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Time to wake up, smell the coffee AND these Ham and Leek Quiches! Today I’m sharing how you can kick up your morning breakfast a notch!
Do you find yourself in a breakfast rut? That would be us! We tend to have cereal, bagels, english muffins or toast in the mornings – something quick and easy for the work week. When it comes to the weekend, I like something with a bit more substance especially when I have the time and not have to rush out the door for work.
I originally wanted to make these when our daughter and her husband came a couple weeks ago but due to the flop of a dinner I had the night before with trying to make French Onion soup, no one was in the mood for more onions. Long story short the onions did not caramelize even with cooking them for an hour and my whole house reeked of onions all night long and into the next day! So ya, no one wanted to entertain a quiche for breakfast. I actually couldn’t blame them!
But I had all the ingredients and did not want them to go to waste, so that night I went ahead and made these (the onion smell was finally gone!) We had a couple for dinner and then froze the rest. These freeze beautifully and can be reheated on a cookie sheet in about 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 pre-made pie crusts (I used Trader Joe’s)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 leek cleaned well and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- pinch nutmeg
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese
- 1/2 cup diced ham
- Preheat oven to 375
- Prep dough as directions state (for TJ’s I needed to defrost and actually this is the best pre-made crust I have ever used!)
- Cut 6 circles that are 1/2 inch bigger than the top of the mini quiche pans. Place dough in pan and if you have dough hanging over the edge, turn it to the inside of the pan so you have a thicker layer on the edge. Prick with a folk and line with parchment paper and use pie weights or dry beans as a weight.
- Bake for about 15 minutes until they are light brown and remove from oven and remove parchment paper and beans.
- In a medium saute pan melt the butter then saute the leeks until they are soft (about 8-10 minutes). Remove from heat and cool slightly (you can do this step and the next few while shells are baking)
- Whisk the cream, milk, cornstarch, salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
- On each shell divide the leeks, ham and cheese evenly in each then pour milk mixture over each (place your mini pans on a large cookie sheet to make transporting to oven easier) Do not overfill just be sure it is about 1/4″ below top of crust (you could have a tad mixture leftover)
- Bake until center is set and crust is golden. Mine took about 20-25 minutes.
- Cool on wire rack and serve warm or at room temp. These also freeze extremely well. Just heat back up in oven
Note: the mini quiche pans I used have a removable bottom; push up gently to remove after they have cooled a bit.
The originally recipe called for making your own crust but I highly recommend getting a pre-made one and if you live by a Trader Joe’s, I would definitely get one of theirs in the freezer section. It was the closest to homemade one I’ve ever tried. And if you don’t want to putz with mini, you could make one large quiche, just double the ingredients (but only use 5 eggs and same amount of butter). You would need to add about another 20 minutes onto the baking time.
So since my french onion soup was a flop, I would appreciate a new recipe to try – hint, hint!
Kelly LifemadeSweeter says
This quiche looks delicious Deb! Sounds like an awesome weekend breakfast/brunch dish as well as for brinner 🙂 The crust looks so flaky and tender – I've never tried the TJ's one so gotta pick one up to have on hand next time we stop by. Pinning, thanks for sharing Deb!
Marcie FlavortheMoments says
I'm in a breakfast rut right now, Deb, but this quiche would certainly fix that! These look so delicious, and the leeks are such a great addition — they're flavor adds so much to a dish. 🙂
Nancy Piran says
Looks amazing Deb!
Ann Jones says
Your quiche is beautiful! I love using leeks in dishes in the spring!
Carrie R says
I LOVE this, Deb! 🙂 This would be a wonderful addition to an Easter brunch.
And boo about the French onion soup. I made one from scratch about a month ago & it turned out really well. I will have to find the link to the recipe I used & send it your way. 😉
Cindy says
Quiche is my favorite food group–this looks delicious! Can't wait to put it on the menu.
Utah finally got a Trader Joe's–I was so excited. I would always visit them when I went to see my kids in Vegas, Washington and Chicago. But our Trader Joe's is in downtown Salt Lake City. Sadly I live about an hour out so I still haven't been there. I wish I had a Trader Joe's next door!
Adelina Priddis says
quiche is my favorite all time comfort food. I don't have it often, but I think this may make it to our Sunday mornings. Thanks for sharing it!!
WearEatLove says
I've just made a leek quiche, love your recipe!
Angela Muir says
This looks like a great brunch item, def pinning to try later! thanks 🙂 http://www.handmadeintheheartland.com/
Cindy Eikenberg, Little Miss Celebration says
Deb, this looks beautiful and sounds so delicious! I love quiche so much! Thank you for sharing at Best of the Weekend – pinned! Have a happy Sunday!
Brittany B says
These look delicious!
As for the soup, I have a pretty easy recipe here. It turned out delicious on my first try, the addition of red wine helps a lot.http://www.thedomesticgeekblog.com/2013/12/simple-french-onion-soup-recipe.html
Cathy Trochelman says
Haha….sorry about the French Onion soup…..good thing it was only your daughter, right?? This quiche looks amazing, though….you totally redeemed yourself!
Jamie Sherman says
I only have about 3 or 4 quiche recipes that I make, so I need a new one! This sounds wonderful, Deb!
Cindy Eikenberg, Little Miss Celebration says
Deb, I love quiche and don't make it nearly as often as I would like to eat it! This looks so delicious!! Pinned and tweeting!
Sara Glover says
I've never made quiche but I really want to now! this looks so good!