Quiche

 

To start me off for the year, here's a post with some pictures of quiche. This has been sitting here for months being ignored. (The post... not the quiche. I ate that.)

There are two quiches. One Tomato, Basil and Mozerella. One Cheese, Bacon and Onion.

They're both shortcrust pastry - blind baked, and chilled before being filled with the ingredients, and topped with the savoury custard mix (milk, eggs, cheese...)

 

 

Who ate all the pies?

Why, I did!

Yummy flaky pastry with a chicken and bacon filling. And I found a new use for the cake cooker!

Hello again!

It is now my mini pie machine...

Look how very pie-like those little holes are!

I started off by making the pie filling - frying onions, bacon, chicken and mushrooms together until cooked, and adding a tarragon flavoured bechamel/veloute sauce.
(equal amounts of butter and flour melted together over a low heat, with hot milk and stock whisked in until smooth, and tarragon and seasoning added to taste)

Rough puff pastry

6oz plain flour
1.5oz cold butter - grated
1.5oz cold lard - grated
Ice cold water

Makes 7-8 pies depending on how big you cut the circles!

• add the cold grated fat to the flour, and rub together with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs
• add water 1 tablespoon at a time, and bring the mixture together with a palette knife. Only add enough water to just bring the mix together.
• using your hands incorporate any crumbs into the dough as you form a ball with it.
• refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• roll out onto a floured surface

• cut out circles of pastry to form the base of the pie, and slightly smaller discs to form the lid.

• set up the cake machine- allow to come to temperature before opening - and feed the pie bases into the holes into the machine. Gently tap into the dip using a balled up piece of pastry.
• fill each case with a tablespoon of chicken mix, and top with a lid.

The various stages of pie cooking! Yeah, it looks pretty gross there...

 

 

• Close the lid of the cooker, and leave to cook for 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp.

Some of them may need a little trimming!

Look at that! Golden and crisp!

Look at that too... flaky!!

And not a soggy bottom in sight!

Mince Pies!

Mmmmm Pie!

Makes (about!) 18, nice crisp-cased pies.
This recipe has recipe has resulted in two offers of marriage, and one slightly less salubrious offer...

Ingredients

8oz plain flour
5oz cold cubed marg
3oz icing sugar
3tbsp ice cold water
Standard size jar of mincemeat

(have to hand a bowl of 2 parts flour/ 1 part icing sugar for dusting hands and surfaces)

Method

-Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl, add the cold butter to this, and rub together with finger tips, creating a breadcrumb-like mix.

-Add the water one tablespoon at a time, bringing the mix together to form a dough. Don't add all the water at once, it might not need it all - different flours absorb different amounts of water.

 

-As it comes together use your hands to make it into a ball. Dust your hands with icing sugar to prevent sticking if necessary.

- Wrap the dough in cling film, and refrigerate for at least half an hour (if leaving to chill overnight, remove it from the fridge about 15 minutes before rolling it out)

- Dust a clean work surface and your rolling pin with the flour/icing sugar and begin to roll out the dough. keep rotating the pastry, and re-dust regularly.

 

- Roll out to the thickness of a pound coin

- Cut out circles of the dough and line a shallow cup-cake tin. (I've experimented here, and found that you don't need to grease a non stick tin - the pies haven't stuck yet!)

 

- Fill each pie case with mincemeat - depending on the size of your cake tins, this will take between one and two teaspoons.

 

- Top each pie with another circle of pastry and gently press around the edges to seal.

- Bake in for 15-20 minutes in an oven,  pre-heated to 180oC

 
- Allow to cool and harden in the tin

 

-  Either dust evenly (ahem) with icing sugar

- Or drench in whisky flavoured icing!!