Leek and Gruyère Quiche
A properly blind-baked shell, a custard baked low until it still wobbles, and leeks sweated down to almost nothing.
- Prep
- 40m
- Cook
- 1h 5m
- Waiting
- 50m
- Total
- 2h 35m
- Serves
- 8
- Effort
- Involved
Method
Shop-bought shortcrust, blind baked in its own foil. You lose the butter flavour of the crust, not much else.
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 250 g | Make the pastry, line the tin and chill 30 minutes 25m Rest the dough after mixing and again once it is in the tin. Both rests are about shrinkage. | Blind bake at 190°C / 375°F, then seal any cracks with egg wash 30m 20 minutes with beans, 10 without, then a brush of beaten egg and 2 more. | Fill the warm shell and set it on a hot baking sheet 5m Cheese on the bottom, leeks next, custard poured last, filled at the oven door. | Bake at 160°C / 325°F until the centre still wobbles as one piece 35m Pull it early. Carry-over heat takes it the rest of the way. | Cool at least 20 minutes before cutting 20m A hot custard has not finished setting. Cut it and it slumps. | |
| 140 g | ||||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 to 3 tbsp | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 30 g | Sweat the leeks in butter until silky and reduced by half 15m They must be dry going in, or the custard will weep. | |||||
| 3 | ||||||
| 3 sprigs | ||||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| 3 | Whisk the custard until smooth but not foamy 3m | |||||
| 2 | ||||||
| 250 ml | ||||||
| 100 ml | ||||||
| a scrape | ||||||
| 1 tsp | ||||||
| 1/4 tsp | ||||||
| 120 g | ||||||
-
Make the pastry, line the tin and chill 30 minutes
25m- plain flour 250 g
- cold butter 140 g
- salt 1/2 tsp
- egg yolk 1
- ice water 2 to 3 tbsp
Rest the dough after mixing and again once it is in the tin. Both rests are about shrinkage.
-
Blind bake at 190°C / 375°F, then seal any cracks with egg wash
30m- from 1 Make the pastry, line the tin and chill 30 minutes
- egg 1
20 minutes with beans, 10 without, then a brush of beaten egg and 2 more.
-
Sweat the leeks in butter until silky and reduced by half
15m- butter 30 g
- leeks 3
- thyme 3 sprigs
- salt 1/2 tsp
They must be dry going in, or the custard will weep.
-
Whisk the custard until smooth but not foamy
3m- eggs 3
- egg yolks 2
- double cream 250 ml
- whole milk 100 ml
- nutmeg a scrape
- salt 1 tsp
- white pepper 1/4 tsp
-
Fill the warm shell and set it on a hot baking sheet
5m- from 2 Blind bake at 190°C / 375°F, then seal any cracks with egg wash
- from 3 Sweat the leeks in butter until silky and reduced by half
- from 4 Whisk the custard until smooth but not foamy
- gruyère 120 g
Cheese on the bottom, leeks next, custard poured last, filled at the oven door.
-
Bake at 160°C / 325°F until the centre still wobbles as one piece
35m- from 5 Fill the warm shell and set it on a hot baking sheet
Pull it early. Carry-over heat takes it the rest of the way.
-
Cool at least 20 minutes before cutting
20m- from 6 Bake at 160°C / 325°F until the centre still wobbles as one piece
A hot custard has not finished setting. Cut it and it slumps.
| 1 sheet | Blind bake the bought pastry case at 190°C / 375°F 20m Even a ready-rolled sheet needs this. A raw base under wet custard never crisps. | Bake at 160°C / 325°F until just set, then cool 20 minutes 35m | |
| 30 g | Sweat the leeks in butter until dry 12m | ||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | Whisk the custard 3m | ||
| 300 ml | |||
| 1 tsp | |||
| a scrape | |||
| 120 g |
-
Blind bake the bought pastry case at 190°C / 375°F
20m- ready-rolled shortcrust pastry 1 sheet
Even a ready-rolled sheet needs this. A raw base under wet custard never crisps.
-
Sweat the leeks in butter until dry
12m- butter 30 g
- leeks 3
-
Whisk the custard
3m- eggs 4
- double cream 300 ml
- salt 1 tsp
- nutmeg a scrape
-
Bake at 160°C / 325°F until just set, then cool 20 minutes
35m- from 1 Blind bake the bought pastry case at 190°C / 375°F
- from 2 Sweat the leeks in butter until dry
- from 3 Whisk the custard
- gruyère 120 g
Why 160°C and not hotter
Egg proteins set between about 70 and 80°C. Push the oven much above 170°C and the outer custard races past that while the middle is still liquid, so it overcooks, contracts and squeezes out water — the pooled liquid and the honeycomb texture under the surface are both the same fault. A slow bake lets the whole thing arrive at setting point together, and the extra yolks add fat that raises the temperature at which curdling begins.
Notes
- Fill the tin at the oven door. Carrying a brimming raw quiche across a kitchen is how it ends up on the floor.
- The egg wash after blind baking varnishes over hairline cracks so the custard cannot leak under the base.
- Any filling must be cooked and dry first. Raw vegetables release water into the custard as it sets.