c shredded fontina
1/4 c grated parmesan
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 c shredded fontina
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a standard pie dish.
Place 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet; heat over medium-high heat. Add spinach and toss occasionally to wilt. Once wilted, remove to paper towels. Add remaining oil and mushrooms to skillet; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Saute for 5 minutes.
Squeeze excess moisture from spinach. Scatter the spinach in bottom of prepared pie dish. Top with mushrooms then feta and gruyere cheeses. In large bowl, combine eggs, half n half, parmesan, thyme and pepper; blend well to combine {alternately, use a blender for this step}. Pour egg mixture over ingredients in pie dish. Top with grated fontina. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until golden. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
I appreciate this excellent post! I'm doing a (bunch) of 'Quiche in A Bag' and didn't want them to all be the same; so this is most timely. Beautiful photos as well! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteQuiche in A Bag, like assembling as many ingredients as you can to have them on hand? Sounds like a good idea. I'm so addicted to quiches right now. Trying to avoid the savory breakfast sandwiches. Thanks for the kind words!
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