Prosciutto & Spring Onion Gluten-free Mini Quiches
Photography by Simeon Crofts
DIETARY – Gluten-free, Nut-free
This recipe is a long one but can be made much shorter by buying your gluten-free puff pastry from the supermarket. Lots of homemade gluten-free pastry recipes call for an egg to be added to the initial dough to help the pastry bind together. I have tried making this both with and without an egg and I personally found that, though the pastry was slightly trickier to work with, it came out much crisper and flakier without adding an egg to the dough. My hubby also preferred the taste and texture without.
When I experimented with making these for my celiac hubby, he wasn’t even sure he liked quiche. But after all that work, I sure hoped he did! Thankfully, after they’d cooled a little, hubby tasted one and exclaimed out loud how wonderful they tasted – this is not his usual reaction, he’s normally a thumbs-up kind of guy at best, so I knew they had to be good! So good in fact he insisted on eating all of them in just two days! Not what I recommend of course, but hopefully by now, I’ve persuaded you they’re worth the effort.
I’ll be completely honest, the gluten-free pastry is tricky to work with as, unsurprisingly, it doesn’t behave like normal pastry. It starts to flake and crumble after chilling in the fridge and can become really frustrating to work with. But persevere, the end result is totally worth it! The key to success is temperature. As with any butter pastry, keeping it cold is essential to enable you to work more easily with it. If it gets too warm the butter will melt and you’ll end up with a sticky mess. Work quickly and coldly and you should be fine!
Of course, you can also buy pre-made gluten-free puff pastry, which is readily available from most supermarkets (usually found in the freezer aisle) for a quicker, just as tasty alternative. These quiches are great for lunch, dinner, as a snack or to take on a picnic. They taste scrumptious served warm or cold and keep well in the fridge for approx. four days. You can, of course, play around with the filling to make them vegetarian or try different meat and veg combinations. I hope you enjoy as much as my hubby did!
Prosciutto & Spring Onion Gluten-free Mini Quiches
Ingredients:
- 350g gluten-free plain flour, plus extra for rolling out the pastry
- 260g butter
- Pinch of salt
- 12-14 tbsp cold water OR
- Use pre-made gluten-free puff pastry from the supermarket (usually found in the freezer aisle)
- 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
- 5 slices of prosciutto, diced
- 5 spring onions, sliced
- 1½ cups whole milk
- 3 eggs, plus 1 extra for the egg wash
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Around an hour before you want to start making your pastry, grate your butter and separate 60g in one bowl or a sealed plastic bag, and put the remaining 200g in another. Put them both in the freezer. Really cold butter makes working with gluten-free pastry a whole lot easier!
- When you’re ready to make your pastry, take a bowl and add your flour, salt and the 60g portion of your grated butter. Mix then start adding your cold water, a couple of tablespoons at a time, until the dough comes together (but is not too wet).
- On a well-floured surface, knead your dough until it’s smooth and firm. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 10 minutes in the fridge.
- Roll the dough out on your floured surface until you have a large rectangle (approx. 9” W x 14” L).
- Working quickly, sprinkle half your remaining butter (100g) over the bottom two-thirds of the rectangle.
- Fold over the top third of the dough (without the butter on) to cover the middle third of your rectangle. Then, fold the top over again to cover the remaining third. You should now have butter sandwiched between each fold. This is called laminating the butter. At this stage, I like to put my dough back in the fridge for 15 minutes before rolling it out again, as you’ll be surprised how quickly the butter melts and becomes tricky to work with!
- Take your dough out of the fridge and turn 90° so one of the open ends is facing you. Roll it out to form another long rectangle around the same size. Working quickly, sprinkle your remaining butter on the bottom two-thirds and fold again in the same way as above. Wrap your dough and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Roll out your dough and complete three more folds, so you have folded your dough five times in total. You can chill the dough in the fridge or freezer between each fold to prevent the butter from melting. If it melts it will make the dough stick and become tricky to work with. Gluten-free dough does crack a lot more than regular puff pastry, this is completely normal. You can trim the edges with each roll out to help keep the rectangle in shape.
- After your fifth turn, wrap the dough and store until needed. I left mine overnight, but you can use yours after 1-2 hours if desired. If you want to make fewer mini quiches, you can cut your pastry in half and freeze it.
- Take a 12-hole muffin tin and grease well with butter or oil.
- Take your dough (purchased or homemade) and roll out to around 5mm thick. Using a 10cm-round pastry cutter, cut out your discs one at a time and put into each muffin hole. Gluten-free pastry has a habit of tearing but can be easily patched up with a little more pastry as and where you need it. This will not affect your finished quiches.
- Once you have moulded each pastry case into each hole, put into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 190°C (170°C Fan)/375°F/Gas Mark 5.
- Gently prick the base of each pastry case with a fork and brush with egg wash (1 egg whisked). Put in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
- While your pastry is having its first bake, whisk together the milk, eggs and pepper for your quiche filling.
- Take your pastry cases out of the oven and begin assembling your quiches. First, take half of your cheese and sprinkle a layer over each pastry base. Then, sprinkle on your prosciutto followed by the spring onions.
- Pour your egg mix over each case then top with the remaining grated cheese. Put back in the oven for 25 minutes. Your quiches are ready when golden on top with a slight wobble in the middle.
- I like to let my quiches cool for 5 minutes then take them out and pop on to a baking tray for a second 5-minute bake to crisp up the outside of each quiche, but this is a personal preference and not an essential step.