This week’s recipe uses one of my favorite vegetables – mushrooms! And I love quiche, so I’ve been waiting to make this recipe. I had a whole bunch of crimini mushrooms on hand, so it worked out perfectly (well, almost). I also remembered to pick up a nice bunch of thyme from the house up north, so I thought I was ready.
Luckily (!), I had on hand the exact amount of cream required. As you can see in the picture, I was punting on the cheese – I didn’t have the Gruyere (which would have been perfect), so I considered brie – as you’ll see later, I switched that out too after I read the recipe and saw that it needed to be on top. Oh, and the scallions – didn’t have those either. Oops!
I’m not showing the entire tart shell recipe here, but things did go a bit awry with this. I have made this recipe so many times – who knew I could mess it up so badly? Luckily, I made my usual double recipe so I had a bit of extra dough so I could paste things together!
I guess I should back up and let you know – I decided that I should bake this and share it at work. So I did most of the prep the night before, including pre-baking the crust. One of the things I love, love about this crust is that it’s sturdy – you can even pick up a slice of whatever tart you’re making without it falling apart. It retains its crispiness so well.
I’m not 100% certain why I got the massive fissures in my baked crust. It was completely intact when I took the pie weights out. I had completely frozen the crust prior to baking – but… I forgot to poke any holes in it. So that may have been the culprit. I didn’t think I had stretched the dough either – but maybe I did. I was super pleased with the fact that I had enough other dough to fill in the cracks. it worked!!
I also made the mushroom mixture the night before. Simple enough, the shallots are softened in butter, then the mushrooms are added.
Once they are cooked, the chopped fresh thyme is added and the mixture gets its final seasoning of salt and pepper.
This all cools before the quiche gets assembled. When I was ready to bake the quiche, the mushrooms are added to the pre-baked shell, and then the eggs, cream and a bit more salt and pepper are whisked together. This all gets topped with a bit of cheese.
This bakes for about 30-35 minutes. It’s to be served either room temperature, or a bit warm. I took it out of the oven in time for a bit of a rest before carting it off to work with me!
This was definitely a blast of mushroom flavor. And I loved the thyme that added its flavor note as well. I would have liked the gruyere better, I think. I really didn’t think that the cheese offered much to this (I can’t believe I’m saying that!), and I probably would have liked just a bit more custard in the ratio to mushrooms. I probably over-salted a bit too. My bad… all of the times we’re supposed to season with salt and pepper. All of that said, I’m just quibbling – this was a really good dish, and fun to make. Oh, and my friends at work liked it too! 🙂
Way to stick w/that crust. I wish I had thought of making extra dough…I lost a little filling to my cracks in the bottom — but luckily I did bake on a cookie sheet for easy clean up! 🙂 So nice of you to share at work (we just enjoyed the last of it for breakfast — oink, oink).
How nice of you to share with your friends at work. What a great lunch! I also used crimini mushrooms and loved how it came out. It was probably the oodles of fresh thyme that made me love this, though. Your quiche looks delicious! Have a lovely weekend.
Once the filling goes in, no one ever needs to know 🙂
It looks good, and I am sure everyone at work enjoyed the special treat.
What a delicious looking quiche and I am sure that your co-workers/friends were so very happy to get a slice of this. I love the color that your quiche has, looks so appetizing!
Have a good weekend!
Can’t wait, I’m making it tomorrow. Have to make my crust today, hopefully the darn thing works. I hate making crust!
Even though I had some shrinkage issues with my crust, you are right – I love that it’s so sturdy and you can just eat the pieces of quiche with your hands. Very easy to do at work! 🙂 Yours look delicious with the nicely browned top!
I think it was David Lebovitz who suggested making extra pie/tart dough and saving some for
patching. I thought what a great idea because mine always needs something. Your quiche
looks absolutely delicious and I love your new website. Thanks for your nice thoughts about
Tricia and I regarding Sandy, we are fine but it is terrible to see some of the photos. My heart
goes out to all the people effected by this storm. Have a great weekend.
I am pretty sure that each of your colleagues at work couldn’t get a big enough piece of the pie for themselves. It looks delicious. I used crimini mushrooms mixed with the old standby whites andt it was a good earthy flavor also. I tossed every cheese I had in my fridge on the top – so I have no idea what worked and what didn’t. I do think that if you had pricked the bottom before baking even though your weighted it down, it might not have had a fissure. But, no harm, no foul and it was covered completely so who knew? Nice post. I bet they love you at work.
It looks fantastic!!! And I forgot to dock my crust, too…and it cracked…so I’m thinking that must have played a role 🙂
This really was a great dish! Yours looks great and I think your co-workers are very lucky you’re a sharer! I added a handful of cheese to mine from the bag of grated 3 cheese pizza mix I had in the fridge and it tasted great!