Mini Cheese and Tomato Quiche

I added quiche in my recipes ‘to-do’ list, when I first tasted it. The quiche I tasted was baked in a 10 inch tart pan. But I used mini tart pan, so that I can prepare it in smaller quantity. With the measurement given below, you can prepare 4 or 5 tarts.

A word Quiche is derived from the german word ‘Kuchan’ which has a meaning of cake. (Reference: Foodreference.com). Since its a savory one, my entire household loved it. The crust and the custard is same for all the quiche recipes. Just change the other ingredients to get a different variety of quiche. You can also use store bought quiche for instant preparation of the quiche. I prepared everything at home and baked it from scratch.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 40-45 minutes

Idle Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Makes: 4-5

Ingredients:

For Pastry: (I used shortcrust pastry)

All purpose flour / Maida / Plain flour – 1 cup + extra for dusting

Cold butter – 5 tablespoons

Cold water – 1-2 tablespoons

Salt – a small pinch

For Filling:

Tomato – 2 nos, large size, sliced

Egg – 2 nos, large size

Milk – 2/3 cups

Salt – a pinch

Black Pepper powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Dried herds – 2 teaspoons (Includes oregano, thyme and basil)

Processed Cheese / Chedder Cheese – 1/2 cup or as required.

Method:

For Pastry:

1) In a mixing bowl take all-purpose-flour. Add salt and mix well.

2) Add cold butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour till you get a mixture that looks like bread crumbs. There should not be large butter lumps remaining.

3) Slowly add water and make a dough.

4) Wrap it using a cling wrap. Keep inside the refrigerator at least for 30 minutes.

5) Meanwhile, prepare for the filling.

For Filling:

1) Grate the chedder cheese. As I didn’t get Cheddar cheese near my home, I used processed cheese. Just grate it. Slice tomato.

2) Break eggs in a small bowl and beat well.

3) Add 2/3 cups of milk.

4) Add pepper, salt and mixed herbs.

5) Keep everything ready and arrange them.

For Assembling:

1) Take the dough out from the refrigerator. Roll the cold pastry on a floured kitchen surface until 1/8 inch thick.

2) Place this rolled pastry on to a mini tarts and shape them as shown in the picture. Make sure the pastry is sticking with the pan well. At the same time, do not stretch the pastry to fit the edges of the tart pan. If you do, it will shrink back when it is baked.

3) Preheat the oven to 350F/176C for 15 minutes.

4) Layer the tarts with grated cheese first. Make sure there is no gap.

5) Pour the custard over the tarts after mixing it well again. Top it with sliced tomato.

6) Bake it for 45 minutes or till the knife inserted into the center of the tart pan comes out clean. Sometimes, it takes an hour and again it depends upon the oven. It will puff nicely and the crust become golden at the end of baking.

7) Wait for few more minutes and serve warm.

Notes:

1) Instead of milk you can use cream for making the custard.

2) you can also use 3 eggs + 1/3 cup of milk instead of the measurement given above in the recipe.

3) Cheese is used to avoid soggy crust while baking. Try to use chedder cheese for best resulted quiche. However, If you don’t avail it in your place of stay, then substitute it with any other cheese. I used processed cheese here.

4) Just for good looking quiche, I baked 3 quiches with a slice of tomato. But baked remaining two with more slices.