A work in progress. Makes about 12.
After round 1:
Crust (TOP of quiches only):
1 c. flour, slightly heaping
1/2 t salt
1 T butter, cut up
40 g shortening
2 T sour cream
1.5 T water
1 egg white
Custard:
4 large eggs + the leftover yolk from the crust
3/4 c milk
2-3 t cornstarch
3/4 c cream
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
Fillings
2-3 oz finely shredded cheese
caramelized onions (great recipe in Misc. section of this site)
crispy bacon
... go where your heart takes you (but you won't need a big volume of anything); if you want to include veg, try to sweat or blanch out as much liquid as possible
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Crust:
Mix flour and salt. Cut in butter and shortening. Mix sour cream with water in a small bowl. Add half to flour and mix. Add part or all of the rest - it's a wetter pastry dough than I'm used to, but if your gut says don't add all the liquid, don't do it. Roll out on waxed paper and cut into disks (find the closest sized cookie cutter or glass that is just a tiny bit larger than the top of your muffin tin openings). Reroll and finish cutting.
Put disks on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. Whisk egg white with a bit of water and brush the tops of the disks. You can put any leftover egg white in with the custard. Bake until tops are just starting to brown. Remove from oven.
TURN OVEN DOWN TO 350 F.
Prep your fillings.
Custard:
Whisk cornstarch together with a couple of tablespoons of the milk in a medium bowl. Whisk in eggs, yolk, and cream. Whisk in salt, pepper, and milk. Pour in large measuring cup (or something else with a spout).
Put it all together. I tried both silicone (sprayed with kitchen spray) and regular non-stick muffin tins. The silicone released a little easier, but were a little smaller. Choose your weapon (I've settled on metal for myself). Put a little of your fillings in each cup. I'd say fill, loosely, no more than half-way.
Pour custard over your fillings. Don't make them TOO full - I filled to within 1/4" of the top and had a couple cook over into the oven. If I hadn't acted fast, I think I could have set off the smoke alarm for the second time in a month... NOT a record I hope to set. Top with pastry disks. Place in oven.
Bake until the centers register 170 F on an instant read thermometer (Cook's Illustrated suggestion for a perfect full-sized quiche). I put my last batch in for 18 minutes and they came out with centers close to 190 F. But they didn't seem overcooked. I'm going to check the temp at 15 minutes next time and we'll see where we are then...
Remove from oven and let cool a little before running a narrow (plastic/silicone) spatula around the edges. Lift out the ones you intend to eat right away. You can leave the others in the silicone pan for storage or pop them out and store in tupperware if you used a metal pan.
