This is one of the simplest fruit tarts to make. Juicy fruits are embedded in a rich almond frangipane, making it easy to slice, and it keeps well, too. So now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about nectarines. Peaches get a lot of press. Yes, they’re juicy and yes they’re sweet. But honestly, I prefer the more assertive flavor of nectarines,…
This is one of the simplest fruit tarts to make. Juicy fruits are embedded in a rich almond frangipane, making it easy to slice, and it keeps well, too. So now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about nectarines.
Peaches get a lot of press. Yes, they’re juicy and yes they’re sweet. But honestly, I prefer the more assertive flavor of nectarines, with their slightly tooth-resistant skin, just enough to provide contrast to the juicy flesh, but not enough to make them necessary to peel. Yay for that as well.
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As a young child growing up in Melbourne, Kate Reid spent many late ni…
This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.
As a young child growing up in Melbourne, Kate Reid spent many late nights with her father watching auto racing. Fascinated by the speed and adrenaline of the sport, she knew from an early age that she was destined for a career in aerodynamics. However, she never imagined that dream would ultimately lead to her pursuing the slow, methodical craft of croissant-making.
There’s a certain ease and simplicity to free-form tarts like this. Sometimes they’re called a crostata, sometimes a galette. You can call it whatever you want, but I call it a fast way to use great fruit when it’s in season, without a lot of fuss. At the beginning of summer, when rhubarb is still lingering around, and strawberries are elbowing their way forward, it’s a…
There’s a certain ease and simplicity to free-form tarts like this. Sometimes they’re called a crostata, sometimes a galette. You can call it whatever you want, but I call it a fast way to use great fruit when it’s in season, without a lot of fuss.
At the beginning of summer, when rhubarb is still lingering around, and strawberries are elbowing their way forward, it’s a good thing the two go so well together. And I’m happy to help them hook up.
This spinach quiche recipe has a flaky pastry crust and a savory, cheesy interior! It’s perfect for brunch or a light dinner.
Want a knockout brunch idea? Try this Spinach Quiche recipe, the perfect savory pie for any occasion! This one features a savory filling with spinach and cheddar cheese, scented with garlic and just the right seasoning to make it irresistible not to take another bite. Pour it all into a flaky pastry crust and bake until puffed and golden. It’s the best idea for wow-ing a crowd at brunch, and it works as a light dinner too with a salad. This one got rave reviews over here (especially with our crust-loving 6 year old!).
How to make spinach quiche: an overview
A quiche is a French tart filled with custard and savory fillings. Leave it to the French to invent the idea of pie as a main dish! It’s become a classic brunch recipe, with spinach as one of the top vegetarian fillings.
Want to make a spinach quiche recipe? You can make this classic recipe in less than 2 hours, made completely from scratch with a homemade quiche crust. Or, you can use store-bought refrigerated pie crust for a shortcut. However, we highly recommend the homemade crust for its crispy, buttery texture: and it holds its shape better! Here’s what to expect:
This spinach quiche filling is savory and cheesy, with just the right nuance in flavor from onion and garlic. The key? Frozen spinach, which makes this quiche easy to assemble. Cooking that amount of spinach from fresh just isn’t practical here, and the texture from frozen spinach is actually better for this application. Here’s what you’ll need for the filling:
Frozen spinach
Butter
White onion
Garlic
Eggs
Milk
Heavy cream
Dried mustard and dried dill
Salt and pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese
Tip: blind bake the crust
The biggest key to making a quiche? Blind bake the crust! Blind baking is baking a pastry crust without the filling. This makes sure the bottom won’t get soggy because the crust is perfectly firm before you add the filling. If you don’t blind bake, you’ll get soggy bottom crust (we did). Here’s what to know about how to get the perfect flaky crust:
Freeze the crust 15 minutes. This helps the crust to hold its shape while blind baking.
Prick holes with a fork all over the crust. This is called docking: it helps keep the crust from puffing up while in the oven without filling.
Add parchment paper then pie weights, dried beans, or rice! Pour them right into the crust. We use two sets of these pie weights. Bake for 12 minutes at 400°F, then reduce the heat to 350°F.
Remove the pie weights. Remove the weights and bake 20 to 25 more minutes until the crust is golden. Then the quiche is ready to fill.
Homemade vs purchased quiche crust
You can use purchased refrigerated pie dough for this recipe: but we’ve found we like homemade quiche crust much better! Why?
Homemade crust holds its shape better. We’ve had some issues with refrigerated pie dough holding its shape, even when blind baking! It can lose the crimping on the edges and come out looking uneven.
Homemade crust tastes better. It only takes a few minutes to make homemade quiche crust: and it tastes so much better! The flavor is much more developed and it’s even flakier and crisper than a purchased crust (at least the brands we’ve used!). Feel free to weigh in if you have a refrigerated quiche crust brand you love.
Make ahead instructions for quiche
Quiche saves very well: in fact, it’s even better after it’s cooled to room temperature or even cold. Here’s what to know about making quiche in advance:
Make the quiche 1 to 3 days in advance. Then refrigerate it until serving! You can eat it cold, room temperature or warm.
To reheat, warm in a 200 degree oven for about 20 minutes.
The quiche saves 5 days refrigerated. Wrap it in plastic or aluminum foil to keep it fresh.
More quiche recipes
Want more quiche? Here are a few more ideas for savory pies:
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus more to garnish
⅓ cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Prepare the crust: If using Homemade Quiche Crust, prepare it in the pie pan using the steps in the linked recipe. If using refrigerated pie dough, transfer the dough to the pie pan (make sure it is standard and not deep dish). Fold the overhanging dough backwards and seal it to form a rim. With refrigerated crust, it’s easiest to press in the tines of the fork to decorate the edges (like in this asparagus quiche; it’s harder to get the crimped edges to keep their shape while baking). Use a fork to gently prick holes in the bottom and sides of the crust (which helps it to not puff up while blind baking).
Freeze the crust: Freeze the crust in the pan for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Blind bake the crust at 400°F: Place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the crust. Fill the dough with pie weights (we used two sets of these), dry beans, or dry rice. Bake for 12 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature and blind bake at 350°F: Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and carefully remove the parchment and weights. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until the bottom is lightly browned (or more if necessary for refrigerated pie crust). Remove from the oven and add the filling once it is ready.
Prepare the filling: Meanwhile, thaw the frozen spinach. Squeeze out all the moisture with your fingers (or use a strainer) until the spinach is dry and crumbly. In a medium skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Set aside.
Make the filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, dried mustard, dried dill, kosher salt, and several grinds black pepper. Place the cheddar and Parmesan cheese in bottom of the crust, along with even crumbles of the thawed and dried spinach and the cooked onions and garlic. Pour the egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle the top with another handful of shredded cheddar cheese.
Bake: Bake at 350°F for 40 to 50 minutes minutes, until the center is set and the top is lightly browned. (Check at 30 minutes and if the crust is browning too much, add a crust guard.*) Cool at least 30 minutes, then serve or refrigerate. Re-warm in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes. (You can also serve it cold.) Leftovers stay for 5 days refrigerated.
Notes
*You can make your own crust guard by cutting a circle out of aluminum foil to protect the crust but leave the filling uncovered.
The crust is the foundation of most pie recipes and many of those recipes call for the crusts to be blind baked. Blind baking is when you partially bake (or sometimes fully bake) the crust before adding the filling, which helps ensure that the finished pie and crust combination …
The crust is the foundation of most pie recipes and many of those recipes call for the crusts to be blind baked. Blind baking is when you partially bake (or sometimes fully bake) the crust before adding the filling, which helps ensure that the finished pie and crust combination will both be completely cooked through.
Most pastry doughs have layers of butter or other fats that are intended to make the baked pastries tender and flaky. They also tend to puff up during baking if they aren’t weighed down – so bakers tend to use pie weights to keep the crust in place while its in the oven. You can buy pie weights at most baking stores, but dried beans are a commonly recommended substitute. But what if you don’t have beans to use as pie weights? Learn how to use rice as a pie weight instead!
Rice is extremely easy to use as a pie weight and it is my go-to when it comes to baking pie crusts. You will need 1-2 cups of uncooked rice to weight down your pastry for an average 9-inch pie. To use the rice as a pie weight, roll out your pie crust and shape it into your pie dish. Gently press a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the unbaked crust, then fill the foil with the uncooked rice. Bake the crust as directed by your recipe.
When the crust is baked – either partially or fully – lift out the aluminum foil and pour the uncooked rice into a plastic bag or small storage container to use for the next time. You can use parchment paper in place of foil, but the foil is a bit easier to press into the corners of the pie and will often give you better coverage. There is no need to grease the foil, since there is plenty of butter or other fat in your pastry crust already.
Rice works beautifully here for a few reasons. First, even more people have rice on hand than uncooked beans. Second, the rice really fills the pie crusts evenly, getting into small corners where beans and other pie weights find it difficult to fit. Finally. uncooked rice has very little moisture, so it doesn’t change shape and cools down easily after baking.
It’s National Doughnut Day (Or National Donut Day, depending on where your grammatical proclivities point)! While we believe every day is an excuse to eat doughnuts (and fritters, twists, bear claws, and more), today is worthy of an extra-large bite. S…
It’s National Doughnut Day (Or National Donut Day, depending on where your grammatical proclivities point)! While we believe every day is an excuse to eat doughnuts (and fritters, twists, bear claws, and more), today is worthy of an extra-large bite. So to celebrate, we’re sharing a dozen of our favorite homemade doughnut recipes that you can make now and enjoy all weekend long.
Let’s start with the basics—these classic vanilla cake doughnuts (but don’t worry—we have a substitution for chocolate ones too!). Finish them with vanilla or chocolate glaze, matcha white chocolate, or old-fashioned cinnamon-sugar.
Buckle up, guys—this pastry is definitely a project. But trust me, it’s a super fun, satisfying, and delicious one. There’s nothing like a batch of still-warm sfogliatelle (or if you’re just referring to one, sfogliatella), an especially beautiful Ital…
Buckle up, guys—this pastry is definitely a project. But trust me, it’s a super fun, satisfying, and delicious one. There’s nothing like a batch of still-warm sfogliatelle (or if you’re just referring to one, sfogliatella), an especially beautiful Italian pastry. Multiple layers of gorgeously thin dough (rolled using a pasta machine) encase a creamy filling made with a base of semolina “pudding” and ricotta cheese. The pastry, sometimes referred to as “lobster claws” (not “lobster tails,” that’s something else) here in the States, bake up gorgeously golden and crisp. The result is a seriously impressive pastry that’s time-consuming, but totally doable at home, and worth it. Ahead, I’ll walk you through exactly how to make sfogliatelle at home using my go-to recipe and you’ll be folding and shaping dough in no time.
When people inquire about recipes from the pastries on offer in Paris pastry shops, I look at the recipes we used when I went to pastry school at Ecole Lênotre and it’s hard to imagine cutting down a recipe that makes a hundred canelés into a recipe that makes six or eight for a home cook, who likely doesn’t want to go out and buy…
When people inquire about recipes from the pastries on offer in Paris pastry shops, I look at the recipes we used when I went to pastry school at Ecole Lênotre and it’s hard to imagine cutting down a recipe that makes a hundred canelés into a recipe that makes six or eight for a home cook, who likely doesn’t want to go out and buy a hundred copper canelé molds at 35 dollars (or even €10-15) a pop. Professional bakeries don’t make a single gâteau Opéra or eight éclairs; it’s might be a dozen cakes, five or six dozen éclairs, and hundreds of caramels. So paring down a recipe that won’t overwhelm the oven, kitchen…or budget…of a home baker can be a challenge
Professional bakeries also make components separately as part of their schedule, and in large quantities, and will start the puff pastry or make the pastry cream for a cake or tart in advance, then assemble them over the course of several days. Often recipes depend on techniques learned over a period of time, such as macaronage, the proper stirring and folding of macaron batter, and aren’t just a list of ingredients. So as wonderful and generous as bakers tend to be, not all professionals can share (or in some cases, are willing to part with) the secrets of their success.
This week’s episode of The Great British Bake Off wasn’t entirely sweet. In fact, it was a little savory too. During the technical challenge, the five remaining contestants were tasked with making eight vegan sausage rolls as part of the episode’s “fre…
This week’s episode of The Great British Bake Off wasn’t entirely sweet. In fact, it was a little savory too. During the technical challenge, the five remaining contestants were tasked with making eight vegan sausage rolls as part of the episode's “free from” theme, which included dairy-free ice cream sandwiches and two-tier gluten-free cakes. “Flavor always matters, but in this recipe it’s absolutely key,” said co-judge Prue Leith, who introduced the challenge. Contestants were expected to make a crisp golden vegan rough puff pastry surrounding a mushroom and walnut filling, and accompanied by a sticky caramelized red onion chutney. But how do you make sausage rolls, anyway, vegan or otherwise?
Food52’s recipe for traditional sausage rolls are made by spreading Dijon mustard over puff pastry and topping it with pork sausage meat, a drizzle of Worcestershire sauce, and a sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves. “To form the sausage rolls, fold the top half of the pastry over the sausage and press the edges together with a fork. Trim the edge to get a neat line then gently slice the pastry log into inch wide segments but do not fully separate. Lightly slash the top of each segment with a sharp knife and glaze with an egg wash,” writes recipe developer Lily Hughes. From here, bake the sausage rolls in a 400℉ oven for 30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and the sausage is fully cooked. This recipe called for store-bought pork sausage and frozen and thawed puff pastry. But what kind of GBBO challenge would it be if both of the key ingredients weren’t made from scratch?
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