Courgette, Pine Nut & Goat Cheese Quiche

This quiche is delicious and unbelievably creamy. The secret is to blend sautéed courgettes with the egg, milk and cream. I enjoyed every single bite and I can’t wait to bake it again soon.

If you are not a big fan of goat cheese you can swap it with any cheese you like. The same applies to the nuts and if you want an extra flavour kick you can add in some tasty bacon.

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Ingredients

For the dough:
200g plain flour
100g butter
1 egg
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 pinch of salt

For the filling:
400g courgettes
1 handful of basil
100g goat cheese
3 tbsp on olive oil
30g of pine nuts
100g of double cream
200g of milk
1 tbsp of flour
4 eggs
1 clove of garlic
salt & Pepper

Step by Step

• Mix flour with salt in a big bowl

• Cut the cold butter in cubes and rub it with your fingers in the flour until it's incorporated and looks like wet sand. If you are using a stand mixer mix the butter and flour with the paddle attachment.

• Add the egg and olive oil and bring the mixture together forming a ball. Don’t over-mix it, it is actually ok to be able to see little pieces of butter within the dough

• Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30min at least

• Chop the courgettes and sauté them in a non stick pan with the garlic and olive oil. Season to taste and once they are soft and more of the water has evaporated add in your basil leaves. Set aside to cool down

• Time to line your quiche case. Butter the case a roll out the pastry at about 4mm thickness. Line your case and cut off with the knife any excess pastry. Now put the tin in the fridge for 30min

• In the meantime switch your oven on at 180 C static (or 160 FAN)

• Take your quiche case out of the fridge and line it with baking beans. Blind bake it for roughly 15 mins. You want the edges to be golden

• Take your quiche case out of the oven, get rid of the baking beans and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes on its own. If you want, you can brush it with some egg white to seal it and avoid any leakage and put it back in the oven for an additional 5 min (just enough time to let the egg white dry)

• Beat the eggs and add in the milk and double cream, flour and season with salt and pepper

• Separately blend the cooked courgettes and add them into the quiche mix

• Pour the mixture in the tart case, add in your sliced goat cheese and scatter the pine nuts on top

• Put the quiche back into the oven for roughly 40 to 45 minutes

• Let it cool down and enjoy!

Tips & cheats

I’ve covered this topic before but it’s important to remind ourselves that crispy pastry is not magic. It’s just a matter of keeping the temperature of your pastry cold and to avoid the butter melting. When it’s warm, your fridge and your freezer are your biggest allies. This is when and how you should use them:

• The butter will inevitably melt a bit, but you shouldn’t have shiny, greasy hands. If you feel the butter melting in your hands when rubbing it in the flour, stop immediately and put your bowl in the fridge for 15-20 min

• If your pastry feels too soft before rolling it out, put it in the freezer for 10 min

• Once you have composed the tart and you are waiting for the oven to heat up, put the whole tart in the fridge

In other words, every time you feel your pastry has been managed too long, is getting too soft or your hands are greasy just put it in the fridge or freezer for a little while. Your ultimate goal is to prevent the butter from melting.