How did you spend the first day of 2011? I mostly walked around my house in pjs leisurely baking a quiche. This is what I love about vacation: complete freedom to spend and entire day baking one delicious dish. In all seriousness, the Flour Cookbook is challenging my baking abilities. I’m not a big baker, I prefer cooking because I can improvise. Because of this my baking techniques definitely need to be refined and this quiche was a good way to do it.

Why quiche? Because flour quiche is the best ever! It’s the lightest quiche I’ve ever had. It melts in your mouth and the crust is super flaky. The last time I had it was in Boston last May and I can still remember the taste of the filling. It’s one of those dishes you just can’t get out of your mind.

Direct from the source

Yum.

The crust of the quiche is actually pate brisee like I made for cranberry and pear crostata. I actually made it the night before and just rolled it out in the morning. I fitted it to the pan and refrigerated it. After it was sufficiently cold I blind baked it. I’ve never blind baked before. I used rice from the bulk section of Whole Foods to weight down the crust.

While the crust partially baked I made the filling. The basic “insides” were simple enough to make.

plus half and half and heavy cream, yum!

Another reason I love the Flour Cookbook is that Joanna Chang offers variations on all the dishes. She instructs how to make bacon and caramelized onion, ham and cheese, and smoked salmon and cream cheese. I opted for spinach, zucchini and feta because I had all of the ingredients on hand and it sounded the healthiest. I wanted to be as healthy as possible while consuming half and half and egg yolk 😉

After all the ingredients were together I poured the mix into the shell and let it bake.

Golden brown and delicious.

Behind the scenes:

I felt like the edges got a little over cooked but the bottom of the shell was flaky and baked to perfection.

deeeeeelicious.

Don’t worry, between the mac and cheese and this I’m ready to get back on the healthy horse.

I even made this side dish for my dinner:

Greens can be pretty too 🙂

No recipe because I really want you to buy the Flour Cookbook. I know this is cruel and unusual punishment so treat yourself and buy the book.