Bordeaux Blog: How to make a quiche

The French life of an almost 21 year old: I've been making quiches since August, I felt like it was a mandatory step to becoming more of a Frenchie and something to try whilst living in France, especially as quiche are a fundamental part of French cuisine. So now that I'm a fully mastered quiche maker, here's how you do it. How to make the perfect quiche.

Disclaimer: this photo is not a picture of a quiche I made, mine are much more rustic and rough around the edges! Scroll down for photos of my homemade quiches.

Source photo : incredible egg

The first quiche I made was with my old house mate Charlotte, we learnt how to make them together, if it wasn't for our experimenting with different ingredients and creams, I wouldn't have been able to write this blog ahah, so thanks Charlotte!

Ingredients

So here's how you make a quiche...

- You need a quiche tin (something I am going to invest in when I'm back in England in July!)

- Ready made pastry, I'm a strong believer in saving time, why go to all the effort of making your own pastry if you can buy ready made pastry from the supermarket. Here in France the ready made pastry is on average less than a euro, you can get all different varieties of pastry, so make sure you read the ingredients as you don't want to be buying sweet pastry for a quiche!

- Eggs (preferably free range, just saying..) So the number of eggs is really tricky as it depends on if you're opting for a healthier quiche (without cream) or going for the full fat overload!

- I tend to mix it up with the cream, I had a panic today as I planned to make quiche but realised at 12.57 that I didn't have cream! As French supermarkets close at 13.00 I had no other choice but to go with it. So after a little bit of research I found out you can use milk (literally any type, full fat, skimmed) as long as the ratio of eggs to milk is correct. This ratio is 2:1, 2 eggs per one cup of milk. So today I made my first cream-free quiche and it worked really well, it was smoother than the others I've made.

- Any filling you wish. Now I've tried, bacon and emmental (standard quiche lorraine), bacon and leek, bacon and mushroom, bacon and broccoli, broccoli, mushroom and leek. The list goes on and just goes to show how much you can put in quiche.

-Don't forget to season! Salt Pepper Herbs anything you like!

Broccoli and Bacon Quiche straight out the oven

Directions

- Place the ready made pastry in the quiche tin and pierce some holes with a fork in the uncooked pastry.

- Pre bake the pastry for 5-6 minutes whilst you're prepping the fillings, this isn't a necessity, I've tried it a few times and just find the pastry is crispier. Personal preference I suppose.

- Cut all filling ingredients into small pieces, about £1 size (easy reference huh).

- Cook any filling ingredients, if it's leek and mushroom for example, place diced pieces into a pan and steam them with the lid on, add some salt and pepper for flavour. I normally leave them to simmer for about 15 minutes.

Slightly burnt quiche I made with my house mate Jenny. It still tasted good, which of course is all that matters

- Whilst the filling ingredients are cooking, crack the eggs into a bowl and add either a tub (284ml approximately) of cream (double or single) or the milk, if it's 2 eggs add one cup of milk (don't forget the ratio!).

- Whisk these wet ingredients together and add salt, pepper and some mixed herbs.. then cheese!! I either use emmental (140g) or Parmesan.

- Once the filling ingredients have cooked, add them to the egg mixture and mix, then add to the pastry tin.

- Cook for 30 minutes (approximately) or until slightly brown, I'm very good at burning quiches as you can see from the photos, reckon it's something to do with a dodgy oven and not my timings.

Leek and Bacon alternative before adding the egg mix to the quiche pan

Useful Quiche info

No need to water bath the pastry, I know us students would never dream of doing this but some of the more sophisticated reading this may have considered it! The pastry cooks itself and protects the filling against the oven heat.

Leek and Bacon quiche after adding the egg mix

I'm still surprised you can make a quiche with just milk and eggs, I suppose it's pretty much custard, and the eggs yield everything together when cooked in the oven. But if you want a richer quiche, go half and half! Half cream (double of course) and half milk.

The quiche I made today with skimmed milk and 3 eggs, mushroom and leeks, it was pretty successful!

Anyhow, let me know on how your quiches go and keep posted for more updates on useful facts about Bordeaux (and random ones) as well as the typical life of an English girl trying to be French in a foreign city. 

Much love

Ellie xx