The Spring Quiche We’re Making For Brunch

Spring Quiche

Serves 6-8, one 10” quiche dish.

Ingredients for pastry

– 1 sticks COLD salted butter – 1 cup all purpose flour (and about 1/4 cup for rolling out on counter) – 1 egg – 1/2 teaspoon salt – possibly 1-2 tbs ice water, depending on size of your egg

To make pastry

In Vitamix: Put 1 cup flour in DRY mixer. Cut up butter into cubes and place in blender.  Add salt. Pulse until crumb-like texture, careful not to let dough get warm.  Add egg and pulse.  Dough should form a ball and come off side of blender clean, if not, add a tablespoon of ice water.  Remove dough, coat lightly with flour, and kneed with palm of hand a few times to ensure fat and flour well combined.  Make a patty, coat lightly with flour again, wrap with parchment paper and put in fridge for at least 1 hour.

By hand: Cut up butter into cubes and place in large bowl.  Add salt. work with your fingers or two knives, until you get a crumb-like texture, careful not to let dough get warm.  Add a beaten egg and mix in with your hands.  Dough should form a ball and come off side of bowl clean, if not, add a tablespoon of ice water.  Remove dough, coat lightly with flour, and kneed with palm of hand a few times to ensure fat and flour well combined.  Make a patty, coat lightly with flour again, wrap with parchment paper and put in fridge for at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle flour on counter and roll out dough into a circle… about 14-15” in diameter, large enough to allow for the sides of your dish to be covered. Butter quiche dish.  Place dough in dish, lightly press dough into bottom and edges of dish.  Use your thumbs and some of the excess dough at the edge to create a rim of dough along the top of your crust.  Prick bottom of pastry with fork at 1/2” intervals, cover with parchment paper and place dry beans or ceramic baking weights. Blind bake your pie crust for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.  Allow to cool after removing from oven.

Ingredients for filling

– 6 eggs – 1 3/4” cups heavy cream – Sea salt – Fresh ground pepper – 1 bunch ramps, chop the white ends and the leaves separately.  Keep a few leaves whole for decoration. – 1 leak stalk, discard the dark greens, slice up the white and light green parts, soak well in cold water to ensure all soil is removed.  – 1 pint fresh peas – blanched – 1 bunch fresh Italian/flat parsley, chopped – 1 packet French feta cheese

To make filling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sautée the white of the ramps with olive oil in a small pan on low heat for 5-7 minutes. Boil the sliced and cleaned leaks for 10 minutes in a small pot.  Strain and cool. In a large bowl, beat eggs and add the cream.  Add sea salt and ground fresh pepper to taste… be careful not to over-salt when using a salty cheese like feta (I used about 1/2 tsp). Add peas, leaks, ramps (both the sautéed whites and the chopped greens), and a handful of parsley.  Lightly mix and pour all ingredients into blind baked and cooled pastry shell.  Break feta up into smallish cubes and place evenly throughout egg mixture.  Place decorative ramp leaves to your liking on top.  Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes until the egg is set and golden brown. Allow to sit for at least 5-10 minutes before serving.