Laura's Homemade Quiche as served in Half Day Workshops

Remember that Love Chicken Pie I made for our family meal last week and posted on Instagram and Facebook? Or have you attended a half day workshop and enjoyed one of my homemade quiches? Well now you can make the same with the my basic shortcrust pastry recipe. Thank you to everyone who has asked for the recipe via our social media channels and to Gwen McNeil who emailed to ask me for it during lockdown. Homemade pastry is infinitely better than shop bought (a bit like making your own pasta) and is worth the time in preparation!

Basic Short Crust Pastry

220g plain flour

pinch of salt

100g of butter

cold water

Directions. It’s as easy as this 🙂

Measure out the plain flour, salt and pop in a bowl.

Weigh 100g butter and dice into small chunks.

Add butter to flour and using your hand rub into the flour until resembling fine breadcrumbs (the finer the better).

Add 5 tablespoons of cold water and start to bring it all together like you would do making bread. Add more water, tablespoon by tablespoon until you can form a ball. Little tip here: if the ball is only just holding together then this will produce very crumbly pastry. The ball should be wet and come together but not soaked.

Knead the pastry dough for 2 minutes. Place back in the bowl and put in the fridge to harden for at least 5 minutes.

Basic Quiche

Firstly set up your pastry in your tin. Whatever tin size you are using roll out the pastry to around about 2 cm in depth. Grease your tin well with butter. Gently lay your rolled pastry in the tin. Prick holes with a fork along the bottom. A top tip I was told by a chef was to sprinkle a small amount of grated cheese or breadcrumbs over the pastry. They will soak up any additional moisture when cooking, making sure the base pastry cooks to a good crisp crust.

Whisk 4 eggs and a good dash of cream and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add whatever ingredients you’d like in Quiche. In our house we tend to go veggie with our Quiches. Place veggies / meat on top of your prepared pastry. Grilling the veggies beforehand can add flavour. The Quiche above has roasted red peppers, spinach and pre cooked red onion in it.

Pour your creamy eggy mix over your veggies.

Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.

Egg or milk the edges of the quiche.

Cook at 180 degrees fan for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Eat hot or cold. Serve with homemade chutney and salad!