THE BEST QUICHE YOU'LL EVER HAVE

Photo Courtesy of Donna Turner Ruhlman




   Have you ever had the urge or craving for something that you don't normally make!  Yesterday was one of those days.  I needed a Quiche, Boy did I need a quiche really bad!!!!  So looking through my recipe files, and books.  I had a thought hit me,  Michael Ruhlman's book has a dough recipe and now would be a great time to try it out.  I'm talking about his book RATIO.  This book is fantastic.  

12 oz flour
8 oz unsalted butter,  ( you can use lard, shortening or any combination)  Take the butter or whatever and cut it up into little chunks,  I did mine in quarter inch by quarter inch cubes.  And I would or did put the butter back in the frig after chopping it up to keep it chilled. 
2 to 4 oz ice cold water.  Not Ice cubes, but darn cold water. (Note: Since butter is mostly water,  you can cut back on the water used.) 
about a half of a teaspoon of salt. 
Combine the flour and butter in a mixing bowl and rub the butter in between your fingers until you have small beads of fat and plenty of pea-sized chunks.  The books out there and alot of people say to use a food processor, or mixer, or one of the kids,  I say NO, You really need to use your hands. You need to love your dough and fondle your dough, and make your dough happy, and if your dough is happy you'll be happy!
After you have HAPPY DOUGH add just enough water to make the dough come together,  also add your salt at this point.  You just want the dough to come together. If you work the dough too much, your pie dough will be like a  Frisbee!! And that's not what you want...
Shape the dough into two equal parts and wrap in plastic wrap and put those two puppies in the frig.  This will make your dough even happier. 
One thing to note is that a quiche pan is 9" in dia.  and 2" tall.  I used a spring pan for this and it worked out pretty good.  
You can either blind bake the dough or just put it in a pan and add whatever your going to fill the pie with.  But in this case,  Since your making a Quiche, you need to blind bake it, so you don't have a bunch of leaks.  That's the truth.  Leaky is not a good thing!  For the ones that don't know what BLIND BAKING is, it's when you prebake your crust.  Now for this one you want to line the inside of the shell with foil and then fill up the pie shell with either marbles, beans, or sometimes from bake shops you can get pie weights.  What this does is keeps the center of the shell from rising up.  If you didn't your shell would be high in the middle and low on the sides.  It would look fine from the outside, but the minute you cut into the pie,  Boy would you look dumb!!!  So weigh down the middle of the crust. 
Oh I forgot to tell you to preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. and bake on the middle rack.  Bake for about 20 minutes or so.  Pull the shells out of the oven and remove the weights out of the shells, and the foil too.  And bake for another 15 or so minutes.  (Until golden brown!)


2 large onions, thinly sliced.  
Some Canola oil as needed
Your pie crust that you just made
1lb of cut up bacon.  Cut your bacon into quarter inch strips
2 cups of milk
1cup of cream
6 large eggs
half teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
Nutmeg to taste 
half a cup of grated cheese.  I used Gruyere Cheese in mine. 
     Saute the onions on low heat,  (low and slow) and cook down the bacon in another pan.  Doing the same thing,  (Low and Slow).  After the bacon cooks down, Drain the BACON OIL and save for later, and add the bacon to the onions.

      In a mid size bowl combine the milk, cream, eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  It's best to use a stick blender for this.  But if your feeling strong, go for the whip.  I used my stick blender. And you blend till the mix is frothy. 

      Layer half of the onion/bacon mix on the bottom of the pie shell.  Pour about half of the custard mix over the onion/bacon mix. Sprinkle some of the cheese over the mix, then do another layer of the bacon/onion mix, and then pour more of the custard mix over the second layer.  That should take you to the top of the crust.  Sprinkle more cheese over that. Just make sure that you fill your shell to the top.  

     When it's done let it cool on a rack and then refrig. until it's completely chill through.  I like mine served heated up a little bit.  So I cut a slice and pop that puppy in the micro-way for about 45 sec. or so.  You'll have to do a taste test to see how you like yours.