Makes 1 quiche; serves 6
For the Crust:
1 9" frozen pie shell or ---
Ingredient:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2 tablespoon ice water
Directions for making the crust:
Mix flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in shortening, with a pastry blender or fork. Work the mixture until you have small pea sized dough bits. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Add a few more drops of ice water if necessary.
On a lightly floured surface, shape pastry into a ball, then flatten into a circle. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll dough into an 11" round. Place pastry in a 9" pie or quiche dish and lightly fit to dish. Trim and finish edges of pastry, as desired. Prick bottom of pastry with a fork and blind bake for about 10 minutes. (This means to bake the empty crust to a light golden brown). Remove from oven and set aside until ready to use.
For the Filling:
8 to 10 slices of bacon
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup onion, diced small
3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 cups fresh baby spinach, washed and dried well
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
cayenne pepper to taste
4 large eggs
2 cups pepper Jack cheese, shredded
Directions:
On medium high heat, fry bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towel, cool and roughly crumble. Set aside. Wipe skillet clean and add butter. Lower heat to medium. Add onion and cook until transparent and tender. 3 to 4 minutes. Add tomato halves and cook 2 minutes. Add spinach and cook until just wilted. Set skillet off of heat.
Whisk cream and flour until smooth. Add salt, pepper and cayenne. Whisk in eggs until you have a custard like texture.
Alternating, add a layer bacon and spinach mixture and then a layer of cheese until all is used. Pour egg custard into shell. Make sure it fills completely, but don't overfill. You may have a little leftover egg mixture. That's fine. You can place a few tomato halves on top of the quiche to finish it.
Place quiche on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until a knife or tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. This quiche will be extra cheesy, so don't mistake the melted cheese for undone egg custard when you test it. Let sit 15 minutes before cutting.
Enjoy!
