The Great Australian Bake Off Technical Challenge – Week 4 Quiche with Layered Pastry

As I posted last weekend, for some silly reason I decided to try to recreate the Week 3 (Brandy Snaps) and Week 4 (Quiche) GABO technical challenges at the same time. As I’ve said previously, all was going well until I started to get a migraine.

Normally when I make quiche, I use a shortcrust pastry, so I was intrigued with the idea of using rough puff pastry instead. Quiche is a great portable meal, perfect for work lunches or picnics, and great for using up leftovers from the fridge. You don’t have to stick to the fillings in this recipe. I used to make a cheat’s all in one quiche, without making the pastry (you just add pastry mix in with the filling, and it forms a base – I will post it in the future), but in more recent times I have always made it with the short crust pastry, as previously posted here.

The rough puff pastry worked quite well and was a nice change to the shortcrust, but required a lot more effort and I think is more at risk of the dreaded “soggy bottom”. You do have to make it by hand though. This isn’t a pastry you can make in the food processor. I also found mine needed a bit longer cooking time, as the very centre of the pastry was not quite cooked enough.

I had planned to take step by step photos of the pastry making process and folding, unfortunately when I went to use my camera its battery was flat, so there is only the finished photo. Sorry, I’ll try again next time.

On the whole, the fact that I managed to finish a reasonable quiche while fighting a migraine (and without burning or cutting myself) I think was an achievement, although the edges of the pastry were a bit rustic. It still tasted nice and provided a great lunch/dinner on the run before rehearsals. However, I don’t plan on making it with this pastry again if I’m making a large sized quiche. I might try it with canapé sized ones next time though.

Next technical challenge? Coffee scrolls.

GABO Quiche with Layered Pastry

Ingredients

You will need a 23cm – 25.5 cm fluted tart tin – a deep one is better

Pastry

• 150g plain flour
• ¾ teaspoon of salt
• 150g unsalted butter (chilled and diced – keep in the fridge until you need it)
• 1 egg yolk (note – keep the white, you will use it in the filling)
• 75ml milk (cold)

Filling

• 150g gruyére cheese, grated (although if you prefer you could use cheddar)
• 100g bacon lardons or streaky bacon, fried and drained. I actually used pancetta cut into lardons (which is just a fancy way of saying diced or in small strips)
• 5 eggs plus the extra egg white left over from the pastry
• 250ml double cream (you could use normal cream for a lighter quiche)
• 1 tablespoon of chopped spring onions (or more if you like)
• 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh parsley (or more if you like)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. To make the pastry, put the flour and salt into a medium to large sized bowl. Add the butter and lightly toss until it is coated in the flour (do not rub it in or put it in the food processor).
2. In a separate small bowl or jug, beat together the egg yolk and milk and then add to the flour/butter mixture. Mix (with you hands) until it comes together in a firm ball of dough. You just want to bring it together, you are not aiming to knead the dough.
3. Place the dough onto a clean surface that has been dusted with flour and roll out to a (roughly) 30cm x 30cm square. Fold it in thirds (one third into over lap the centre, then the other third over that). then roll it out into a 10cm x 30cm (approximate) rectangle. Fold in again to form a 10cm x 10cm square.
4. Wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. The repeat step 3 twice, resting for at least 20 minutes each time.
5. Preheat the oven to 160C fan forced (180C). Once you have finished folding and resting the pastry, roll it out into a large circle, turning it by ¼ regularly. Roll it large enough to line your tin.
6. Gently line the tin with the pastry. You do not need to grease the tin due to the large amount of butter in this recipe. Gently press the pastry into the sides and bottom of the tin and trim the edges. Line the pastry with baking paper and fill with baking beans or dried beans/rice. Place the lined tart tin onto a baking tray (some of the butter will leak out). Bake in the oven for 40 minutes (blind baking) and then remove from the oven and remove the paper and weights. If using rice, be careful not to spill any in the pastry. I wasn’t very coordinated by this stage and unfortunately I did. It is really hard to get it out of this pastry!
7. Return to the oven to bake for at least another 5 minutes, although mine needed about 10-15 minutes. You are aiming to dry out the base at this stage. If it still looks wet, return it to the oven for another 5 minutes and check again.
8. For the filling, add half of the cheese and all of the bacon (which has already been fried) to the base of the pastry case. Combine the eggs and cream in a bowl, add the spring onions, parsley and salt and pepper and then pour this over the cheese and bacon. Don’t use too much salt as the bacon will already be salty.
9. Top with the remaining cheese and allow this to sink into the filling slightly (you can gently press this down). Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes (although this will depend on how deep you case is) until the filling is just set and has puffed slightly. Allow to cool a bit before removing from the case and serving.

Source: Great Australian Bake Off Classic Quiche with Layered Pastry