Quiche 2 Ways

Yesterday, I took a break from baking cakes and other sweets. I decided to bake 2 kinds of quiche:

'Bacon and Cheese Quiche', which is the easier one

and

'Spinach and Mushroom Quiche'

Quiche is one of my favorite snacks or meal (yes. it can be considered as meal). I order them from Delifrance (now called Cafe France.) This food was introduced to me by my friend when we were working together in Bulacan. I love the creamy texture and the soft crust. I really love the mushroom and spinach and also chicken curry flavor so I thought to myself why not try making them.

I Tried 2 recipes. I did the easy recipe first to see how it would turn out. It's really easy as 1-2-3 and the recipe had good reviews too. I copied ---- Ham and Cheese Quiche Recipe and just changed ham to bacon instead because it's what I had in the fridge. The difference is with bacon you have to cook it first while with ham you just have to toss it straight to the pan. For the Bacon and Cheese Recipe click HERE.

For Mushroom Spinach, what made doing this recipe difficult for me is the dough. The kneading and rolling of the dough take some muscles especially for an amateur like me and add to that the baking time. Click HERE for the recipe.

Bacon and Cheese Quiche

Ingredients:

• 12 slices of toast bread, crusts removed
• Olive oil spray
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (125ml) milk
• 80g bacon, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup (40g) shredded cheddar
• 1 tbs finely chopped parsley (optional)

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease 12 hole muffin pan.
2. Use a rolling pin to roll out each slice of bread until thin. Spray both sides of the bread with the oil. Line each muffin pan with a slice of bread. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 170°C.
3. In a medium saucepan, cook bacon until brown. Set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.
5. Divide the bacon, cheese and parsley (if using) among the bread cases.
6. Carefully pour in the egg mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until set.
7. Serve the quiches with tomato and cucumber salad.

Spinach Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients

Fillings:

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 6 ounces fresh spinach leaves
• 8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
• Salt and pepper
• 6 eggs
• 3 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Crust:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 150g butter, chilled, chopped
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup water, chilled

Directions

To make the crust:

1. Place flour and butter in a food processor or mix them together using electric dough mixer. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
2. Add egg yolk and chilled water. Process until dough just comes together. 
3. Turn on to a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth. 
4. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, flatten dough into a 15cm round. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Lightly grease two 12-hole, 1 1/2 tablespoon-capacity round-based patty pans.
6. Roll out pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick.
7. Using a round pastry cutter (and since I don't have one, I used a round glass to cut the dough) , cut 24 rounds from pastry. 
8. Press pastry rounds into prepared pans. Pierce bases with a fork. Freeze for 20 minutes or until firm.
9. During the waiting time, reheat oven to 350°F.  Preheat it for 30 minutes.
10. Using a fork, lightly beat 1 egg in a bowl. Brush egg over pastry rounds. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden. Set aside.

To make the fillings:

1. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet heat the olive oil and sauté fresh spinach leaves and sliced mushrooms for 4 to 6 minutes, or until mushrooms have browned and spinach has “melted.”
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the feta crumbled.
3. Gently add the sautéed mushrooms and spinach to the prepade crust pan. Then pour the egg-feta mixture over the top.
4. Place the quiche into the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. 
5. Remove from oven, add the shredded mozzarella to the top and return to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Then serve

Sesame Street Cupcake

Finally! I'm done with my Sesame Street Cupcakes.

These are samples for my son's first birthday. Banana buttercream frostings in moist chocolate cupcake. I used fondant icing for their eyes, nose, and tongue. For the mouth, I used chocolate cookies which I also baked and for Big Bird's beak, marshmallow.

Say 'Hello!' to:

ELMO

OSCAR the Grouch

COOKIE MONSTER

and

BIG BIRD

Let me know what you think of these. Hit 'Like it' or 'Love it' before the comment section. Thanks.

Easter 2013

Made this Easter Cake Pops.

Baked this 9" butter cake and just added cream cheese filling (cream cheese with butter and confectioner's sugar) and formed some egg-shaped balls. Froze it and coated it with chocolates.