Description
When I say quiche, I bet your mind conjures up an image of lovely, lithe ladies gathered for a light afternoon lunch drinking glasses of overly chilled chardonnay. Too bad! I don't know when this dish got relegated to the ladies-who-lunch kind of crowd, but I want to reclaim quiche as the delicious, versatile dish it really is. Quiche can be made ahead, eaten any time of day and is equally yummie served warm or cold. It works great as a simple dinner with lightly dressed greens or at a large brunch gathering.
Our gluten free quiche recipe can be broken down into three essential components:
- A blind baked gluten free pie crust. Yes it is very important to bake the shell prior to pouring in the custard. This will give you a crisp, more resilient crust that contrasts perfectly with the silky custard.
- A custard base made with cream and eggs. Yes I like to use cream - not whole milk, not half and half. Cream! Yes it is rich, yes it is delicious and no, I don't eat it everyday.
- Add-ins, in this case, bacon, onions and Gruyere cheese. You can really use any ingredients you like. Think sauteed spinach and mushrooms; roasted leeks, asparagus and chicken; swiss chard and sausage; artichoke hearts and feta.....just make sure all your additions are fully cooked and cut into a manageable size.
Ingredients
| Prep time: 20 minutes | Cooking time: 40 minutes | Total time: 1 hour |
Instructions
Crust
Just in case, we have two recipes for a gluten free pie crust on our website. One uses our Cheatin' Wheat Gluten Free Flour and the other uses our Cheatin' Wheat Pie Crust Mix. Feel free to use whatever gluten free pie crust recipe you prefer. Just follow the instructions for preparing and rolling the shell to line a 9" deep dish pie plate. Chill the raw shell in order to blind bake the gluten free crust.
Blind Baking
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Line the chilled crust with heavy duty aluminum foil, allowing a couple of inches to extend beyond the sides of the pan. Fill two-thirds full with dry beans or other pie weights.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Then remove from oven and gently remove the foil with the beans inside. Return the crust to the oven and bake for another 10 -20 minutes, until lightly browned all over.
Remove from oven and set aside to cool. You can blind bake your shells in advance and freeze the cooked shell.
Quiche
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Whisk the eggs and yolks together in a large bowl. Add the nutmeg, salt and black pepper and whisk a little more. Add the cream and whisk to thoroughly combine.
Arrange the bacon and onions in the bottom of the baked crust. Pour the custard mixture gently into the pie crust. If you need to rearrange the suspended ingredients, you can move them around with a spoon in order to evenly distribute them. Note I did not include the cheese at this point. You can if you would like, but I prefer to put my cheese on top about two-thirds the way through the baking.
Put the quiche into the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes. When the quiche is just beginning to set on top, sprinkle on the grated cheese and return to the oven to finish cooking. Continue to check for doneness every 10 minutes by gently jiggling the quiche. It should still have just a little wiggle to it since it will finish setting while it cools. If you overcook the quiche the custard will be a little rubbery.