Monday, September 10, 2012

What to Do With Leftover Pie Crust Dough: Mini Zucchini Onion Quiches Baked in a Muffin Pan!


I made a strawberry pie earlier in the day, and had a bunch of scraps left from the dough I had rolled out for the top and bottom crusts. The scraps were sitting in plastic wrap in my fridge. Now, I hate to waste perfectly good dough (Ummm, did I say perfect? Why yes, yes I did! The dough is from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert cookbook and it's my new favorite, probably never-to-be-one-upped pie crust recipe).


So anyways, I threw a couple of ingredients together, totally makeshift, a whatever-I-had-in-the-fridge kind of thing, and it turned into an amazing mini quiche recipe that made use of every last ounce of that dough!


So here's the thing. This is not an exact science. Everyone is going to have a different amount of leftover pie dough when they finish making their pie. So, go ahead and make this quiche filling, and if you end up having too much for the amount of pie dough you have left, simply divide up the rest of the filling into buttered ramekins and bake crustless quiches! There's simply no way to fail, guys! The math will work out! You'll net zero extra, wasted crust. You'll gain deliciousness, and maybe a few pounds.


Whatever you do, DO NOT THROW OUT YOUR PIE DOUGH SCRAPS! A much better destiny awaits them!


Mini Zucchini Onion Quiches in Leftover Pie Crust (Though Crustless Quiches Work Great, Too!)
Recipe by Happy Go Marni

3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (feel free to use powdered buttermilk with water instead, or even regular milk)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 zucchini, grated or shredded
1 onion, chopped

However much leftover pie crust dough scraps you have from the delicious pie you were making for dessert

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have an ungreased muffin pan ready.

Divide the leftover pie dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter. On a floured work surface, roll each ball of dough into a circle about 5 inches in diameter, or large enough to cover the bottom and sides of a muffin cup. Gently press the dough into the muffin cup, stretching or patching the dough so that it reaches all the way to the top of the cup. Using the tines of a fork, poke several holes in the dough on the bottom and all over the sides. If you don't have enough pie dough to fill all 12 muffin cups in the muffin pan, fill the empty cups with a half-inch of water. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until golden. If the crust starts to puff up too much in the first 5 minutes, open the oven door and use a fork to puncture the air pockets.

While the mini crusts are in the oven, prepare the quiche filling. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together. Add the buttermilk and stir to combine. Then add in the salt, garlic salt, oregano, and parmesan cheese. Stir in the zucchini and onion.

When the crusts come out of the oven, use a ladle to pour the filling into the crust cups to about 3/4 full. If you have extra filling, butter some ramekins and fill them 3/4 full with quiche filling. Place the ramekins on a lined baking sheet. Return the muffin pan and the ramekins to the oven and bake for 20-35 minutes. I found that I preferred cooking them on the longer side so the tops would be golden, but technically, the eggs are done cooking and ready to eat much sooner.

NOTE: The night I did this, I had enough leftover pie dough to line 12 muffin cups (1 entire muffin pan) with crust. The quiche filling recipe I concocted allowed me to fill all 12 of the crust-lined muffin cups and an additional 4 ramekins of crustless quiches.

ENJOY! Don't eat them all at once!

1 comment:

Mom said...

That looks so delicious! What was the bigger hit? The strawberry pie or your quiches! ;-)

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