Ham and Cheddar Quiche

From the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis

Introduction

OK, OK, you’re going to read this recipe, see the words “whipping cream” and swear your doctor will never speak to you again. Just wait a moment, we are not asking you to cook this quiche every night, but when you do, make it right—light and fluffy and enriched with heavy cream, the way the French do it, and the way that made quiches so popular. Trust us, they did not become classics using skim milk!

We are repeating our recipe for this pastry crust from our first book, Entertaining People. It is the best we’ve found. But if pastry making still scares you, buy a prepared crust from the grocery store and make the quiche anyway. It will almost be as good. Then try crust making on a day when you are not rushed. It is really fun and the rewards are worth it.

Ingredients

Filling

Pastry Crust

Steps

Quiche

1. Prepare and bake pastry crust. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Melt butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add scallions and sauté until they are wilted. Add chopped ham and sauté until the edges have frizzled a little, about 2 minutes.
3. In a small bowl whisk together eggs, cream, and black pepper. Scatter the scallion-ham mixture over the bottom of the prebaked crust. Sprinkle grated Cheddar over this. Pour the egg mixture over it all, being careful not to go over the sides of the crust. Place immediately in oven and bake until slightly puffed and browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to set 10 minutes before serving.

Pastry Crust

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. (See Cook’s Notes for directions on making by hand.) Pulse once or twice to mix. Put in cold butter pieces and pulse several times until butter and flour are the texture of coarse meal. With the machine running slowly, add the ice water a bit at a time, stopping just before the dough forms a ball. (You may not need all the water.)
2. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin into a circle 11 inches in diameter. Transfer dough to a 9-inch cake pan with a removable bottom. Trim the edges so that they are even all the way around and the sides of the dough are about 1½ inches deep. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork.
3. Place a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil over the bottom of the crust and up the sides. Fill it with pie weights or dried beans or rice. Place the crust in the oven for 10 minutes. Then remove parchment or aluminum foil with its weights. Put crust back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove again from the oven and brush the bottom with mustard. Place crust back in the oven for 3 minutes; this will help seal the crust. Remove to a rack while making the filling.

Notes

Quiche

• The sky’s the limit on variations here. Use all ham or all cheese, mixing the cheeses. Leftover cooked chicken or beef are wonderful. Just plan on 1 1/2 to 2 cups of filling for this size quiche.

Pastry Crust

• The directions for making the crust without a food processor are very much like making the biscuits for Strawberry Shortcake. Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Divide butter into about 10 pieces and then work it into the flour with your fingertips. Blend ice water in with a fork just until the dough holds together; then turn it out on a floured surface. Knead a couple of times and then form into a disk. Proceed to roll out as directed.
• When transferring the pastry dough to the baking pan, roll it up jelly-roll style over the rolling pin. Position it at the edge of the pan and begin to unroll, adjusting its position. This causes less tearing of the crust.
• Save the trimmings of the raw dough. If there are tears in the crust or shrinkage in the oven, you can easily patch.
• The dough can be made in advance, rolled out, placed in the pan, and frozen, well wrapped, for 1 month. It bakes beautifully from a frozen state. This works so well, you might think about doubling the recipe and having one unbaked crust available in the freezer.
• If using the crust for a sweet tart, brush it with beaten egg yolk instead of mustard.
• If you wish, you can use a removable-bottom quiche pan, which is available from a kitchenware store. The edges of this type of pan are fluted and make an attractive crust.

This content is from the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis.