After a hibernation

I've had a good run the kitchen lately. Along with some pretty baller muffins and quarts and quarts of awesomely heart-warming turkey soup,  I've also managed to set a deliciously creamy, custardy quiche onto the food table. It's absurd how pleased I was with this quiche. Really, totally absurd. Just to illustrate, you know you've gone a little too far when you've been looking at a freshly-baked quiche for the past 30 minutes, thinking "awwwww yissssss" the entire time, and then strutting back and forth in your 5x5 square foot kitchen, continually checking in on the quiche, as if it suddenly would become a baby phoneix that would burst into flames and then fly into your heart-beating chest and arms, growing ever larger and larger in size and fantasticalness. Well, one can hope. Life has been difficult lately. My imagination may be a bit overzealous about the simple things.  

The last time I tackled quiche was, in fact, years ago on this blog. If I remember correctly, at that time, I had also been absurdly pleased with myself...but there really was no good reason for me to be so. Fortunately, I was put in my place rather soon. After presenting a slice to Pinky, I was deflated when some weird comments drifted back to me. "This quiche is kind of thick and heavy" and "Quiche is supposed to be thinner! But it's okay." Granted, the comments stung more because I had been so puffed up in the first place...but it was rightly deserved deflation. There was lots of validity to the criticisms and I got over it rather quickly. 

Firstly, Pinky has probably had more experience eating quiche than the average person. His father worked for some time in the bakery business; a stint at Ottenberg's, some other places, and then, for a small quiche bakery in Washington, D.C. "Quiche bakery." Did we even know this was a thing? As a side note, apparently, his father also worked for a chicken slaughtering company at some point...so...yeah, that's interesting, but a story for another day. Anyway, according to Pinky, due to these quiche bakery shenanigans, there were always 5 or 6 quiches in his refrigerator at all times. So yes, Pinky knows his quiche and I trust his comments about quiche. Secondly, the quiche I made was pretty bizarre. I'm lucky he softballed his comments to me. It was a "dinner" quiche of sorts, a combination of curry, salmon, and spinach...what in God's name was I thinking? It probably was a muddy mess of flavors. Most importantly though, I think the greatest issue was that the quiche was truly super thick, deep-dish-like, and certainly not really a quiche at all. It was more an open-faced pie. With some egg.

Alas, I stored that bizarre quiche memory away, somewhere in my head, and then decided to take a long, long break from "quiche" until I knew what I was actually doing. Here is the result of that long hibernation, out of the oven on a particularly warm day of this winter. Do enjoy. 

Quiche Lorraine with Chives

one 9-inch quiche

crust

1 C AP or bread flour

1/4 C cold water

1/4 C olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

filling

1 C fresh chopped chives

6 large eggs

1 C heavy cream

1 C milk

1 teaspoon smoked salt

1 TB tapioca flour

6 strips thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled

3/4 C cheese of choice, grated*

Note: I used a mixture of  grated cheddar, parmesan, and mozzarella.

Mix together the 1 C of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt into a large bowl. Then, whisk together the cold water (I prefer refrigerated) and olive oil until an emulsion is formed in a separate small bowl or measuring cup. Pour the emulsion into the flour while constantly stirring with a fork. Stir until a dough is formed (no flour remaining) and until the dough has come off the sides  of the bowl/is no longer sticking. A "clean" bowl, as some chefs say. Press this dough evenly into a 9-inch pie plate until a thin crust is formed, bringing the dough up as high up as you can on the sides of the pan. Place the crust into the refrigerator to cool while you prepare your filling.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

In the same large bowl (make sure it is clean), gently whisk together the eggs, heavy cream, milk, and smoked salt. Do not beat, you just want to mix it until the eggs are broken up and the mixture is smooth and even. Then whisk in the tapioca flour, and stir in the chives and grated cheese. 

Now to assemble. Remove the quiche crust from the refrigerator and scatter the crumbled bacon even over the bottom. Using a ladle, or pouring carefully, transfer the chive, cheese, and egg mixture over to the crust. I scoop up as much of the chives and cheese as I can early in the transfer, then finish by gently ladling the remaining egg-milk into the crust. Fill the crust to the top, so that the filling is even, even slightly overflowing, the crust (just don't overflow out of the pan!) You might have a little egg-cheese-chive mixture left over, which I did, but then I had a late night egg sandwich snack! Who doesn't want that? 

Bake the quiche for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the quiche is puffed up, cheese on top is lightly browned, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove and let cool completely at room temperature for several hours (it will depuff), then place in the refrigerator until cool. To serve, gently reheat.