This weekend I contributed to throwing my sister a baby shower. It's her first baby (a little girl), and she's due at the beginning of May. One of my duties was to provide some of the appetizers. Hubster and I had quite the successful Christmas cocktail party this past holiday season, and one of the appetizers we painstakingly prepared were mini-quiches. They were a real hit, and so naturally I thought they would make a classy addition to the menu of my sister's baby shower. And then, three days before the shower, one of the other planners emailed me, and asked me to submit "baby-related names" for all of my food items, so that she could make "cute" labels. Coming out of a busy week, and feeling very stressed, I wasn't very much into this new idea. So, these quiches now have a new name in our house. They're the "Don't Call Me Baby" Quiches, and they are oh-so-delicious. You make 'em like this:
Ingredients: (these are the amounts you'll need to make 24 quiches. The times we've made this, we've always doubled this recipe (as reflected in the pictures) to make 48, which was great for a party where there were around 15 guests. People tend to eat more than one)
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 lb. bacon
- 1 cup (4 oz) shredded gruyere (swiss) cheese
- 1 Tbs snipped fresh chives
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Dash cayenne pepper
Put the butter and cream cheese out on the counter for 20 minutes to a half hour to soften.
Then, beat them together when an electric mixer until kind of fluffy.
Then, blend in the flour (you'll have to do this with your hands).
incorporate it all into a ball, roll the ball in saran wrap, and refrigerate for one hour.
While the dough is setting in the fridge, go ahead and cook up your bacon.
When it's done, place it on a plate covered in paper towels to help absorb some of the grease.
When the bacon is cool, break it into small pieces.
Take a good bunch of chives (fresh, fresh, always FRESH!) and dice them into small pieces.
Now, roll the dough into 24 balls (about 1 inch in diameter). It helps to actually section out the big ball of dough before you do this in order to ensure each ball is around the same size.
Press each ball into an ungreased mini-muffin cup to form a pastry shell.
This is what they should look like when you're all done.
Then, in assembly line fashion, evenly distribute the bacon, chives, and shredded gruyere into each cup. Prepare the custard by whisking the eggs, half-and-half, salt and cayenne until blended. Pour evenly into each pastry shell. Pour SLOWLY, the custard will take its time absorbing down into the cups.
Bake 20 to 30 minutes or until set in a 375 degree oven. You want them to get nicely browned and puffed on top, like so:
Remove from the pans and serve hot, or allow to cool on wire racks. You can place them in a 300 degree oven for about 15 minutes to warm them back up before the guests arrive!
