Quiche Lorraine

This one's by request of my sister [and probably the last bake-off I'll have in a while, since school starts tmr], who has been bugging me to make quiche ever since she 'discovered' it. I'm happy to comply, since I hardly ever bake savory items, not that I don't like them, just that somehow they don't look as appealing. A quiche is basically an egg-cheese savory tart/pie concoction that comes in all flavours. I would have preferred a salmon quiche, but my sis wanted bacon, so here we are.

INGREDIENTS

Pastry

215g plain flour

100g salted butter, chilled [here you want a little taste to your crust]

Some cold water

Filling

3 bacon rashers, chopped to your liking

80g grated cheese of your liking; I used Cheddar

3 eggs

185ml cream or milk

1 large yellow onion, sliced

Ok, the pastry is basically a short crust pastry, and in the apple crumble post I have already detailed how it is done, so refer there if you need to.

Here, though, the pastry needs to be blind baked before the filling is added. This is usually done with very wet fillings, or fillings that can't be baked for too long. Both applies in this case, as the egg + milk mixture is extremely wet, and can't be baked too long as you want a bit of wobble to it.


To blind bake, roll out and fit pastry to pan. [Here I would suggest using a cake pan instead of a flatter pie plate, unless you have a deep dish pie plate, as there are quite a lot of liquid. Mine was too shallow, and though I didn't add everything, the filling still overflowed. Not very pretty.] Trim off excess, and prick the base of the pastry liberally. This is to let off steam as it bakes so that the pastry stays nice and flat, instead of bubbling up. Let bake in a preheated 180 degree celcius oven until the pastry leaves the sides of the pan.


For the filling, fry the bacon and onions together with small amount of oil until to your liking. I like my onions completely cooked, with its heat all cooked out so that its sweet and soft. Once done set aside to cool.



Beat your egg and cream/milk together, set aside, and its ready for assembly. Spread the onion-bacon mixture evenly over the base of the tart shell, sprinkling over half of the cheese evenly as well. Pour egg + cream/milk mixture over the filling, and top off with the rest of the cheese. Pop back into a preheated 180 degree celcius oven and bake roughly 30 minutes, or until the cheese on top is nice and browned. And your quiche is ready to be served =) Serve within the same day, though I feel that it tastes best warm and leftovers must be kept in the fridge. Simply reheat the leftovers in microwave/oven/toaster when you want it, and it'll still be great.