Thank you, Martha (extra fattening)

I made mini-quiches recently, and they were incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I didn't even get after photos.  They were devoured almost immediately, and all I'm left with is this:



A photo of them in the oven is all I have to remember their deliciousness.

Now, these aren't exactly the easiest snack I've ever made, but they are incredible. The pastry was absolutely perfect: flaky, crunchy, buttery.  Martha's recipe was perfect, although I did make a small addition: instead of making the pate brise in the food processor I froze the butter and grated it (a la Joy the Baker), gently mixing it into the flour and salt, and then adding water until the dough formed.  It was divine.

I followed Martha on the custard base, and customized the fillings. I had scallions, broccoli, and cheese, in one batch and bacon and cheese in the other.  Cheese, it's essential; you must have it.  I don't know if you could alter the custard base to be a little less fatty (it is heavy on egg yolks and cream), because it had such a wonderful texture and flavour.  I will have to try it next time.

One change I did make is to make the mini quiches in muffin tins instead of mini-muffin tins. To do this I used the whole pate brisee recipe, Martha suggests only using half to make 24 mini-muffins, and had to just about double the filling recipe.  I rolled each of my cutouts a little more after cutting them, because I didn't have a cutout big enough for the muffin tins.  I don't remember how much I altered the baking time though, so go by your gut?

So go forth! Make mini quiches! And maybe just follow Martha's recipe and not mine.