Scrumptious Quiche

As a time saver I often use the recipe for the pizza base as a base for my quiche with great results. However, if you want to take a it a step further and grab that gorgeous short crust pastry mouth-feel, then I have it here. I have experimented with flour blends before with varying degrees of success, but I think I have cracked it with this one. Everyone has their favourite flour that they put into a blend for a pastry with more depth of flavour - for me, it has to be the most readily available, which is Gram flour (chick pea flour). You can buy this quite readily in most supermarkets, healthfood shops and Asian supermarkets. Enjoy!

Scrumptious, Gluten Free Quiche

3 oz of GF bread flour mix (I used Dove farm, which is rice flour based)

3 oz Gram flour

3oz of fine grade gluten free flour (Glutano flour mix is great)

1 1/2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, crumbled

5 oz of margerine or butter

1 large egg

2 tablespoons of water

For the filling

3 large eggs

a splash of milk

a pinch of crushed sea salt

a couple of grinds of black pepper

1/2 a small onion, diced

3 oz of cheese (I used cheddar) grated

Sift all of the flours and xantham gum into a mixing bowl. Crumble in sea salt and mix with a fork until thoroughly combined.

Break the butter or margerine into smaller pieces and rub into the flour with fingertips until you have a fine breadcrumb like texture. To ensure that you get an even crumb, shake the bowl to bring the larger pieces to the surface and then rub them into the flour mix until dispersed.

Slowly add the water and egg and stir with a fork until it starts to come together into a dough ball. This is the point where you ditch the fork and bring the mixture together until it all of the contents is together.

It is very importnat that the dough is not too wet. The dryer it is, the less likely it is to dry out in the oven and shrink back.

Knead together until the dough becomes smoother in texture.

Chill for 20 minutes in the fridge before using, pop the dough in a freezer bag before hand.

Grease and flour a metal quiche pan.

Flour the dough and chopping board and roll with a floured pin. This is where it becomes a little more difficult because the dough is dryer, but persevere, because the results are worth it!

Place the quiche pan over the rolled out dough and flip the board over so that the dough fals into the pan. The dough will crack slightly, but these can easily be blended together once the dough is in the pan. Build the dough up the sides of the pan. Any gapsor imperfections can be easily mended with any left over dough.

Beat together the eggs and milk and season to taste.

Lightly saute the onion, add this, along witht he cheese to the egg mixture. Pour the mixture into the pastry shell

Bake in a preheated oven (180 degrees c/ 350 deg f/ gas mark 4 until the egg sets and the crust is golden.

Recipe notes:

Vary to taste, by removing the onion or cheese, adding bacon, mushroom etc. Replace the cheese with a different variety - let your imagination run wild. Flavour the pastry with herbs and cracked black pepper.

This was divine, well worth messing with an experimental flour blend - the gram flour really made a difference. One slice left in the fridge - I think there will be a fight over it!