Caramelized Onion Bacon Quiche

My buddy gave me a 4-hour French cooking class for my birthday a while back. I went in and got excited what we would be making - something wine and stew. Disappointed. The instructor went for quiche --a classic French dish after all. Yeah, I was a little disappointed by the dish but it wasn't too bad, tho, because I had never made quiche. Yeah. How lame. I know.

Quiche (pronouced keesh) is a savory, open-faced pastry crust dish with a filling of savory custard with cheese, meat, and vegetables.

I got the recipe from the instructor but I really thought the crust was a little salty. I reduced the salt amount to suite my preference. The dough was buttery and flaky. I decided to re-visit this quiche for my mother in-law birthday brunch. You basically can add any "topping" for the quiche and I decided to go with bacon and caramelized onion, a salty-sweet combination. I also used a mix of mozzarella and white cheddar (nothing too crazy for the in-laws hehe) If you add vegetable, it should be cooked prior to adding it in your quiche to prevent runny filling.

Making quiche is less complicated than I thought. It's just time-consuming. You have to let the dough rest because it will rechill the butter and make the dough elastic, bake the dough, make filling, and bake it again. However, the outcome is worth making. It came out beautifully and you could make it ahead of time! I served this quiche with pea soup and my sister in-law's cinnamon buns. We were full and happy.

I made quiche cupcakes from the leftover dough. I loved it. It's adorable and very convenient to have it as a breakfast. So far, I've enjoyed this recipe and will probably make several variations.

Caramelized Onion Bacon Quiche
Courtesy recipe of Edge of Seattle cooking class
Yield: 1-9" quiche, or 8" quiche with some leftover for cupcake quiche

Quiche dough:
2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt (original recipe is 1 tsp)
8 oz. unsalted butter, chilled, cubed
1/4 cup ice cold water
Olive oil as needed

Directions:

• Mix flour and salt in a food processor with a dough blade. Add butter small handful at a time. When incorporated, add remaining flour and mist just until incorporated.
• Add water and mix until incorporated. Check to make sure there are no pockets of butter visible in the dough.
• Pat into a round shape, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for one hour or up to a day. You can wrap and freeze the dough for future use.
• Pre heat oven to 375 F.
• After dough has been resting, roll it out on a lightly flour surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Lightly oil the inside quiche pan.
• Using a rolling pin to help roll the dough and place on the pan. Allow the dough to hang over the sides to prevent it from shrinking back inside the shell. Use a sharp knife trim accessed dough and seal any cracks with cut dough.
• Place parchment paper on top of the dough and add pie weights or beans on it. Bake for about 30-40 mins until lightly browned but the bottm is light in color.
• Remove pie weights and parchment paper. If there are any cracks, seal with more dough. Make sure there's no crack! otherwise the batter will leak.
• Return shell to oven for another 15 mins until bottom is golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.

Quiche batter:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 whole eggs
1 tsp kosher salt (original recipe is 1.5 tsp). I reduced it because I added bacon.
White pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
Cayenne pepper (optional)

Toppings:
Cooked bacon, cut into small pieces
Cameralized onion
Grated white cheddar and mozzarella

Directions:

• Reduce oven to 325 F.
• Combine milk and cream in a saucepot. Heating milk to just below its boiling point.
• Whip eggs and seasonings in another bowl until very well combined. Temper eggs with hot milk mixture and combine all ingredients.
• Whisk the mixture until light and frothy.
• Place baked quiche shell on a baking sheet for easy transfer to the oven. Pour half of batter into quiche shell. Sprinkle in any toppings. Pour on remaining quiche batter until almost full. Don't pour too full because you will have to move the quiche to the oven.
• Transfer to the oven. Bake for about 15 mins or until it's done. It wil jiggles uniformly.