One of the dishes that is frequently included in cookbooks and on restaurant menus all across the world is a quiche. It is a filling, rich dish that may be prepared in various ways. With a few of your favorite ingredients, you can make one quickly at home that is also incredibly filling. Quiche can be prepared to suit your taste and health requirements, whether you’re a vegetarian or a meat eater.
Quiche is typically made with eggs, bacon, and cheese atop a pastry crust. Consider preparing your pastry, utilizing low-fat milk, and lowering the cheese if you like to make a low-calorie quiche. Instead of using bacon, you may use ham, salmon, or chicken. You could also use feta or Swiss cheese instead of ordinary cheese for a tangier flavor. Vegetarians can substitute healthy veggies like broccoli, carrots, onions, and mushrooms for meat-based foods.
Quiche Nutrition Facts
What is Exactly Quiche?
A quiche is an open-crust pastry dish baked with egg custard and savory ingredients like bacon or cheese. It is a popular and classic brunch dish often served chilled, or at room temperature, so the custard has time to set up. It is also quite easy to prepare, and tasty ingredient additions can range from the most known, Swiss or Gruyere cheese and bacon, to many more recent variations with more contemporary additions.
Most people think the Quiche is French in origin and classic form; it’s fair to say that this assumption is accurate. But before French cooks invented Quiche, German chefs created a cake-like egg custard pie known as kuchen. Rather than using the more traditional pie crust, the German dish was baked with brioche dough. The brioche crust was cooked with bacon, eggs, and cream.
Food historians aren’t sure who first used a pastry shell—a mixture of flour, shortening like lard or butter, and a little cold water—whether it was the Germans or the French. One of the most well-known varieties, Quiche Lorraine, is credited to the French; initially, it just had bacon. The cheese was introduced considerably later.
What is Quiche Usually Served for?
Quiche is frequently served for brunch or lunch, but if you’d rather, you may also offer it for dinner. The main dish, Quiche, is excellent and can be eaten by itself. It is best to avoid adding more calories to side dishes because it frequently has a high caloric content. Typically, Quiche is sliced into slices and consumed like cake. This is an effective method of controlling your calorie consumption as well.
It is not surprising that this dish has a high-calorie value, given its contents. One slice can average between 300 and 450 calories, depending on your components. It is recommended to utilize chicken and green veggies for healthier variations.
Quiche is very nutrient-dense and high in protein. This implies that 1-2 slices of the dish will be enough to make you feel satisfied. Additionally, vitamins A, B, and C, which help with everything from illness prevention to better vision, are found in eggs. Choline and potassium, nutrients important for nerve and brain function, are also found in eggs. A good source of calcium for healthy bones and teeth is cheese.
How to Make Quiche?
It’s made with a rich egg filling, a buttery, crispy, and flaky pie crust, and some tasty add-ins like ham, cheese, and herbs! It’s ideal for weekends and vacations.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/4 cups (177g) unbleached all-purpose flour, scoop, and level to measure
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp (scant) salt
- 10 Tbsp (141g) unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small cubes
- 2 – 4 Tbsp ice water
Quiche Filling
- Five large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream (or half and a half)
- 1 1/4 cups chopped ham
- 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, swiss, or gruyere)
- 1/3 cup chopped green onions
- 2 Tbsp chopped parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Crust
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Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
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Add butter, and, using a pastry cutter cut butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal with some larger clumps of butter.
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Drizzle in water 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing and mixing after each addition, and add just enough water until the mixture is moistened enough (when pressed with your hand, it should hold together).
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Dump the mixture onto a clean work surface, then presses together well into a round disk. Flatten to about a 6-inch disk and wrap with plastic or transfer to a container.
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Chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
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Roll chilled dough out onto a floured surface to about a 13-inch round. Roll and wrap dough around a rolling pin, then transfer to a 9 to 9 1/2-inch deep dish pie pan.
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Unroll the dough into the pan, then shape it into the pan. Trim uneven edges while leaving about 1-inch overhang, and fold overhang underneath. Decorate edges as desired.
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Freeze the dough for 20 minutes or refrigerate for 1 hour. Meanwhile, move the oven rack below the center and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
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Cover crust with aluminum foil, pressing directly against bottom and side surfaces and leaving foil overhang to drape over crust edges to prevent over-browning. Fill with dry beans, sugar, or pie weights.
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Set crust on a baking sheet, then bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.
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Remove foil and beans. Pierce bottom and sides with a fork and continue to bake until crust appears dry, about 10 minutes longer.
Quiche Filling
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While the crust is baking, prepare the quiche filling so you can pour it into a warm crust.
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In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs with a fork until blended.
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Add heavy cream, ham, cheese, green onions, and parsley, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir the mixture until blended.
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Pour mixture into pie crust. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven (one level below the center of the oven) until the center of the Quiche is barely set, about 45 – 55 minutes if needed; tent crust edges with a pie shield or a foil ring to prevent excessive browning during the last 15 minutes.
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Let rest for a few minutes before slicing. Serve warm.
How to Properly Store Quiche?
If you want to keep Quiche for more than a day, there are two methods to store them: chilled in the refrigerator or frozen in the freezer.
After baking, let the Quiche cool to room temperature before wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap and storing it in the refrigerator. Aluminum foil can also be used, but plastic wrap does better to prevent any unwelcome moisture.
If you anticipate having company around in the coming days, storing a full quiche in the refrigerator is a terrific idea.
Whole or cut-up chilled Quiche will keep for three to four days. You may take it out of the fridge, unwrap it, and reheat it in the oven as described above. Slices that are left over can be stored in resealable plastic bags.
Your Quiche can also be frozen. For added security, wrap it in the same manner as you would for chilling and then put it in a freezer-safe container.
The shelf life of frozen Quiche is up to three months, but after a month, the flavor starts to fade, and the eggs may turn rubbery. Ideally, it would help if you ate it within a month.
What is Frittata? and How is it Different from Quiche?
A frittata is an open-faced omelet from Italy. The ingredients added to frittatas can range from vegetables like bell peppers, zucchini, onions, or spinach to meats like ham or sausage. A frittata frequently includes cheese, such as goat cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan, feta, or cheddar cheese. Before serving, you can combine the cheese with the eggs and add extra cheese.
The ingredients for the filling are beaten with eggs and dairy (usually heavy cream or half-and-half) to produce a frittata. This is then poured into a sizable frying pan and cooked on the stovetop. This also browns the egg dish’s top. A frittata is not turned over while cooking; rather, it is moved to the oven (or broiler) to continue cooking.
Both frittatas and quiches are baked foods made with eggs, cream, or whole milk and various ingredients, such as vegetables, meat, and cheese. But there are other variations between the two meals, such as:
- The Crust: A frittata lacks a crust, but a quiche does. A frittata, often a crustless quiche, can be baked in a skillet or pan without a crust. The quiche filling is contained in a pastry casing resembling a regular pie crust.
- The Filling: A frittata has less dairy than a quiche, which is a custard tart. A quiche’s filling comprises one giant egg and one and a half cups of dairy. The typical frittata proportion is six eggs, 1/4 cup heavy cream, and 2 cups of filling, which will fill a 12-inch frying pan.
- The Pan: A frittata cooks in a cast-iron skillet, whereas a quiche bakes in a pan. A quiche bakes in the oven for the entire cooking time in a round pie pan or tart pan, just like a tart. On the other hand, a frittata is prepared in a cast-iron skillet or frying pan; it is first cooked on the stovetop before being finished under the broiler or in the oven. If you plan to bake the Frittata after cooking it, it is advised against using a nonstick pan. Instead, pour a lot of olive oil onto the pan’s bottom to keep everything from sticking.
Conclusion
A quiche is a traditional savory egg custard most frequently associated with French cuisine, even though the name “quiche” is supposed to have originated from the German word “kuchen,” which means “cake.” In a simple pastry crust, eggs, a fatty amount of dairy, and any fillings—from ham and cheddar cheese to garlicky mushrooms and sautéed spinach—combine to make Quiche.
An appetizer tart is a quiche. The egg filling is a custard consisting of beaten eggs, milk, cream, and any filling mixtures of your choosing. Examples of additions include ham and cheddar cheese or sautéed spinach and mushrooms. Once the egg mixture is set, you bake the dish with the contents in a pastry casing.
