We went to a gourmet English restaurant a few weeks back and they had some great quiche. More interesting is that they made it in individual dishes instead of as a pie. This meant you had a lot more crust per quiche. Also it would be faster to bake and the presentation is more impressive. I’ll be baking all mine that way from now on.

Quiche filling:

6 eggs

1 cup of whole milk ( or mix cream with 2% or skim milk )

About 1.5 cups of vegetables. Vegetables need to be cooked first so leftovers are great to use. Here are some of my favorite combinations:

{ tomatoes ( fresh – diced ), spinach, onions, cheddar cheese (grated) }

{ spinach, mushrooms, red peppers, goat cheese (diced) }

Mix all the ingredients.

Pie:

Use one pie crust to line the bottom of a 9″ pie plant.

Pour the filling into the pie.

Bake at 400′ about 40 minutes or until center is set. ( Many people cook the crust first for about 15 minutes then add the filling and bake until set. I always just cooked them together. )

Individual Pies:

One pie crust for each quiche

Line 2 pyrex cooking dishes ( ~6″ across x 2″ deep ) with the pie crust. Let the extra crust stand up around the edges.

Divide filling between the dishes

Bake at 400′ until center is set ~ 30 minutes.

There are medieval recipes for cheese, onion, spinach and spice tarts to be served on days that you were not supposed to eat meat. But quiche itself originally came from Germany. The word Quiche is from ‘Kuchen’ meaning cake in German. Originally it was made with eggs, milk and bacon. Later cooks added cheese. The crust was originally made from bread dough, not pie crusts. It gained popularity in England after WWII and in the United States shortly thereafter.

2 cups milk
2 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
pinch salt
juice from 1 lemon

Mix milk, sugar, salt and egg yolks and simmer over very low heat until warm

Add in cornstarch and milk and cook until thick

Remove from heat, add lemon

Beat eqq whites until stiff

Pour lemon mix into pie shell

Top with meringue (egg whites)

Bake at 350 until set and meringue just beginning to brown

This was a hand written recipe I found in a recipe box of my Grandmother’s.

Lemon meringue pie has been popular in the US since the 1800s especially in the southern part of the country. It is believed to have originated in Philly in the shops of Elizabeth Coane Goodfellow.

7 slices white bread crusts removed
2 Tbsp butter
4 slices cheddar cheese
2 eggs, slightly beated
1 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp worcestershire
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp paprika

Spread bread with butter

Cut bread into two triangles

Place 6 triangles butter side down in greased 9″ pie plate covering bottom of pie pan loosely

Cut cheese into 4 strips each and lay over bread in bottom of pan

Beat together remaining ingredients and pour over cheese

Arrange remaining triangles butter side up around sides of plate

Refrigerate about two hours

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Bake cheese pie 45 minutes

Remove and let stand 10 minutes before serving

This is one of many handwritten recipes I found in an old recipe box of my Grandmothers.

The earliest pies were of meat and cheese and only later did fruit and sweet pies come into favor.