Do you bake a pie crust first for quiche?

Answer 1

I think you get the best results if you do. There is nothing worse than uncooked pastry at the bottom of a quiche and as quiche mix is often quite runny this is a distinct possibility if you don't bake blind beforehand.

Don't bake the shell in advance but bake it blind while you prepare the other ingredients and in that way the oven is preheated and there is no interruption in the production of the quiche or waste of energy.

Take your pastry from the fridge and roll it out gently but briskly on a floured surface. No need to flour or grease the quiche dish. Drape the rolled pastry over your rolling pin and transfer it to the dish gently shaping it into the fluted edges and trimming the top with a sharp knife. Don't worry if the pastry cracks - simply press it together again with your fingertips - quiche pastry should be quite short with a high percentage of fat and it will melt together again during baking.

Prick over the base with the tines of a fork, line the dish with parchment paper (on top of the pastry) and weigh the paper down with old dried beans that you reserve for this purpose (you can use them repeatedly). Return it to the fridge till the oven is ready then bake it.

Separate one of the eggs you use for the filling. Remove the baked pie crust, carefully lift out the parchment paper and hot beans all in one go and pour the beans back into a storage jar. If the base of the quiche has risen then push it gently down. Brush the egg white over the hot base of the quiche with a pastry brush - this will seal the base and prevent any of the liquid filling getting under the crust. Return it to the oven for a further 5 or 10 minutes.

(You can stop at this point but it will be wasteful to reheat the oven again later).

Add filling and bake quiche according to recipe - till filling is risen and golden brown. It should still wobble slightly in the centre when you jolt the dish - it will continue to cook in its own stored heat after removal from the oven.