Quiche Lorraine
Hairy Bikers – BBC Food
Edmond’s Cook Book
Lauren’s “picnic” week inspired an
abundance of ideas. I basically love all food picnic-orientated, be it sausage
rolls, scotch eggs, pies, tarts...ahhh so many choices! However, I was inclined
towards quiche. It’s a seasonal-free
dish – you can have it hot in the winter and cold in the summer! Quiche are simply a pastry shell encasing rich,
baked custard, but can be
transformed into something quite magnificent with a few extra
ingredients. I have wanted to cook one for
so long, adapting it a little each time as I grow in confidence with my
ingredient combinations. So I started
with a basic Quiche Lorraine, but was enticed by the Hairy Biker’s recipe
because the pastry had that little extra kick with parmesan cheese and thyme,
something to make it stand out from your classic recipe. This meant that I felt a touch less guilty
using such a simple filling (next time I’ll be more experimental I promise)!
The recipe can be found on the BBC
food site, and again I referred to Edmond’s cookbook for weights and
measurements because I have still yet to invest in some scales!
Ingredients
Pastry
50g (2oz) parmesan, grated
1 tsp chilled
water (more if required)
For the filling
3 free-range eggs
150g (5¼oz) pancetta, cubed - you can use streaky bacon
250ml crème fraîche
150g (5¼oz) Gruyère
Ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven
to 180C/Gas mark 4.
To make the
pastry, sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the butter, parmesan and thyme
and using your fingertips rub into the flour until the mixture resembles
breadcrumbs.
I’m not sure if
you remember the peach cobbler post, but I mentioned that your
hands should be cold and your palms should remain flour-free. Just a
reminder – soon you’ll be pros at making pastry!
Next, add the
egg yolk and the water. Use a palette
knife to mix into a firm dough, adding more water to bind if required (make
sure not to over-work the dough because it will become less supple). Gather the
mixture and kneed briefly until smooth.
Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Place the dough
on to a floured surface and roll out using a floured rolling-pin to
approximately 5cm larger than the top of your dish. Roll the pastry loosely over your rolling-pin
and unfold carefully over your dish.
Press the pastry gently into the dish using a ball of spare pastry. Trim off the excess pastry
using a knife. Place a circle of baking
paper over the pastry and fill with baking beans.
Transfer to the
oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and return to the oven
for five minutes.
Meanwhile, fry the
pancetta until almost crisp and then place all the ingredients, bar 50g of Gruyère, into a large bowl and mix gently. Spoon the filling into the pastry case and
sprinkle the remaining Gruyère on top.
Cook the quiche
in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the filling is set.
Some tips!
As I have
mentioned, this was my first attempt at cooking a quiche, and I cannot lie, it
was not the best. The fundamental
problem was the weather. I cooked on a
boiling hot day, and pastry should really be cooked in cool conditions. Consequently, the dough was stiff and not
particularly easy to handle, so cracked when I rolled it out. At this point I was quite upset, having been
excited at the prospect of the Hairy Bikers’ recipe for my lunch this week! Since the pastry was difficult to roll out I
could not get it much thinner than around 1cm when really pastry should be
around 5-8mm. The resulting problem was
that when the quiche itself was cooked, the pastry bottom was not – you can
tell because the colour was darker and the pastry was moist not crispy. The silver lining though, was that it didn’t
have a completely soggy bottom!! Mary Berry would be proud!
I will persevere
and conquer the quiche!
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