30 By 30: Bacon and Smoked Gouda Quiche

I love quiche. Love love love it.  I eat a lot of eggs, so they are a very special treat indeed when they are enveloped in deliciously buttery pie crust.  Unfortunately, said deliciously buttery pie crust is famous for making ridiculously fatty stomach rolls.  So, I tend to opt for the much healthier frittata, which has no crust and a little bit of milk instead of half and half.

BUT, you see, it turns out that my unpublished 31st task for 30 by 30 was to get really fat. Clearly if  you’ve looked through my blog lately (and could see the ice cream in my freezer and the fact that I’ve enjoyed both cupcakes AND donuts the last few days), you could see I’m going to do a bang-up job of THAT.

At any rate, this quiche is very similar to quiche Lorraine, but with smoked gouda instead of Swiss cheese.  Why, you ask?  Well, because it’s infinitely better.  Something about Swiss cheese has always made me turn  up my nose.  I think at once point I decided it smelled like sweatsocks, so that could be it.  And yet, I find gruyere to be one of the best cheeses ever.  Go figure.

I’ve used my favorite pie crust recipe here, but feel free to use any one you like or even a store-bought crust.  Once the crust is blind-baked, this comes together in a snap.  If you are making your own crust, though, you will probably want to do this on a day when you have more time because of the chilling of the dough that is required.  Sadly, I don’t  have a tart pan, so I made this in a pie pan.  Not nearly as pretty but delicious just the same.

Bacon and Smoked Gouda Quiche

Printer Friendly Recipe

1 pre-baked 9″ pie/tart crust (recipe follows)
5 slices bacon, cooked and chopped/crumbled
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 cup shredded smoked gouda
a few grates of nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375.

Whisk together the eggs and half and half.   Add the bacon, gouda, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste and whisk until just combined.  Pour into the pre-baked pie/tart shell.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until custard is puffed and set, but still a little jiggly in the center.

Pate Brisee Pie Crust
Joy of Baking

1.25 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, chilled and cut into 1/2″ pieces
1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water

Whisk or pulse-process the flour, sugar, and salt together.  Add the butter to the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 15 seconds.  Alternatively, use a pastry blender to combine the butter into the flour.   Pour the water in a slow, steady stream through the feed tube until the dough just holds together when pinched.  Do not mix for more than 30 seconds.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and pat into a ball.  Flatten into a disc, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least half an hour before using.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to fit into an 8-9″ tart or pie pan. (Place your pan upside down on the dough circle to make sure it’s big enough – the dough should be about an inch wider than the pan.)  Move the dough into the tart or pie pan (I do this by rolling it onto my rolling pin and then unrolling it into the pan).  Press the dough into the pan and remove any excess dough.  Prick the bottom with a fork and then refrigerate or freeze for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400.  Place a sheet of parchment on top of your chilled pie dough and then weight it down with pie weights, dried beans, or rice.  I didn’t feel like wasting rice this time so what I did was put a pie pan that was smaller than the one I was using on top of the parchment and pressed it down a bit.  Worked perfectly.)

Bake for 20-25  minutes in center of oven, until crust is dry and lightly browned.  Let cool on a wire rack before proceeding with the quiche recipe.