Quiche is one of those dishes that everyone should know how to make. It's not difficult, and this classic cheese quiche recipe is a perfect introduction to the favorite brunch dish. Made with just a few ingredients, it's quick and easy to throw together and serves as inspiration for your own custom quiche creations.
Often associated with French cuisine, quiche is a savory egg custard baked in pie crust. The base comprises eggs, milk, and cream, cheese, and any variety of ingredients are added for flavor. This cheese quiche uses cheddar, and Swiss cheese is a nice addition. You can use any shredded cheese you like; one winning combination is havarti, colby, and Parmesan.
Endlessly Adaptable Quiche
Quiche is an excellent choice for any meal, including a busy weeknight dinner. It can even be prepared in advance and refrigerated or frozen, then quickly reheated. Favorite quiche side dishes include green salad, a bowl of mixed fruit, a simple tomato soup or chilled gazpacho, and roasted veggies.
What You'll Need to Make This Cheese Quiche Recipe
A Lovely Pie Pan
A Good Cheese Grater
A Handy Dandy Whisk
Ingredients
1refrigerated pie crust, orhomemade pie crust
3cupsshreddedcheddar cheese(or a combination of Swiss and cheddar)
Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Let refrigerated crust stand at room temperature for 15 minutes, then gently unroll. Place in a 9-inchpie pan, press into bottom and up sides, and flute edges. Be careful not to stretch the pie crust as you work, because if you do, it will shrink during baking.
Sprinkle cheeseinto the bottom of the pie crust; set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the eggs, milk, cream, flour, chives, salt, and pepper, and beat with a wire whisk until the mixture is smooth and incorporated.
Pour the custard mixture carefully over the cheeses in the crust.
Bake the quiche for 40 to 50 minutes until the quiche is puffed, golden brown, and set. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve and enjoy.
Tips
Make sure the pie crust is cold.
Measure the ingredients carefully. If you add too much flour, the quiche filling will not be light. When there's too much dairy in relation to the eggs, the quiche will come out soft and runny, sometimes almost watery.
Make sure to use 2 percent or whole milk and don't skimp on the cream. The fat in the cream adds to the richness and makes the quiche filling tender.
Recipe Variations
Use this recipe as a basis to create your own quiche masterpieces and write down the ingredients you used so you can reproduce them.Add about a cup of additional ingredients to the pie crust before pouring the egg custard. Everything from thawed and drained frozen spinach to cooked sausage and onions or chicken, ham, shrimp, or other vegetables are excellent for a quiche.
Can a Quiche Be Made Ahead of Time?
Quiche is an excellent make-ahead dish. There are a few ways to approach it:
Prepare the pie crust and filling and keep them separate (prevents soggy crust) in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to bake, simply pour the filling into the crust and bake as normal.
Bake the quiche and let it cool completely, then cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheat covered with foil in a 325 F oven for 15 minutes, or until warmed.
Bake and cool the quiche, cover with plastic and place it in a freezer-safe bag. It should keep well in the freezer for three months. When ready to eat, cover in foil and reheat until warm in a 350 F oven for about 20 minutes.
Ham and Swiss Quiche
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
479
Calories
34g
Fat
27g
Carbs
17g
Protein
Show Full Nutrition Label
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6to 8
Amount per serving
Calories
479
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 34g
43%
Saturated Fat 16g
81%
Cholesterol 154mg
51%
Sodium 550mg
24%
Total Carbohydrate 27g
10%
Dietary Fiber 1g
5%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 17g
Vitamin C 0mg
1%
Calcium 370mg
28%
Iron 2mg
10%
Potassium 172mg
4%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Recipe Tags:
Pastry
cheese quiche
breakfast
american
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Cheese: Some favorites include feta cheese, goat cheese, cheddar cheese, white cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, and gruyere. Add-Ins: Add up to 2 cups add-ins including vegetables and meat/seafood. Most quiche add-ins should be pre-cooked and can still be warm when mixing into the egg filling.
You'll need to increase the amount of eggs and milk based on the size of your quiche, so knowing the basic ratio makes it really easy to scale up or down. For a standard 9-inch quiche: Use 3 large eggs (6 ounces) 1 1/2 cups of whole milk or cream (12 ounces)
In fact, Martha Stewart's recipe for a classic quiche filling lists equal parts whole milk and heavy cream (1 ½ cups of each). To determine the ratio of milk or cream to eggs that should be used in a quiche recipe, remember that it's one egg to one-half cup of cream or milk.
While it is not as traditional for quiches such as quiche Lorraine, you can use milk instead of heavy cream for quiche. While the results are not *as* rich as if heavy cream is used, I find that by the time you factor in the cheese and eggs, the quiche is not at all lacking in indulgence.
Never use more than 2 cups of cheese. Too much cheese will make the quiche not set properly. 3. Sprinkle your solid ingredients evenly over the cheese layer.
The key to a foolproof quiche is the ratio of eggs to liquid – 2:1. I used 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups liquid ( a mix of whole milk and heavy cream) – this is enough for a deep dish crust. This is definitely a recipe to have in your repertoire. Consider it a keeper with endless filling possibilities!
Roll it out a tad bit thicker than you normally would for a standard pie if possible, and absolutely use it all. Confidently press any overhang or extra pieces into the walls of your pan. Add flour to your filling: Adding a bit of flour to your quiche filling helps absorb moisture and stabilize things in general.
And yes, as you'll see, you should always prebake quiche crust to avoid a gummy pastry. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Roll out your homemade or purchased refrigerated dough into a 12-inch circle.
If your quiche appears too watery to serve it could be because it was overbaked or underbaked, the egg to dairy ratio was not correct, the ingredients have too much liquid or it was baked on the wrong rack in the oven.
According to Real Simple, this typically occurs when adding too-wet ingredients to the quiche filling, layering the egg custard with, for example, large slices of raw tomato or raw zucchini. These vegetables, while tasty, have a high water content when raw, which will weep into the quiche as it bakes.
Classic custards use heavy cream, but 2% milk contains a fraction of the saturated fat and is still plenty rich. Flavor your custard with salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and fresh herbs such as chives, oregano, parsley or tarragon.
One of the fool-proof ways to ensure a crisp bottom pie crust is to do what is called blind baking. This simply means that you bake the crust—either fully if you are adding a custard or cream that won't be cooked, or partially if the whole pie needs to bake—before adding the filling.
Excess moisture is one reason why quiches collapse in a watery pool on your plate. Vegetables and meats like ham give off tremendous amounts of water when they're cooked. Therefore, if you're using vegetables in your quiche, it's imperative that you cook them first.
Emmental, Jarlsberg and Raclette are great gruyere substitutes. These Swiss cheeses have very similar flavors to Gruyere and will work well. It will also depend upon the quiche recipe you are following. Emmental is a great substitute for Gruyere.
Just like Swiss cheese, Fontina melts easily, which makes it perfect for making fondue. It's also a great choice for replacing Swiss cheese in dishes like quiches and Chicken Cordon Bleu.
Quiche is a savory custard that's made with a combination of eggs and cream or milk. It's typically baked in a pie crust and can be made with a variety of different fillings ranging from meats, vegetables, cheeses, and seafood. Quiches are perfect for serving as any meal- breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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