Mini Quiches

of crab, bacon and onion. 

 

Delightful little morsels of quiche loveliness. 

I made these for a bridal shower that took place last Saturday. 

Get out your mini tart molds and let's get busy. 

I use the Pate Brisée recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook for the crust. 

I remember reading somewhere about gating the butter into the flour when making a pastry crust

 

I gave it a try and it works a treat. 

The grater gets all gooey with butter so I rubbed some of the flour from the bowl onto the grater, all cleaned off, easy peasy. 

 

For the Quiche you'll need eggs, milk, scallions, cooked bacon and crab meat. 

The only "specialty item" you'll need is a set of tart molds. These are available just about anywhere. 

 

 

Chop the scallions and bacon. 

I used 6 scallions including about one inch of the green, and about half a pound of bacon.

I cooked the scallions until soft in some of the reserved bacon fat. 

 

 

Each mold will need a tablespoon of dough. 

 Keep the dough covered in plastic wrap while working with the molds. 

 

Some people can put a blob of dough into the mold and pat it around evenly, I can't. 

For me, it's easier to line the small molds if I roll out the tablespoon of dough first, just a bit.   

For the rectangular shaped molds I roll them a bit rectangular and for the round ones I try and keep the dough shape rounder

 

 

For the rectangular shaped molds, bend the dough in half, then lay it down inside the mold lengthwise. 

 

 

Now take your thumbs and pat the dough around inside the mold. 

Run your fingers around the edges of the mold to trim off any excess dough. 

 

 

Dock the dough then blind bake. 

 

 

In order to keep the dough from puffing up; not only is the dough docked, but each needs to be topped with parchment paper or aluminium foil, then some rice or beans. 

I tried parchment paper but that was a fiasco, do you realize how inflexible and unmanageable small squares of parchment paper are? Do you also realize how fast a bean can fly across a tile floor?

Here's where my inherent laziness comes in. I decided to stack one mold on top of another mold of the same shape, after spraying the bottom of the top mold with non stick spray of course, see the molds up front to the right.

Then I got scared; I needed them for the bridal shower that afternoon, what if it didn't work and I ruined all the dough, so I experimented with only a few. With the others, about half way through the baking I opened the oven and poked any puffy dough with a fork to deflate. 

Mind you, as this was going on I was mentally running through my mind the Lentil and Walnut Salad recipe I could make in a pinch.

I won't stack the molds again. While the bottom ones were the most perfect looking ones the bottom of the crust didn't bake up well; I had to put them back in the oven for a few more minutes risking burning the edges while trying to brown the bottoms. 

Next time I'll put some aluminium foil and rice on each and every one. I'm sure the tart dough will come out perfect that way. 

So...

 

Tart shells out of the oven and cooled. 

Place the crab meat inside the baked shells. I used a teaspoon of crab meat for each tart. 

 

 

Then add a few pieces of bacon, 

 

and some of the scallions. 

 

Mix 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream with 3 large eggs. 

 

Using a tablespoon pour the cream-egg mixture on top of the other ingredients.

I'd say each one took about 2 tablespoons of the cream. 

Back into the oven. 

 

 

Once out of the oven, let cool for about 10 minutes then un-mold. 

 

 

Tah-dah!!

These were very well received.

One lady told me how much she liked them and asked where I bought them. I told her I made them, she was so impressed and I was so happy. 

 

The basic quiche custard is a ratio of 2 milk to 1 egg. A large egg weighs 2 ounces so if I have 8 ounces of milk or heavy cream I'll need 2 eggs. 

For this recipe I used 1 1/2 cups of milk and 3 eggs, or 18 ozs of custard. That's enough custard to fill a 10-inch quiche pan. More than I needed, I think I could have done it with a cup of milk and two eggs. 

A rule of thumb when making a standard 10-inch quiche is to fill it no more than 3/4th full of your favorite fillings before you pour in the custard.  

Quiches are great for using up leftovers, here's where a little of this and a little of that can be made into a great meal. 

And that's that  

 

Comments

[W H Stoneman]

Beautiful presentation! Thanks.

[Mary]

Those are so cute! Very lovely and tasty idea. I have some mini tart pans that don't get as much use as they should, this is a good idea for using those tart pans!

[koko]

Thanks Mr. Bill and Mary. I hope you try them sometime.
Mini anything is nice to have on a buffet or potluck table, they seem to go first.

[flyer printing]

Oh! What a very beautiful presentation! I should partner this with a turkey for dinner! Looks very delicious!