How do you feel about quiche?
Well, I’m a big fan of this traditional dish with its flaky pastry shell, wrapped in delicious, savory filling.
Now, to be completely honest, the rest of my family only tolerates my quiche-making and they barely contain their slight disappointment when I say I’m going to make it.
However, even the marginal quiche lovers in my household were pretty impressed with this mille-high, deep dish quiche.
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Calling it deep dish would be understatement.
When I call this a mile-high quiche… I mean it.
It’s also a fun new way to use your spring form pan.
Start with the pastry shell which is a delicious flakey crust.
To ensure the pastry in the final quiche is thoroughly baked and not underbaked with filling, you’ll need to pre-bake it.
Once you’ve added the pastry to the pan, line the pastry shell with a double thickness of foil. Bake for about 20 minutes until the pastry is lightly browned. Then, bake another 10 minutes or so before adding the filling.
Because you’re dealing with so much pastry, this will help ensure the pastry on the final quiche is thoroughly baked and not raw or underbaked in some areas.
You can always substitute the crust recipe below for your own personal favorite.
But this one is easy and basic.
Deep Dish Pastry Shell
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup ice cold water
Instructions
- Combine flour and salt in food processor.
- Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs.
- Combine egg and water in a small bowl and then, add to food processor.
- Pulse the dough until it begins to stick together.
- Collect dough and wrap it in plastic wrap.
- Shape it into a disc and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Transferdough to a lightly floured surface and rol into a 15-inch circle.
- Roll the dough around a 9 X 2 1/2 inch springform pan.
- Press the dough into the pan and trim any overhanging dough.
- Freeze shell for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400-degrees.
- Line pastry shell with a double sheet of foil long enough to hang over the sides of the pan.
- Bake the foil-lined crust for about 20 minutes, until the edge of the pastry is light brown.
- Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Cool on a baking rack.
- Now you’re ready for the filling.
Believe it or not, this is my first-ever recipe using pancetta.
Pancetta tastes similar to bacon to me.
And you could easily replace the pancetta with your favorite cooked bacon for this recipe, if you wanted to.
Take a look at the recipe ingredients for the filling and you’ll see it’s a savory combination of flavors.
You can’t really go wrong with sautéed onions, fresh spinach, diced pancetta, tomatoes and Havarti cheese.
And that’s for starters.
Mix all that goodness together and spread it into the prepared, crust-covered spring form pan.
I don’t know about you but this already looks delicious to me and I haven’t even added the liquid mixture.
Now the other thing that makes a quiche a quiche is that egg mixture.
So, pour it on and pop the dish in the oven.
Now, the crust certainly acts as a good container to hold all these ingredients.
Still, I recommend placing the pan on a baking tray, just in case you get a tiny leak somewhere in the crust.
Play it safe than sorry.
Spinach Pancetta Quiche
Ingredients
- 1 deep dish pastry shell recipe above
- 8 ounces pancetta diced
- 2 cups onions thinly sliced (about 2 onions)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme crushed
- 1/2 cup oil-packed dried tomatoes (drained and chopped)
- 4 cups baby spinach
- 8 ounces Havarti cheese shredded
- 6 large eggs
- 2 cups plain fat-free Greek yogurt
- 1 cup 2 percent milk
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees
- Cook pancetta over medium heat in a large skillet.
- Stir occasionally until lightly browned.
- Transfer pancetta to paper towels.
- Remove all but 2 tablespoons of drippings from skillet.
- Add onions and dried thyme and cook until golden brown.
- Stir in dried tomatoes and cook for about a minute.
- Add spinach and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Cool for 10 minutes before adding pancetta and cheese.
- To make the custard, combine eggs, yogurt, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg na blender.
- Blend until frothy.
- Place the pancetta and onion mixture in the prebaked pastry shell.
- Pour in the custard.
- Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until top is lightly browned and custard is just set in the center (165 degrees).
- Cool in pan for about 40 minutes.
- Use a serrated knife to cut the pastry shell so that it's flush with the top of the pan.
- Slowly and carefully remove the spring-form pan ring.
- Cut the quiche into wedges.
- Serve with optional dollop of sour cream.
NOTE: BEFORE separating the sides of the springform pan, use a serrated knife to cut the pastry shell so that it’s flush with the top of the pan. This will ensure easy removal of the quiche from the springform pan.
I have to admit (and simultaneously apologize), for committing the cardinal food photography sin of not shooting the big slice.
Hmmm, I’m not sure how that happened.
But trust me, this baby is as it’s as good as you imagine it is.
Let me know if you give this deep dish Mile High Quiche a try.
I’d love to know how yours turns out,
Thanks for stopping by.
See you back here next time. ♥
Wow, it looks scrumptious! And there were no pictures of the BIG slice because you all ate.it.up!!
Thank you so much, Vicki.
I think I’m going to make again in December… just so that I can get that missing slice shot-lol.
Hope you’re doing well in your neck of the woods.
Stay safe and take care.
xoxo
This looks amazing!!! I’m sure there were no leftovers!!
Thanks, Shirley.
I ended up slicing some of it and freezing it for small lunches later.
Hope all is well on your end.
xoxo
This would be an amazing dish for a holiday meal. So elegant looking!
Thanks so much, Tammie.
I agree about this being a lovely holiday dish.
It’s so tall, it’s almost regal.
And kinda out of the ordinary too.
Do let me know if you make it.
I’d love to hear how it goes over in your household.
xoxo
Nice stuff.
Amazing!! You are so creative and on so many levels. Who would have ever thought to make such a fantastic dish and DEEP dish, too!
We’re grain-free here, so I’ll have to put on my thinking cap for the lovely crust. If there’s anything I miss about being grain-free, it’s pie crusts. Especially making them — it’s such a satisfying activity.
Oh, thank you so much for that Diane.
I’m glad you like this dish.
I think you can use just about any crust you like for this recipe.
The height of the quiche is the big show stopper and I think you could even fill it with whatever quiche flavors you love.
Good luck and let me know how yours turns out.
xoxo
can you explain what to do with the foil before baking the shell? I’m not understanding the instruction on what to do with the overlapping dough. thanks
HiJudy,sorry for any confusion on this.
The foil is used to wrap the pastry before you bake it. It’s kind of like a “blind bake” of sorts.
Once you’ve added the pastry to the pan, line the pastry shell with a double thickness of foil. Bake for about 20 minutes until the pastry is lightly browned. Then, bake another 10 minutes or so before adding the filling.
Because you’re dealing with so much pastry, this will help ensure the pastry on the final quiche is thoroughly baked and not raw or underbaked in some areas.
I hope this helps. Feel free to reach out again, if you need to.
I’ll double check the instructions in the recipe to ensure this is more clear too.
Have a lovely weekend.
-Lisa
xoxo
This looks great! One question – in the photo you have the pastry dough overhanging the springform pan. But when I did this, the crust then made it impossible to get the springform sides off (the pastry was stuck to it). In the final photo you have a clean edge on the pastry top. How did you get this effect?
Hi Robin, thanks for a great question.
When the quiche was finished baking, I used a knife to carefully cut the overhung crust off along the top edge of the pan.
This must be done BEFORE you separate the springform sides.
Once that overhung crust is gone, it’s easy to remove the springform pan. Still, remove it carefully and gently to avoid the tall crust from cracking.
Hope this helps.
xoxo
Good Morning–Perhaps I missed it … where is the cheese placement?
Greetings, Jennifer.
The cheese placement follows the addition of spinach.
It’s easy to miss-lol. No problem.
Good luck with the recipe and let me know if you have any other questions.
Happy weekend,
xoxo
Hello! A bit of confusion with the addition of foil- so once the uncooked pastry is shaped into the springform pan do you line the entire thing with foil on the inside, following the shape the crust has? Or do you just line the top of the pan over top of the pastry?
Thank you!
Hi Maxine, the foil is wrapped around the entire exterior of the springform pan, especially the bottom. You do this after the crust has baked but before the filling has been added.
After you add the filling, carefully lower the foil-covered springform pan into the water bath.
The foil wrapped around the pan including the bottom of the pan, will help prevent any of the water from the bath from seeping into the springform pan and mixing with your filling.
I hope that makes sense.
You are welcome to email me directly if you need any more clarification, have any more questions or just want to chat-lol.
Have a lovey day.
xoxo