Mini Quiches

You know I have a good backlog of posts when I still have a Mother's Day related topic and I have already posted about Father's Day! Since Joe and I have lived in this house, we have hosted a Mother's Day brunch for our families. At first I thought it would be nice to give the moms a break and let them enjoy themselves. But once I became a mom, I didn't want to give it up. This was our 4th year, so we have a pretty good system and menu down pat. This year though, instead of making one big quiche, I wanted to try making some mini quiches. Oven space here is at a premium and there is also a ham and a couple french toast casseroles that have to get in there. I figured with mini quiches they would take less time, I could make them in the morning, and then just heat them back up in the toaster oven when it was time to eat. I got the idea from this pin:

source

Of course that pin was really about freezer meals, but it gave me the idea to make my traditional Quiche Lorraine in mini form. The recipe I have been using for years is from cooks.com -  you can find it here and below (my adaptations are in red). Here are my pics and the modifications I made along the way:


First up, I prepared my muffin/cupcake pans. I sprayed them with some baking/cooking spray, then cut little circles of premade refrigerated pie crust with the biggest round cookie cutter I had.

cutting the crusts

Then I mixed up the filling. I had actually chopped and measured everything out the night before, so I could just throw it all together in the morning. It was super easy.

fillings all ready to go

I tried two different approaches - with one pan, I baked the crusts for a couple minutes to try and make sure they were crunchy, then I filled and baked the quiches. With the other pan, I just filled them and baked them with the raw dough (like the recipe calls for). Unfortunately, I think because the pans were sprayed well and the dough circles were already sort of hard, the precooked ones floated up to the middle of the quiche. It still tasted good, but they weren't as pretty.

onion, bacon, and cheese all sprinkled on the pie dough

Obviously, since they are smaller then a full sized quiche, I had to play with the cooking times. I had them in the 425 degree oven for maybe 7 minutes, then in the 300 degree oven for maybe 12 minutes. Just keep an eye on them - when they are all puffy and a tooth pic comes out clean they are done.

egg mixture poured on top and in the oven

I forgot to take pics of them in our Mother's Day spread - but I have since made them again one night when we had "breakfast for dinner". I made the same sized batch (makes maybe 22ish quiches) and froze the leftovers. Now its so easy to pop a couple out and throw them in the toaster for an easy (but delicious!) weekend breakfast!

fresh out of the oven

mmmm, bacon.

really need to read up on some photography lessons - I can't seem to get the lighting right!

The Verdict: Delicious. I can't speak for anyone else, but I loved them. I liked this recipe in its pie form, but I think I like it more in a mini form. I feel like the filling to crust ratio is a little better and the convenience of being able to freeze the extras is great (although we only had one left over from Mothers Day!). It was also great for our brunch because no one had to deal with cutting and scooping out a slice. Once we run out of our freezer stash I will definitely make another batch. I might mix it up and try another kind - but this is definitely a standby.

Things to consider: Just watch the baking time. I totally just guessed and it seemed to come out right. Also, I couldn't get enough full circles cut out of the dough - so I had to piece some scraps together for the last couple quiches. It came out fine, just not as pretty. I did notice that they "deflated" a little bit once they came out of the oven - anyone know how to keep them fluffy?


Quiche Lorraine (adapted from Cooks.com)

1 9 inch pie crust (I used both crusts that came in the refrigerated package)
12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled (I used the pre-cooked bacon and just cut it up)
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese
1/3 c. finely chopped onion
4 eggs
2 c. half and half
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne red pepper

Prepare pastry (I cut circles out of the dough and placed them in a greased cupcake pan). Sprinkle bacon, cheese, and onion in pastry lined pie plate. Beat eggs slightly; beat in remaining ingredients. Pour egg mixture into pie plate. Cook uncovered at 425 degrees for 15 minutes (for mini quiches - 7ish minutes).

 

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Cook uncovered until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean, about 30 minutes (for mini quiches - 10-15 minutes). Let stand 10 minutes before cutting (I waited a few minutes before popping them out of the pan).

We have a lot of events coming up that should generate some more posts: a baby shower, a bbq, JJ's Baptism (finally!) and hopefully some more home-related projects this summer as well - stay tuned!