Chicken and Broccoli Quiche

I’d been wanting to make a quiche and then, when browsing Leslie’s blog I noticed the recipe for Easy All-butter Pie Crust that she posted recently. With promises of  “…a recipe with a technique that will give you the flakiest all-butter pie crust you’ve ever dreamed of”, I had to bite the bullet and give it a go!

I have to confess that I didn’t have butter but wanted quiche right away so I just got on and made it with margarine anyway. I wouldn’t recommend using margarine as it made the dough a little sticky and difficult to work with but the pastry was still a success: nice, flaky and cooked well without going soggy under the quiche filling.

Makes one 9″ double crust or two 9″ single crusts

2 cups/280 grams all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

14 tablespoons (200g) unsalted butter

5 tablespoons cold water

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

I halved the recipe since I was making a quiche and not a pie.

Start by sifting the flour and place into a freezer bag and freeze the flour until cold. Chop the butter into cubes and place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Combine the water, salt and vinegar and place in the fridge.

Next dump the butter and flour onto your clean worktop and roll over it with a rolling pin until the butter is flattened into sheets. Gather up the butter and flour and place in a mixing dish, pour the water/vinegar mixture over half at a time in case you dont need it all and combine into a rough dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and press together into a more uniform ball of dough, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour before using.

More thorough explanation of the method here.

I rolled out and lined a 9″ lid of a Pyrex dish with the pastry since I don’t have a pie dish and my flan dish is a little too deep.

I refrigerated the dish with pastry for a further 30 minutes before baking blind at 375F for about 20 minutes. I covered the pastry with foil and some baking beans so prevent puffing up.

Ingredients for the quiche filling:

1 ready cooked chicken breast (approx 100g), finely diced

50g boiled and cooled broccoli, finely chopped

80g Cheddar cheese grated

60 ml cream

3 eggs, beaten

Combine the chicken, broccoli and cheese and then spread over the base of the quiche.

Beat together the cream and eggs and pour over the chicken, broccoli and cheese.

Finish off with a little freshly ground black pepper.

I found the cheese salty enough and didn’t need to add extra salt.

Bake at 375 f for 20-30 minutes; until the filling is firm and golden.