Quiche Basics

• Reduced to its essentials, a quiche can be thought of as an "omelet pie." In the days before meats were cheap and plentiful, quiche's combination of readily available eggs and cream made it a hearty, high-protein meal for hardworking farmers. The crust provides a pleasantly contrasting texture, and also makes it more filling. You can keep your quiche very simple if you prefer, with just a small amount of cheese or chopped fresh herbs for flavor. Other recipes call for large quantities of diced meats, vegetables or aromatic ingredients. Personalizing the result to your own taste is part of quiche's charm.

Preparing Your Freezer

• If you want to prepare unbaked quiche for later meals, you'll need to clear a flat, stable area in your freezer to accommodate it. In a refrigerator's freezer compartment this should ideally be on the floor of the freezer, or directly on the rack if you have one. Balancing your quiche atop an unsteady pile of frozen vegetables creates the risk of a messy and time-consuming cleanup. In a chest freezer your options might be more limited, but most have a raised ledge over their compressor. If you can clear that, it's a good spot for your quiche to freeze.

Preparing the Quiche

• Make up the crust according to your favorite recipe, and use it to line a quiche pan or deep pie plate. To minimize the risk of a soggy crust, it's best to pre-bake the shell for 15 to 20 minutes and let it cool. That way, it will absorb less moisture from the filling. Once the pastry's taken care of, prepare your filling. Some recipes call for the milk and cream to be heated, then stirred into the eggs. If your recipe makes a hot filling, it should be cooled all the way to refrigerator temperature before you fill the pastry shell and place it in the freezer.

Tips

• To minimize the risk of spillage, place a small tray under the quiche when you freeze it. Once the quiche is frozen, press a circle of parchment or a sheet of plastic film wrap directly to the surface of the frozen eggs to keep out any air. Pack the quiche into a heavy-duty freezer bag, without removing it from the pan. The pan provides protection against bumps and breakage while the quiche is frozen. To cook the quiche, remove it from the freezer and slide it into a preheated oven. Cook it at the temperature called for in your recipe, but extend the baking time by 15 to 20 minutes to compensate for the frozen eggs.