Quiche with Bacon, Swiss, and Spinach

Simple quiche with bacon, Swiss, and spinach

I have another recipe for quiche on this blog, and it's the general quiche recipe I use. The thing is, though, that I think that time I made it for the blog was the ONLY time I ever used a premade pie crust -- and I didn't even like it because premade crusts tend to have added sugar, which to me is no bueno for a savory dish. 

So, whenever I make quiche, I have to look up my other recipe for pie crust that I actually like, and for this recipe I often have to increase the recipe for a crust and a half because my pie crust recipe is really for a Marie Callendar's size pie, which is smaller than my Made In pie dish. This recipe you have here is what I've actually been doing, and this will be the recipe I go to every time I make quiche from now on. (You know that's the main reason I have this blog at all--it's my recipe box.)

Quiche
      -adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

• 1 blind-baked 9" pie crust (see pie crust recipe below) 
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
• 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
• 5 ounces of fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup whole milk, preferably room temperature (today I used 1/2 cup heavy cream and 3/4 cup 2% Fairlife milk)
• 1 1/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 cup (about 7 strips) thick cut bacon, cooked, and cut into bite-size pieces

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, and then add the shallots. Cook until shallots are soft, but not necessarily browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the chopped spinach and stir into the shallot/garlic mixture until spinach is completely wilted. Remove to a plate to cool.
• In a medium bowl or large glass measuring cup (the 1 or 2 quart size), beat the eggs with the milk (or milk and cream in my case). Whisk in the salt and pepper. Then add the cooled spinach mixture and stir/whisk to incorporate. (Note: If spinach mixture is not totally cooled, add a tablespoon of the hot mixture at first to the egg/milk mixture and whisk. Keep adding a little bit at a time. Once you have half of it mixed in, add the rest and finish mixing. This prevents the eggs from cooking before it goes into the oven.)
• Layer the bacon and then the cheese into the pie crust. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the ingredients in the pie crust. (You may need to do a little light mixing once it's in the dish because the shallots tend to sink to the bottom of the egg/milk/spinach mixture.)
• Place unbaked quiche on a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes, or until center no longer jiggles like a liquid when the pan is gently shaken.
• Remove quiche from oven and allow to cool about 20 minutes before serving.
• Refrigerate any leftovers.

Makes about 6-8 decent sized servings

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 4 1/2 tablespoons Crisco vegetable shortening
• 5-6 tablespoons ice cold water
• flour for dusting

Instructions:

• In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. 
• Cut the 6 tablespoons of butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal with a few small pebbles of butter.
• Add the Crisco and cut in until you have a coarse meal with a few small pebbles of Crisco.
• Add 5 tablespoons of the ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball, adding a little more water and stirring with the fork if it still seems super dry. Do not add more than 6 tablespoons of water. The warmth of your hands will help bring the dough together.
• Place larger-than-square piece of wax paper on the counter and sprinkle with some flour. 
• Place the dough on the wax paper and flatten into a disk that's about 1 1/2 inches thick, pressing in the edges as needed if they start to crack.
• Sprinkle the top of the dough disk with more flour, cover with another sheet of wax paper, and roll out to about 3/8-inch thickness, or large enough to fit in and up the sides of the 9" pie dish.
• Transfer the dough to the 9" pie dish, trim, tuck, and decorate the edges however you like.
• Cover the unbaked pie crust and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least half an hour. 
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit while the crust chills.
• When you're ready to blind bake the crust, remove from the fridge, uncover, and prick all over with a fork.
• Blind bake it however you'd like, but this is what I do:
• Crinkle up a thin piece of foil, uncrinkle it, and gently press it into the unbaked pie crust. The foil should go completely up the sides of the crust and it may even cover the edge, but it does not have to. Fill the foil-lined crust with dry beans, dry uncooked rice, or pie weights.
• Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. 
• Remove from the oven, set aside, and allow to cool for a bit while you prepare the filling.
• Turn oven down to 375 degrees for baking the quiche.