Potato leek soup will always have a place in my heart, but during leek harvesting season in early summer it's Leek & Goat Cheese quiche that has a place in my stomach.
As you know (or maybe don't know if you're new around here) I have backyard chickens; three of them at the moment. You might not know this but, 3 chickens lay enough in a week to egg a midsized high rise apartment complex.
Take a look at the contemporary coop I built for them if you haven't seen it before - it made quite an impression on Pinterest when I first built it.
Because of the whole drowning in eggs thing, I'm always looking for egg based meals. Currently the stars of my "use up the eggs" rotation are a classic cheese soufflé, ice cream, Yorkshire pudding and my current favourite - this Goat's Cheese & Leek quiche. Or tart, depending on what pan you cook it in.
The difference between a tart and a quiche isn't huge. Quiche are savoury and custard based and tend to be a tiny bit deeper than a tart. Plus quiche is always served hot. A tart on the other hand can be sweet or savoury and is supposed to be served cold or at room temperature.
To make a tart you need a proper tart pan with a removable bottom on it so when it's time to serve the tart all you do is push up on the bottom of the tart pan and your entire tart pops out, making for easy slicing.
A LOT of tarts let things pop out when you push their bottoms.
It all starts with the crust. You can use your own favourite pie crust recipe or use a frozen crust.
The first thing you're going to do is make your pie crust and then blind bake it.
Table of Contents
Blind Baking a Pie Crust
- NOTHING is more important to the quality of your pie crust than the type of pie pan you use. I have the best luck with old aluminum pie plates that I picked up at garage sales. They're a medium to dark gray and are dull from years of use. Metal conducts heat much better than ceramic and better than glass.
- Roll your dough out into the pie pan and then dock it (prick around the bottom and sides with a fork. This allows steam to escape and helps stop your crust from shrinking when it cooks.
- Cover the dough with tin foil or parchment paper and then add some ceramic pastry weights to weigh the crust down. If you don't have actual pastry weights you can use rice or what I've used for years, dried lentils. I just keep the lentils in a bag marked "pastry weights" and use them over and over.
- REFRIGERATE for at least half an hour. This also helps stop the crust from shrinking.
- Bake at 400°F (204°C) until the crust is golden (about 15 minutes). Remove pie weights and foil then bake another 5-10 minutes if the bottom crust isn't golden yet. Cover your edge of your pie with the used foil to keep it from browning too much if you have to.
- Your crust should be partially but not completely baked.
While the pie shell is blind baking Prep 3 leeks like I show you in this post. Then you slice them, and cook with some garlic, salt, butter and olive oil. So far so good right? It's about to get better.
Throw in some white wine and stock and simmer.
Let the leek mixture cool and stir up some heavy cream and eggs. Then you mix those things together, scatter some goat cheese across the top and it's ready to bake.
Fixing a Crack in Pie Crust
Even though you do everything right you might pull your pie crust out of the oven from blind baking and find there's a crack.
Now, with some fillings that wouldn't matter, but with a runny custard filling you're going to want to repair that crust.
Just take some raw pie dough and press it into the crack. Make sure it's stuck, wetting it a tiny bit if you have to. Your crack is now sealed and the crust ready for filling.
Pour the egg and leek mixture into the pie shell then top with your cheese.
You can use as much or as little goat cheese as you want. I use around 3 ounces.
Bake in a 325°F (160°C) oven for 20 minutes, or until the centre is just barely set. You know. Not wiggly but not hard as a rock either. It'll continue to cook once you take it out of the oven.
Leek & Goat Cheese Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust
- 3 leeks white and light green part only
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 garlic clove finely chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 4 ½ tablespoons white wine dry
- 4 ½ tablespoons fresh stock chicken or vegetable (you can sub with water)
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 whole eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 8 ½ tablespoons cream ( I use whatever cream I have in the house. Whipping half and half or 18%.
- 3 oz goat cheese
Instructions
Blind Baked Pie Shell
- Roll dough out and place in a tin pie pan.
- Prick bottom and sides of dough.
- Cover dough with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Bake in a 400°F (204°C) until crust is golden. About 15 minutes.
- Remove weights and foil. If the bottom of the crust hasn't turned golden at all return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, covering crust edges so they doesn't over brown.
Assembling
- Remove dark green tops and roots from leeks and cut in half lengthwise. Rinse the leeks under water to clean out any dirt. Slice thinly. Add garlic, leeks and salt to butter and oil in pan over medium heat. Sauté 10 minutes or until leeks are softened.
- Add white wine and stock. Simmer 3-4 minutes. Add fresh ground pepper. Remove from pan into bowl and allow mixture to cool.
- Mix together eggs, egg yolks and cream. Add to the cooled leek mixture.
- Pour the filling into your blind baked pie shell, top with crumbled goat cheese and bake at 325 for 20- 25 minutes, or until set.
Notes
- The length of baking time will depend on your oven and the type of pie plate you use.
- Don't forget to refrigerate your crust before baking.
- Serve alone with a big salad or with a side of sausage or bacon.
Nutrition
Oh.
And then you eat it of course. Bottoms up.
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Looks intriguing! Will have to test it out!
Karen, do you always keep your eggs in a cute little basket in their own nests? Just asking... :)
Yup! - karen
I couldn't agree more, the Aussie version of Masterchef is so much better than the U.S. version.
Great, now I know what I'm going to be cooking this weekend :)
Another good reason to have chickens and a better reason to not raise lamb - because I love me some gyros! I will definitely try this recipe - I have a fondness for leeks and goat cheese as well.
That's funny... I always thought it was my HUSBAND that caused migraines. Tee hee.
Hehehehe I just love tart jokes
Karen (((hugs))) on the migraines, they are hard work. Without wishing to be categorized as part of the lunatic fringe: have you tried giving up cows milk? It worked for my best friend, and my son (who had horrific migraines and was on mega-medication, but now does not need to take anything). Wouldn't be so great for all the cream and sour cream in this recipe, though ...
Leeks and goats cheese are two of my favorite things, so I will be converting this recipe to a non-cows milk version.
Thank you for the inspiration, and my morning laugh.
Clare - I actually know what causes my migraines. It all stems from my period and my neck. I have a bad neck from using a horrible chair to do all my writing and photo editing. Plus I've always held a lot of tension/stress/etc. in my neck and shoulders. I've been on the hunt for the perfect pillow to support my tiny little chicken neck while sleeping for the past 5 years. So there you have it. Cow's milk is safe with me. You lunatic. :) ~ karen!
The perfect pillow is not feathers, down, or any variety of polyester fill......sponge pillows take care of problem neck issues.
I absolutely love goat cheese and am always looking for ways to use it. Saving this recipe for sure!
Nice job, setting us up to take this on ourselves .
- clean leeks like I show you
- have boyfriend gift you chicks like I show you
- build chicken coop like i show you
- raise egg laying chickens like I show you
Mmmm
This is probably going to be served Christmas Day to very special family members. My chickies rarely get leftovers but I need to start offering them what little we leave behind.
Do you feed your chickens cottage cheese? That is a fav of mine and gives them a good heaping helping of the calcium they need to lay good eggs.
Ann - I've never given them cottage cheese but they get the leftover milk from bowls of cereal the odd time! They love it. They especially love it if there's some leftover cheerios in the bowl. They also love oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon. :) ~ karen
I hope your migraines are better. I don't know how you can be funny, or even coherent, with a migraine, but good for you!
Be careful feeding your chickens too much leek, onion or garlic... Unless you want flavoured eggs! Those might be all right for the next recipe of leek soup but you won't know till you taste them and they aren't on the list for 'true' way to prepare eggs! But that tart sounds good and my chickens wouldn't get any of mine! Yummy!
This looks yummy! I'm trying this. You "almost" make me wanna get my own chickens....ha!
Just don't feed your chickens these leftovers! Onions, leeks and garlic will make their eggs taste bad.
Making this for sure !!!
Can I just say Karen, that the leek tutorial changed my life. It's not that I didn't know how to wash a leek. I did. But I had always trimmed the bottom end off -first-. Which means when you halve it and wash the leaves, everything falls apart, and slicing is a pain. Now all my leaves are still held together when I wash it, and my world is a happier place. I had leeks last night and thought of you.
I'd try the tart, but to do it as well as you I'd have to buy a new tart pan, a food processor, and some chickens.
I'm surprised I haven't seen this on the Weight Watchers® recipe board. Oh wait - maybe because it has a bazillion calories! I love things with a bazillion calories! That dough sounds scrumptious and even though I don't have any leeks, I do have ALL the other ingredients and a bag full of mild yellow onions. You're awesome as usual.
Len, Carrie Ann and Bruno score you with a ten for use of metaphors. "Sexy, but subtle," says Len. "I liked the way tart was used in a very retro way," Carrie Ann exclaimed. "Tart could be male or female and that's important to note," said Bruno who isn't spending much time in his closet at all.
I'm still not going for the leek thing. But I'm always up for a read about the coop, chickens and eggs. Rock on!
Marti - That's SOOO exciting!!! Even though I hate that show where people dance around. It's still very EXCITING! You should try the leeks. The fella doesn't completely love onions, and never wants me to add too many when I make a cheese and onion quiche, but he likes the leeks. ~ k!
Yeah, I don't watch it either. But pop icons are pop icons. I'm trying my best to boost you (and Cheez Whiz, Cuddles and the rest) up to that status.
Just doin' my bit! ;)
Yum.
Did I say "yum" ?
Yeah, that's what I said.
My tart pan broke, so I'm especially envious and little motivated to replace it just to make your version. It looks absolutely divine!
xo
Kate
tarts and their bottoms... hahahaha
this looks yummy.