Mini Quiches

Two weeks ago, I served breakfast to a bride and all of her "ladies-in-waiting" at the salon where they were being styled for the afternoon nuptials. My friend (the groom's sister) who commissioned me to provide food, put in a request for mini quiches. I went with two varieties that I thought would appeal to a wide range of tastes: Ham and Cheese and Spinach Bacon. I served these lil' quiches alongside my Frosty Fruit Cups, a Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake (recipe coming soon!), Strawberry Mimosas, Sangria Punch, and OJ.

You can turn any quiche recipe into a mini-quiche. The individual serving sized mini-quiche is ideal for parties and showers and they re-heat better than a big quiche, should you choose to make them ahead.


Let's begin with the ham and cheese quiche. This one has a flaky, pastry crust. I made my own dough, but only because I didn't have any refrigerated pie dough sheets on hand. I'd forgotten to pick them up when shopping for this job. If you want to skip a step and save time, then buy the dough at the store. Once the dough is prepared, roll half into a 12 inch circle and cut 4 inch circles out of the dough. I used a big cookie cutter, but any 4 inch round cutter will work. Repeat with the other half of the dough until you have 12 circles.



Gently press the circles into 12 muffin cups.



This recipe is very versatile. Once you've got the cups in place, you can fill them with whatever you like. Shrimp, crab, ham, bacon.... I chopped a cup of shaved ham and evenly distributed it into the 12 cups.



I topped the ham with finely chopped onion and cheese.



I used Swiss, but again, you can use whatever you fancy.



Now here's where I might lose some of you with this recipe. The secret ingredient: mayonnaise. My sister, Karla, hates mayonnaise. Like, with a passion! She hates it so much that if she already loves a food and then finds out later that there was mayonnaise in it, she will NEVER eat it again. The discovery will disturb her for hours. I'm serious, I just watched this happen to her on my last visit home. We were enjoying a bourbon cheese spread that she'd brought back from a recent visit to Kentucky. As we sat in her new home, visiting and snacking, she happened to read the label. It practically ruined her day. I've witnessed her picky tendencies for my whole life, and I still thought that she was joking at first. She wasn't. I thought that she was going to develop a twitch! If you hate mayonnaise as much as my sister, then yeah, find another recipe. If you're just not sure about using it in this recipe, then please, give it a try. These little quiches were SO good!

Mix together mayonnaise, eggs, milk, and a little salt.



Then slowly pour the mixture over the quiches. Be careful not to let them overflow.



I poured a little of the mayo mixture over the quiches at first, and then as it soaked in, I went back through and poured more on, until I used all of the mixture evenly among the quiches.



And that's it...they baked and then I cooled them on racks. You can serve them right away, but I put these into the fridge and re-heated them in the oven the next morning before the event.



Here's the recipe, from Cooks.com

INDIVIDUAL QUICHES

Pastry for 2 crust pie
1 c. chopped cooked shrimp, ham or bacon
1/4 c. chopped onion
4 to 6 oz. shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. milk

On floured surface roll 1/2 of pastry into 12 inch circle. Cut 6 circles 4 inch in diameter. Repeat with other half of pastry. Fit these circles into 12 muffin tins. Fill each with some meat (shrimp), onion and cheese. Beat together remaining contents and pour over cheese. Bake in 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes


The Spinach Bacon quiches were quite different from the ham and cheese. First, they are crustless. Second, there is no mayonnaise (you're welcome, little sister). But what these DO have is a TON of cheese. Yay for cheese! These were packed with ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella.

I began by frying 3 strips of bacon, until crispy. Then I drained the bacon on paper towels and crumbled it.



I sauteed half of a chopped onion in the bacon drippings until tender.



Next you are supposed to add the drained, chopped spinach and spiced to the skillet with the onion and cook it for another 3 minutes until the remaining moisture cooks off of the spinach. I didn't do this. I didn't read the recipe very well, I guess.
Ooops. Instead, I just combined all of the ingredients in a bowl. Luckily, the quiches turned out perfectly despite my oversight.



Here's what it looks like all mixed up.



Spoon the mixture into 12 muffin cups and bake. Super easy...super good!



Unfortunately, I was in the middle of working on 2 or three other recipes for the breakfast and I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product. These did come out really nice. They were golden brown and popped right out of the muffin tins and tasted wonderful!

Here's the recipe, found on TLC's website.

Individual Spinach and Bacon Quiches

INGREDIENTS

3 slices bacon
1/2 small onion, diced
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch salt
1 container (15 ounces) whole milk ricotta cheese
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten

PREPARATION:
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 10 muffin pan cups with nonstick cooking spray.
2.Cook bacon in large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Let bacon cool; crumble.
3.In same skillet, cook and stir onion in remaining bacon fat 5 minutes or until tender. Add spinach, pepper, nutmeg and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat about 3 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Remove from heat. Stir in bacon; cool.
4.Combine ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses in large bowl. Add eggs; stir until well blended. Add cooled spinach mixture; mix well.
5.Divide mixture evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake 40 minutes or until filling is set. Let stand 10 minutes. Run thin knife around edges to release. Serve hot or refrigerate and serve cold.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:
Serving Size: 1 quiche
Fiber 1 g
Carbohydrate 4 g
Cholesterol 105 mg
Saturated Fat 9 g
Total Fat 15 g
Calories from Fat 62 %
Calories 216
Protein 17 g
Sodium 405 mg