When summer is fleeting, I always make a last ditch effort to enjoy the season's bounty. Enter this easy quiche with fresh, tender asparagus, and juicy, heirloom tomatoes - one of my favorite pie crust recipes. WHY? Because this quiche can be enjoyed guilt free with its whole wheat crust, or even as a frittata (no crust) for keto and paleo lovers.
A flexible pie crust recipe
Trust me, what your people don't know won't hurt them or their taste buds. With ample butter to disguise the added fiber, these standard pie crust recipes bake up crisp and flaky, just like your grandma's. I write recipes (plural), because I'm giving you a reliable ratio that works with an array of flours. Equipping you with the power to cook successfully every time, my Edible Times people!
Basic pie/pastry crust ratio
3 parts flour + 2 parts fat + 1 part water
So a deep dish quiche crust or double, standard 9" pie recipe would look like this:
12 ounces/2 cups all-purpose flour + 8 ounces/2 sticks butter + ½ cup water
In baking it's always best to weigh your ingredients. But without a kitchen scale, know that one cup of all-purpose wheat flour is generally about five ounces. Try not to dig the measuring cup into the bag of flour, use a large spoon to fill the cup and level it off.
I love baking a quiche as a torte in a shallow pan for a lighter serving size, but this recipe works great in a traditional pie plate (pictured). The trick to achieving a great crust for a quiche in any pan is to halfway blind bake the crust first.
Chef's tips for rolling your pie crust
These tips apply to any pie or pastry crust. The goal is to get it thin and as circular as possible. Soooo...
- Let the chill come off your dough before you roll. It should feel pliable, but still cold.
- Use flour sparingly. Sprinkle enough flour to keep your dough from sticking, but as little as possible.
- Flatten the dough first. Press the rolling pin firmly across the dough to help flatten it out (top right above).
- Roll from the middle. When you begin rolling, always start your pin in the middle, and roll up, then repeat rolling down.
- Roll, turn, roll, turn, etc. Only roll once in each direction before rotating your dough with a one-fifth turn.
- Blind bake the crust. Blind bake your crust first by lining the pie plate with parchment or foil, and topping with pie weights or dried beans or rice. Then immediately add your fillings and batter, and finish baking.
Tip, if baking with kids
Depending on the size of your pan and how thin you roll your crust, you will probably have leftover dough. Call it play dough and occupy your kids while you bake away in peace.
Batter up!
Any quiche batter should be super-duper simple as my oldest would chirp. A simple whisking of eggs and milk or cream.
Side Note. Baking is not rocket science, but it is food science. There is no way around it, and no "secret" recipe for a quiche batter that bakes up perfectly moist and sturdy. Don't be fooled. Two eggs for every cup of liquid works LITERALLY EVERY TIME (insert mic whisk drop).
Baking up
Whisk up the batter, layer the veggies into the warm half-baked crust, pour batter and then back into the oven. To avoid sloshing raw egg mixture all over your kitchen, place the pan with the veggies on the oven rack before you pour in the batter.
Breakfast, lunch or even dinner, if you dare (we literally ate this one night with our mint juleps watching the Kentucky Derby). Loading up on seasonal vegetables gives you an especially succulent, herbal quiche. I love eating one warm with a dollop of créme fraiche or sour cream.
And I don't think anyone would judge you if you didn't share the whole wheat or nutritious part with your people. Just call it a pie and leave it at that.
Yours in pie,
Tomato + Asparagus Quiche with Whole Wheat Pie Crust
- Prep Time: 30 minutes (active)
- Cook Time: About 2 hours
- Total Time: 2-3 hours (not all active)
- Yield: 1 9" quiche or 11" tart 1x
- Category: Recipes, Breakfast,
- Method: Baking
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
What I love about classic pie crust recipes is they're extremely versatile. I replace half the white flour here with whole wheat, but it works perfectly with 2 cups of all-purpose or even bread flour. To craft it in a snap I use a food processor (GASP!), but if you don't have one or like rubbing the butter in like grandma does, all methods succeed.
For Crustless Quiche
The Edible Times husband lives by the keto diet, so he takes his quiche sans crust (basically a frittata). To do this, skip straight to the batter and bake it in a non-stick cake pan or pie plate (not a tart pan).
Ingredients
Whole Wheat Pie Crust
- 6 oz/1 cup whole wheat flour
- 6 oz/1 heaping cup all-purpose flour
- Couple pinches salt
- 8 oz (two sticks) unsalted butter, cold + diced
- ½ cup cold water
Quiche Batter
- 1.5 cups whole milk or heavy cream or combination (I do ¾ cup each)
- 3 eggs
- ¼ cup grated cheese (any kind)
- 1 tsp kosher salt (do less if using table salt)
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 1-2 cups seasonal veggies and/or meats, any combination
Asparagus + Tomato Prep
- 1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1-inch pieces and boiled briefly
- 1 heirloom tomato, sliced into thin rounds
Instructions
Mix pie dough
- Combine flours with salt in food processor. Add cut-up butter and pulse quickly a few times until butter is incorporated and in small pieces.
- Drizzle water over mixture, and pulse again until it begins to form a cohesive ball.
- Shape dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until firm. Can be done a few days ahead.
Roll + par-bake crust
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Roll crust and press gently into pie plate or tart pan, cutting off dough that hangs over the edge. Prick holes in bottom with a knife or fork.
- Lay parchment paper or foil on top of dough in pan, and fill with pie weights or dried beans.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then remove pie weights and continue to bake until bottom of crust is cooked through (but not brown). This can take 10-20 more minutes, check it every five for safety until you get the hang of it.
Prep fillings + add-ins
- Drop any vegetables in boiling water for a couple minutes that need pre-cooking - like asparagus.
- Combine eggs, cream, milk, salt and pepper and whisk (do this right before adding to pan or it will separate). See the notes below for what to do with surplus batter.
Add filling to warm, par-baked crust
- Immediately upon removing crust from oven, layer vegetables and meats into bottom of pan, then pour batter over.
- Depending on the size of your pan, you may have extra batter. Don't fill your par-baked crust completely, as the batter will expand a little during baking.
- Put your quiche back in the oven, and bake until the top is lightly brown and the mixture is mostly firm. For a 9" pie plate, this can take up to an hour or more. In a tart pan, this will cook much quicker.
Notes
Have a little extra batter?
Send one of the kids to fetch and line a muffin pan, and bake up mini frittatas with your extra quiche ingredients.
Great add-ins for quiche include fresh chopped herbs, crispy bacon or pancetta bits, any grated cheese, mushrooms, olives and even sliced, pre-cooked potatoes. If it tastes good with your morning eggs, it tastes great in a quiche!
Keywords: pie crust recipes, tart crust, quiche, quiche batter, quiche batter ratio
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Sit, stay drool with Sadie Mae
#dogsofinstagram
If she were smarter, she'd realize that she's out of focus for a reason.
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The doggie always cracks me up! I have a ton of tomatoes right now (20 lbs. to be exact) so I just need to grab some asparagus!
edibletimes
II know, maybe I should just have a blog with pictures of our dogs. I'd probably have a way bigger audience, lol. Make sauce and freeze with those tomatoes!
Sunnie(moderngirlnutriton)
Mmm the asparagus is a great addition, and the presentation is flawless!
edibletimes
Thanks for coming by and for the nice words! Some dishes do end up looking better than others:)