Goats cheese & caramelised onion quiche

Quiches are one of those dishes that I think everyone knows! Once you have the base right for this recipe you can easily adapt it with some many flavours and ingredients. 

The classic Quiche Lorraine from France only contains cheese, bacon, cream and eggs. For this quiche recipe, I added thyme, caramelised onions and goats cheese for a delicious sweet and savoury taste. Goats cheese and caramelised are a well known combination and loved by a lot of people (including me!), but its a flavour combination that really works and when I make a quiche - this is usually my go-to recipe. 

Quiche can be served warm or cold, depends on what you prefer. I prefer to have to warm! I made the pastry myself in this recipe, but you can also use pre-made shortcrust pastry to save time. Apart from sweating and cooking the onions, the filling barely takes anytime to put together. This makes enough for a 20-24cm quiche/pie dish. 

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry

225g plain flour 
100g butter, diced
Pinch salt 

Water as required 

For the filling

3 eggs 

150ml milk 

150ml cream 

3 onions, finely sliced 

Knob butter 

Pinch sugar 

75g soft goats cheese 

Thyme leaves from a few sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme) 

Salt, pepper 

Method

• First, make the pastry. In a large bowl, rub together the flour, salt and butter until the reassembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively used a food processor to save time! 
  
  
• Next, add water, little at a time, until the mixture just hold together. Tip out onto a floured work surface and knead until it just comes together. Don't overwork the pastry otherwise it will become tough. Once combined, cover with clingfilm or foil and leave in the fridge whilst you make the filling. The amount of time it takes to make the filling is the perfect amount of time for the pastry to rest in the fridge.
  
  
• In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan (for blind-baking the pastry and cooking the final quiche). 
  
  
• Now take a non-stick saucepan and melt a knob butter. Add the onions and a pinch sugar. Sauté until a low heat until soft and caramelised. Don't be tempted to increase the temperature, a low temperature is key to deliciously soft and caramelised onions. This usually takes around 20 minutes. Once caramelised, turn off the heat. 
  
  
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, and then whisk in the milk and cream. Add the thyme, pinch salt and pepper. Finally mix in the caramelised onions. Set aside whilst you line and blind-bake the pastry dish. 
  
  
• To line the pastry dish, roll out the cooled pastry until 2mm thick. Carefully line a lightly greased pie dish with the pastry (doesn't have to perfect, but make sure that the pastry is pushed into the sides). Prick the base with a fork to ensure the pastry doesn't puff up during blind-baking.
  
  
• To blind-bake the pastry, line the pastry filled pie dish with some baking paper and then weigh down with ceramic baking beans or rice. I have a cup of rice in my baking cupboard which I use for blind-baking. 
  
  
• Place in the oven and  blind-bake for around 15 minutes with baking paper and rice or baking beans in, and then for 10 minutes without the baking paper and rice or baking beans. The purpose of blind-baking is to ensure that the pastry is already crisp and then when the quiche filling is added, it won't go soft during the baking process. 
  
  
• Once the pastry is ready, remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Next, carefully pour in the quiche filling, and ensure that the onions are well dispersed in the pastry mould. Finally, crumble over the goats cheese. 
  
  
• Bake the quiche in the oven for 30-35 minutes until golden and slightly risen. Either serve warm with some nice veggies, or save for lunch the next day!