Cookbook:Quiche

Quiche
Category	French recipes
Servings	6
Time	75 minutes
Difficulty

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes | Cuisine of France

A quiche is a baked, unsweetened custard pie, often made with savory fillings. Originally served in Germany, quiche was adopted by neighboring France and is now considered a traditional French dish. The French (and now English) word quiche comes from a dialectal form (Küchle) of the German word for cake (Kuchen). Quiche became popular in Britain after World War II and in the United States during the 1960s and 70s.

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 1 ⅓ cup (320 ml) cream (approximately 30% fat)
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 prepared frozen pie crust
• ¾ cup (180 ml) freshly-grated Swiss cheese

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Place the eggs, cream, tarragon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a blender; blend as briefly as possible until they form a homogeneous mixture.
3. In the pie crust, create alternating layers of the shredded cheese and the mixture from the blender until the crust is full.
4. Bake the quiche for 35–40 minutes; a toothpick or fork inserted into its middle should come out "clean".
5. Remove the quiche from the oven, and let it cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Notes, tips, and variations

• Use nutmeg sparingly.
• Fresh tarragon will be better than dried tarragon.
• Placing a very hot pan in under the quiche will give it greater volume.
• Try making quiches with sautéed onions, sautéed broccoli, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese; feel free to experiment.

Warnings

• The quiche mixture may drip over the edge of the pie crust while cooking; place it on a cookie sheet or place foil on the oven rack below it.
• The quiche will continue to cook after it is removed from the oven; be careful not to overcook it or cut it before it has had a chance to set.
• Half-and-half (cream with approximately 12% fat) can be substituted for regular cream to make this dish less fattening; however, be cautious of using milk because low-fat dairy products curdle more easily.