Breakfast for dinner. Whoever thought of such a wonderful concept has garnered my praise for years. Egss are extremely underrated in my opinion, if only for the fact that people have very limiting ideas of what to do with them. Toad in the Hole, scrambled, fried, sunny side up, boiled soft or hard, etc. There many wonderful things to do with eggs, the least of which is to serve them in a hurry at breakfast.
I find I enjoy eggs more for dinner because I savour them for a longer period of time. My husband and I, for economic reasons, used to have soft boiled eggs with toast soldiers as our Friday night dinner for a few months, about a year ago. We’d be exhausted from daily life with a 9 month old, the rigamorale of the day to day grind and just your basic personal upkeep of a household. It was almost my favourite meal of the week. 5 minutes to make (after the kid went to bed) and 10 minutes to savour one of my most favourite of childhood treats. There’s something very clean and simple about toast soldiers dripping in butter, being dipped into perfectly runny, golden yolks. From those hectic days, sprouted new found love for the humble egg.
I’ve always been more of a fritatta kind of girl, but I find the crustless factor and tendency to be a bit dry less appealing then the rather sexy, crust encased, quiche. Sexy? Quiche? Yes, that’s right. Eggs can indeed be sexy. When dressed up in lovely mushrooms, exotic soft cheeses and herb scented, flaky, all butter crusts, eggs can induce a certain amount of fervor in me.
Fully Loaded Quiche
For the Savory Crust
4 oz cold, unsalted butter
6 oz all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup fresh rosemary, minced fine
1/4 cup buttermilk
1. Cut into butter into 2 cm pieces and freeze for 10-15 minutes. Measure out buttermilk and refrigerate.
2. Sift flour, sugar and salt into bowl and stir in rosemary. Take cold butter and dump into flour, toss to coat.
3. Dump onto work area and roll butter pieces with rolling pin.
4. When all butter is flattened and it looks like a big shaggy mess, throw it back into the bowl and put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from fridge, make a well and pour in buttermilk. Bring dough together with hands, making sure to moisten all of the flour. It will be a big shaggy mess.
6. Form into flat disc, wrap in plastic and put in fridge for 1 hour.
7. Preheat oven to 350°F.
8. Roll out dough on floured surface to about 12″ around and no thicker than 1/4″.
9. Line a 9″ pie plate with dough, folding and crimping edges.
10. Line dough with parchment paper or tin foil and weigh down with dried beans, rice or baking weights.
11. Bake 15 minutes, remove weights and liner, dock dough with a fork and bake another 15-20 minutes more or until a light golden brown.
12. Remove from oven, set aside to cool. Meanwhile, make the filling.
For the Quiche Filling
1 recipe savory crust
2 Tbsp Butter, divided
1 large shallot, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced or grated
1 lb mushrooms, diced
6oz spinach, roughly chopped or torn
150-200g peameal bacon (if unavailable, try Canadian bacon)
150-200 g Brie, sliced
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup whole milk
salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried Greek oregano
1 large tomato, sliced
1. In large sauté pan on medium high heat, sauté bacon for 1-2 minutes per side, or until slightly browned. Set aside to cool, then chop into large pieces about 2cm x 2cm. Toss into a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. In same sauté pan, add 1 Tbsp butter, garlic, shallots and mushrooms. Sauté on medium high for 8-10 minutes, or until all liquid has been cooked out of the mushrooms.
3. Remove from pan and add to bowl with bacon in it.
4. In same pan (again), add 1 Tbsp of butter and sauté spinach until all liquid has been cooked out.
5. Toss in bowl with other ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
6. In separate bowl, mix eggs with buttermilk and whole milk. Season with salt, pepper, basil and oregano.
7. Line crust with half of Brie. Pour in the vegetables, then the egg. Top with slices of tomato and remaining Brie.
8. Bake in 350°F oven for 35-45 minutes or until center is just set.
9. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes prior to cutting into it.
This quiche is excellent heated up the next day in the oven for 10-15 minutes. It’s quite large, so there were a few pieces left over, though they only lasted a day. Very, very good flavours.
The images were so enticing I nearly fell off my chair!
What a beautiful post, and I am completely 100% behind the breakfast-for-dinner idea.
(I just had cereal for lunch and it was worth it.)
Love the step by step detail!
.-= Judy´s last blog ..3 minute noodles and a brief chronology of food =-.
When I saw these pictures I couldn’t help but get entirely too excited about the fact that I had FINALLY found a quiche recipe that my husband might actually eat….
I admit, most of my quiche recipes have a lot of “greenery” and are a bit heavy on the egg component…and my husband is not so much a fan. But then, like an answer to an unspoken wish, there it was – your fully-loaded quiche recipe with peameal bacon! I’m looking forward to testing it out on him (once we move and have a kitchen to call our own that is….)
Grace, I’m so glad I could help. There’s nothing like converting people over to our side. Enjoy the recipe, it is very good, if I do say so myself!
I adore the crust for this quiche!!! I adore this quiche!
I think I’m in love ;).
PS-How do you get this cool thing on your comment box that shows the posters latest recipe? It’s really cool!
.-= Danielle´s last blog ..Louisianna Chicken Big Mamou =-.
Danielle, thank you! And the Comment Luv is a WordPress Plugin…just giving back to those who give to me.
Quiches are such a versatile dish, you can throw nearly anything in! I make them very often, they’re a crowd pleaser at home. Love the rosemary in the crust, great idea.
.-= Miriam/The Winter Guest´s last blog ..Buñuelos de Todos los Santos or All Saints beignets =-.
We’re big quiche fans around here. I’m loving your crust, though; nice twist on the usually boring.
.-= Aimee´s last blog ..UtHC Virtual Jam Swap ’09 Round-up! =-.
Good grief, it might just be midday hunger talking but that looks like the most delicious quiche on the planet… yum!
.-= Mathea´s last blog ..Enter the Dragon Fruit =-.
Thanks Mathea, it was awfully good, even the next day for lunch.
Yum! I will never get sick of eggs and I think breakfast is a great choice for any time of the day (including at 4PM after a long night of partying).
.-= Shelly´s last blog ..How Sweet It Is Sweet Potato Lasagne =-.
Wow, I am so loving that crust – of course, the rest of the stuff in the quiche looks amazing too! Yum!
Beautiful colors! And lovin’ the rosemary crust.
.-= The Chickenless Chick´s last blog ..Nutella and Lemon Curd Sandwich Cookies =-.
This must be so good someone posted it on Tastespotting twice.
This looks amazing!! My hubby LOVES quiche. I will be making this tomorrow, thanks for sharing:-)
.-= Trish Oleary´s last blog ..Hello world! =-.
Hi Liz, my mouth started watering reading your recipe and looking at your wonderful pics. Quiche has always been a favorite of mine but I think I like your recipe better than all the ones I’ve tried. I think I’ll try it tonight.
I hope you like it Anne! It’s delicious!
Holy Coronary… This looks rich and decadent and delicious!! (There is officially drool on my keyboard now.)
OMG that quiche looks amazing and the savory crust to die for!!
Love your little avocado favicon!
.-= marguerite´s last blog ..Toad in ‘a’ Hole or Toad in ‘the’ Hole? =-.
No one’s ever noticed my favicon before, so thank you!
Yeah, quiche is so versatile! And you’ve made it so inviting. Good job!
Now that’s what I called a quiche done perfect!!! I love all the components and the crust looks so flavorful with the rosemary.
.-= Janice´s last blog ..Soba Noodles with a Butter Garlic Sauce =-.
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This looks delicious, do you have and almond flour crust recipe? I can’t wait to make this, looks like an easy sunday brunch recipe!
For the crust, I stirred the chopped rosemary into the buttermilk before adding it to the flour/butter. Not sure if there’s a better place for the rosemary, but wanted to point out that omission in the instructions.
It would be helpful, for those of us who aren’t regular quiche makers, if the recipe stated approximately how thick the dough should be when rolled out, and what size pan works best (dimensions, like 8″ or 9″ pie pan etc.
I made this recipe yesterday…it worked well.
So sorry about that, this is one of my earliest recipes. I have made the changes. Glad it turned out for yoU!