Making a quiche is not difficult. Just follow a few simple principles to make a great quiche. Once you are comfortable building quiches, you can experiment and be creative—adding almost anything to a quiche that you would to an omelet.
Just keep these principles in mind: (Recipes are available at the bottom of this page.)
1. Make a good crust. We’re talking about a pre-baked crust. It doesn’t have to be pretty and certainly not perfect. The trick is to avoid the bubbles; bubbles break and let the filling ooze through. Use pie weights to hold the crust down. Or, if you prefer, prick the dough before baking, the steam that causes bubbles will escape through the pricked holes. (We’ve never been able to get those little holes to work as well as pie weights.)
If you are not comfortable making pie pastry, purchase a ready-made crust or use puff pastry from the grocery store.
2. Use quality ingredients. Your quiche is no better than what you put in it. Use fresh eggs and vegetables and quality cheeses.
3. Chop the ingredients finely. Coarsely cut ingredients make it very difficult to obtain attractive slices.
4. Get enough eggs. It’s the eggs that coagulate when baked to create a firm, clean quiche. The ratio of eggs to liquid has to be high enough. Make certain that there are at least 2 eggs for every one cup of liquid.
5. Cook it right. Bake it at 325 degrees. Higher temperatures increase the risk of over-cooking and curdling.
6. Cover the edges with foil. To get the quiche baked properly often requires enough time that the edges of the crust over-brown. Half way through the baking, cover the edges with foil so that you won’t over-brown the crusts.
7. Get it cooked. The center of the quiche has to reach at least 160 degrees for the protein in the eggs to coagulate. But a simple test is to simply slip a knife blade into the center of the quiche. If cooked, it should come out clean. Your knife test is more important than the number of minutes in the recipe. A properly cooked quiche will display a sharp, clean knife cut when sliced.
