Monday, January 25, 2010

Recipe : Mini Goat Cheese & Onion Quiches

Mini Goat Cheese Quiches

Look pretty darn good don't they? They were! I have to say, I was really proud of myself when these were done because not only were they my first quiches of any kind, but it was my own recipe inspired by what was in our fridge at the time. I had recently bought the goat cheese after reading Eating Animals because it said on the label it was vegetarian cheese, meaning no stomach lining was used to make it. I have had goat cheese before but this stuff was wonderful. We put it in everything for about a week. I wish I could tell you the brand but I have since thrown away the package. If you haven't tried it though, go, do that, right now, I mean it.

Now, if you have never made quiches before, they only sound fancy. I think the biggest pain in the but is the making of the pie dough, and if you already have a recipe you love like I do it is no sweat. In the interest of full disclosure, these were made with defrosted frozen pie dough leftovers from Christmas. Which helped because there are a few steps to these. All are super easy and super tasty though.

Ingredients


Enough pie dough for a double crust pie You can use the guaranteed Tenderflake recipe here or your own.

2 large yellow onions sliced super thin
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp sugar

2 eggs
1/2 cup cream
salt & pepper

1/2 cup fresh goat cheese (a nice feta would probably work too if you have to substitute)
Fresh cilantro (or herb of your choice)

Modis Operandi


For the quiche cups:


-Divide dough in half and roll into balls.
-Roll balls out as thin as you can. (About 1/8-1/4")
-Using a drinking glass or circular dough cutter cut approx 2.5" circles from the rolled dough and place over cups of a mini muffin tin.
-Lightly press sides into cavity.
-Prick with fork on bottom.
-Bake @ 425 until edges are golden brown, remove from oven but leave oven on.

While quiche cups are baking:


-Melt butter in pan.
-Stir in sugar until dissolved.
-Add onions and stir until coated.
-Cook stirring occasionally until onions are a nice dark brown and even a little crispy in places.
-Remove from heat.

After you have removed quiches from the oven and onions from heat:

-Mix together eggs, cream and salt & pepper.

Assembling the quiche:


-Remove dough cups to a baking sheet.
-Cover the bottom of each cup with a couple caramelized onions (depending on how small they cooked down too).
-Add 2 tsp of egg mixture (don't worry if it leaks out the bottom, you can always go back and add more before the next step)
-Add a tsp of goat cheese.
-Top with one or two cilantro leaves.
-Pop back in the oven for about ten minutes. This is just to cook the egg so keep an eye on it.

Shampoo, rinse and repeat for any remaining batches. Two pie dough recipes did almost two full (24) mini muffin tins. You may get more or less depending on how thick your dough is and how heavily you fill your cups with ingredients.

The beauty of these is they taste good the day you make them, the next day warmed up in the oven and even on the third day warmed up in the microwave.

Bon Apetit!~