Pepperoni Pizza Quiche

This month’s What’s Baking theme is quiche, which really opens up a world of possibilities. I make quiche or frittatas for dinner every once in a while, and they are a great, quick dinner. My husband likes quiche, too, which is great. I went looking for something interesting, beyond the traditional ham and cheese quiche and I found this recipe for pepperoni pizza quiche. I figured that would be a winner since my husband is such a big fan of pepperoni pizza.

This recipe only uses 3 eggs, which isn’t a lot of for a quiche. The filling also has evaporated milk, which in the end gave this quiche a lovely consistency. This was very easy to make, and we really loved it. The ingredients can be whatever you have. I used turkey pepperoni since it has less fat, and used a combination of shredded mozzarella and shredded Mexican blend, as that was what I had on hand. We added mushrooms. You could really use any combination of meat, cheese and vegetable add in.

As I said, my husband and I really loved this. It was quick and easy to make and tasted wonderful. The texture was nice and creamy, but didn’t have the feeling of being under baked. This will now be my go to recipe for quiche, and I can change up the mix-ins depending on what we have on hand. Thanks to this month’s host, Liz of Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks .

   

Pepperoni Pizza Quiche

1 unbaked 9-inch frozen pie shell

5 ounces sliced mushrooms

8 ounces shredded cheese, divided

2 ounces sliced pepperoni, quartered, divided

12 ounce can evaporated milk

3 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sauté the mushrooms over medium heat until cooked. Allow to cool slightly.

Into the bottom of the pie shell, sprinkle 1 cup of the cheese, half of pepperoni pieces and the cooked mushrooms. In a medium bowl, whisk together the evaporated milk, eggs, flour, Italian seasoning, and the garlic powder. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust. Top with the remaining cheese and pepperoni. Place the quiche on a baking sheet.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe from Nestle

Pierogi Bake

This month’s What’s Baking theme is baking with garlic. We always vote on the theme and I do have to say, this is not the theme I voted for. I don’t like garlic all that much, and I don’t really do savory baking. I thought about a lot of things that I could bake for this month, and I was pretty stuck. I looked at quite a few different bread recipes, but it seems like I always run out of time to bake bread. 

There are a couple of recipes that I make that include garlic. I was making this dish and I realized that it was one of the few dishes that I make that have garlic, and it is baked. In a way, I worry that this isn’t really the spirit of the group, but it was honestly one of the few baked dishes with garlic that I like. I know that just about every blogger in the world has made and posted this dish, but it’s quite different for me!

This is a quick dish, and it’s not too hard to keep the ingredients on hand. You can keep the pierogies in the freezer. I sometimes have bacon and sometimes I don’t; this time I didn’t have any and the dish is still good without the bacon. This dish is very easy; the only tip that I can give is to make sure that the cream cheese is fairly soft when you start, otherwise it takes forever to become smooth. This is a good weeknight dinner, not exactly baking in the way I usually bake, but still baking! 

Pierogi Bake

16 ounce package frozen pierogies

2 slices bacon, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup shredded cheese

¾ cup diced tomatoes

Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 1-1/2 or 2 quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the frozen pierogies in the prepared baking dish.

In a small skillet or medium saucepan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Add the garlic to the bacon fat and cook until fragrant over medium heat, about 30 seconds. Add the cream cheese and continue cooking on medium, until the cream cheese is smooth. Add the chicken broth and stir until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the sauce over the pierogies. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, top with the tomatoes and bacon, and return it to the oven. Bake for 5 additional minutes.

Sprinkle with pepper before serving. Serve hot.

Recipe from Stephanie Cooks

Savory Wheat Crackers

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is for Savory Wheat Crackers. I’ve never made crackers at home, and my husband question how you would even make them! I had seen other cracker recipes before but this was the first time trying to make them. They are as simple as simple gets, just whole wheat flour, water, and salt. Interesting how such simple ingredients can come together to make something. The variations for these crackers comes in the topping. Check out all of the different toppings that the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers used by visiting the Tuesdays with Dorie site .

I topped mine with just sesame seeds and salt, which is a topping I liked. I tried making a half batch of the dough in my medium-sized food processor and I just don’t think that it had enough power. I also couldn’t have the machine process while I added the water. I guess I should have just used the bigger food processor. As a result, my dough didn’t seem quite right. I think it needed more flour, as it was very sticky. When I tried to roll it out, it stuck terribly.

I think the trick to making good crackers is rolling the dough out super thin. When I got my dough really thin, it stuck and when I tried to move it to the baking sheet it wasn’t successful. I baked them up anyway, not as thin as I had hoped, and they are ok. They aren’t crispy though. My husband said they taste kind of like bagels, which I agree. They taste ok, just don’t have the texture that you would expect a cracker to have. So these weren’t the best success, but I really enjoyed trying something new. I missed not being able to make any of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes last month, but I should have more time in the future.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, pages 163-164

Onion Bialys

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is for onion bialys, which are somewhat similar to a bagel without the hole. The recipe is Polish in origin. I’ve not had the best luck making bagels, but some of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers said that these were easy and they came together fairly easily. Ok, I decided to give them a shot. You can see how all of the other bakers faired with this recipe by visiting the Tuesdays with Dorie site . You can find the recipe with a quick Internet search.

I agree that these weren’t very hard to make, but they do take time. With two raising times, each at about an hour and a half, these are an all afternoon affair. It seems like lately I haven’t had very much time to bake, not very much time to do much of anything! It took me all of Sunday afternoon to make these. I guess I didn’t mind but it seems like all of the recipes in this book take a really long time. I am looking forward to a muffin or a cookie or something that comes together quickly.

I seemed to have too much dough to make 12 bialys; I think I should have made 14 or 16 and made them smaller. They baked up nicely, although I left mine in the oven at 450 for a little longer than 5 minutes. Most of mine were puffy all around, rather than flatter in the middle and puffy on the sides. I guess you really have to prick the dough a lot to keep them from being puffy. I liked these, which was a little surprising because I don’t like onion bagels and I wasn’t sure if these would be the same. The onion is nice, but not too strong, which is what I find to be the case with onion bagels. I’m glad I tried these.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, pages 90-92.