Mini Quiches

Quiche. It can be eaten at any time during the day. Breakfast? Yum! Lunch? Great! Dinner? Delicious! A quiche is a bit like a good club sandwich – an oldie but a goodie and quite a kiwi one at that!

One night this week, dinner consisted of mini quiches in homemade pastry shells with mushrooms, diced onions, bacon, sun dried tomatoes and a sprinkling of cheese. To lighten the meal up a bit I served it with a green salad.

Quiche is one of my favourite things to make and these are so adorable and much more fun than a regular old quiche! As a child I remember going to great Aunt’s house in Eastbourne, Wellington. She had set up a little tea party for my two older sisters and me. We each had our own individual teacup, saucer and teapot (with hot blackcurrant!). I remember walking away thinking that was just the bee’s knees. It could have been partly to do with having two siblings and having to share everything..yeah, I was no good at that but that summer afternoon made so much sense, everything was all right with my 7 year old world.

To cut the long story short, since then I’ve always liked meals that are presented as individual portions (these days it is never a sharing issue, more aesthetically pleasing presentation!). Anything in ramekins like mini pot pies – fish or chicken and leek I just love. MMMmmm.

These little gems are just so damn tasty but you can decide for yourself. The idea is to be creative and play with ingredients! I used a 12-hole muffin pan for this basic quiche recipe. I cut out square pieces of pastry and just kind of free formed the crust. I love making a quiche and it is such a great staple for the ultimate kiwi summertime picnic. Amen.

Mini Quiches

For the pastry crust:

1 cup of flour
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
50 grams of butter, softened
1/2 a cup of grated cheese
3-4 tablespoons of water

Sift the flour and salt together. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the grated cheese and then the water, a few drops at a time until the dough sticks together and forms a soft ball. You may need to add a small amount of flour if the mixture appears a little too wet. Chill the dough for five minutes. Roll dough out onto a floured board and slice into 10 x 10 cm squares. Place each square until a muffin hole and shape to fit.

For the filling:

3 eggs
1/2 a cup of trim milk
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1/2 a teaspoon of pepper
1/2 a cup of grated cheese (or chopped feta)
1 medium onion
2 rashers of bacon
chopped sun dried tomatoes
sliced mushrooms

Beat the eggs, milk, flour, salt and pepper together. Fill the small pastry cases with anything you’d like in your quiches. I used all ingredients listed above. If using bacon, give it a quick zap in the microwave first and then chop up and divide between the muffin holes. Top with cheese and pour the egg mixture between each muffin hole. Shake a wee bit of pepper and salt over the top of each. I also topped the quiches with a few pine nuts to add to the flavour!

Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. Enjoy!