Success: Quiche

Since the days of pie crust obsession I've been meaning to make a quiche. In fact, ever since my trip to America back in December I've been carrying around my pie crust recipe in my day-planner at the ready lol (Yes, I've been carrying a pie crust recipe for 5 months...) I'd had a lot of luck with this recipe before, though usually I sub out 2 tablespoons of shortening for butter, to give it browning and flavor, and I've learned that in my house 5 T is always too much water so I go for 4 T.

 

I'd been meaning to try the Shirley O. Corriher approach to crust making where, rather than cutting the fats into crumbs, one rolls them out into flakes. This intuitively makes a lot more sense in terms of what you're going for with flakey pie crusts! To do this, you mix together the dry ingredients, then add small chunks of shortening to the bowl, mixing them so they're well-coated, then you freeze all of it for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, pull it back out and just dump the contents of the bowl out onto a floured surface and roll it out as-is with a rolling pin. This will result in longer, flour-coated, fats forming a dough. Scrape it all back up and freeze it again, this time for 5 minutes. Repeat this process about 3 times until you have fats like flaking paint. Freeze the dough for 10 minutes, then add the liquids per usual. When you've got a good dough, freeze it in a plastic-wrapped bowl for 30 minutes before rolling it out for your pie.

 

I really liked this method in general, because I felt like when my dough got too wide or too irregular I could just fold it in half and roll it out again, since the goal was to mix it by flattening it, thus eliminating the stress of turning out a winning sheet on the first attempt without over-working the dough. I will admit, however, that I misread the directions and added the liquid at the beginning by mistake. All the same, I still ended up with a flakier crust than usual using this method. I can only imagine how flakey it is when you do it properly. An important part of having a tender, flakey, pie crust is to get the fats covered in flour first, and to keep the fats in chunks so when they melt they create air pockets. Cutting the fats with a pastry cutter will give you a much more blended final product, thus killing the pockets.

 

When I made this crust for Thanksgiving something happened - maybe I overheated it? - and the crust melted, thus losing its design and falling off the plate and onto the bottom of the oven. This time, I increased the flour I used while rolling out the dough, which seemed to help. It was still pretty greasy, but not nearly as much and the scalloped edge held its shape in the final pie. Of course, after shaping the raw dough I let it rest in the fridge for 10 minutes, and then I did a blind bake with it too, since I didn't want my crust to end up soggy from the egg filling. For some reason, however, my pie crusts still have a lumpy appearance after I bake them. I should figure out how to prevent that. It gives it a homemade look and it's okay I guess, but so many pie crusts I see are smooth, flakey-looking, and beautiful. I'd like mine to be that way, too.

 

For the filling, it just so happened that I'd bought a fancy cheese from the international grocery for everyday eating, not knowing that the emmental I bought is a kind of swiss. I decided it was better to bake with it and it was quite good in my quiche lorraine. I pretty much stuck to the recipe, except that I added mushrooms (treated myself to button mushrooms, as I thought Japanese mushrooms would have too much flavor and overpower the dish) and I sauteed the mushrooms and onion a little prior to baking. I also layered tomato slices on top before baking to add some color and appeal. I really, really loved the cayenne pepper in this recipe. It was not enough to make it spicy, but just enough to give it a little something extra. Using Hokkaido's plain milk, it made quite a rich egg filling that gave me pause when I first took a bite, especially paired with my beloved crust.

 

 

I think my pie plates are a little shallow, however. Every time I make a pie my crust ends up way too thick and way too high and I always have way too much filling. It was really delicious biting into such a thick crust, but it seems a little wrong. My biggest problem, however, was when I noticed a low side on my crust that had come from the blind bake AFTER I poured the filling. At first it was fine, but as the liquid settled it began gushing out the side of the crust and all over the counter top! After enough raw egg mix had spewed out in a scene reminiscent of something from I Love Lucy, I was finally able to get into the refrigerator and pull out some bread crumbs to dam it. That worked, thank god, and I poured the excess egg filling into a small pan to make a little breakfast frittata for the following morning. Yum!

 

 

All's well that ends well, though. I think I learn more about pie methodology every time I do it, and every time I also get better at making it look pretty. I was a little put out, however, that nobody noticed my lunch the day I brought my adorable little quiche to work, and yet on the day I brought a disgusting-looking dumpling soup I managed to attract a small crowd of onlookers. Maybe I'll just have to make another quiche!