Country Quiche with Ham, Leek, Peas & Gruyère and the Easiest Gluten-Free Pâte Brisée Crust
Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Corn-Free, Soy-Free
I define a country quiche as one that’s so chock-full of fillings that it can stand on it’s own as a hearty main and doesn’t need the usual complement of supplemental brunch accessories to flesh out the meal. If you prefer the ultra-sleek custard of a classic French-style quiche, studded with minimal to no additions, that’s great, and I love those as well. This just isn’t that. I’ll be serving this for Easter lunch this year, and leaning into the springtime feelings around ingredients like eggs, ham, leeks, peas and tarragon.
I based my gluten-free crust recipe around a classic pâte brisée, typically an all-butter shortcrust pastry used for savory tarts. The texture is incredibly similar to shortbread cookies, and this version reminds me of a less sweet version of the Lorna Doone cookies my great-aunt Ginny would serve me as a kid watching Tv in her immaculate, plastic-shrouded den. Without gluten, it’s literally impossible to create a tough, fibrous dough, so the crust stays meltingly tender with a buttery crumb no matter how much mixing, pressing, and manipulating you do. There’s also no need for chilling the dough before pressing it into the pie dish—that’s right, no chilling and no ROLLING, which is usually an exercise in frustration and nihilistic suffering when it comes to GF tart crusts or pie doughs. I don’t make false claims when it comes to easiness.
As with all recipes, adapt and make this one your own. Don’t like tarragon or can’t find any fresh? Use thyme or chives or dill. Have bacon instead of ham? Sub it in. Want to make a vegetarian version? Double the veggies! Feel like using asparagus and goat cheese over peas and gruyère? Okay!
If you do prefer the custardy minimal quiche style we can hack this recipe for that as well. Start by reducing the fillings by half (or even two-thirds), and increase the eggs by at least two. For each egg add 1/4 cup additional cream, plus use a standard 9-inch pie dish or 10-inch tart pan instead of a deep-dish. Set your timer for 45 minutes, and after that bake in increments of 8 minutes until the center is lightly set but still jiggly. Then follow my directions for oven-resting in the recipe below and you’re all set (pun intended). Using a smaller pie plate, you will have some tart dough left over, so bake it off into some Lorna Doone copycats as a nod to Aunt Ginny.
A note on herb conversions: If you’re swapping fresh herbs for dried, reduce the amount by two-thirds. For example, 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped tarragon would convert to 1 teaspoon dried (because there are 3 teaspoons per 1 tablespoon). And do the reverse increase when converting dried to fresh. In that case, 1 tablespoon of dried parsley would equal 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley.
A note on blind baking: As Paul Hollywood says, no one like a soggy bottom. Blind baking prevents a raw crust from meeting a wet tart filling and never having a chance to crisp up. If you have pie weights for this sole purpose, good for you. I don’t, but I always have dried beans, dried rice, or often coarse salt on hand that work just as well. Line your unbaked crust with overhanging parchment paper, fill to the top of the tart with weights of choice and you’re ready to bake. And you can skip docking this crust (ie. pricking the dough all over with a fork) after the weights come out before it goes back in the oven. No water gets added to this dough, so there’s not much in the way of steam to release, and docking risks cracking the crisp shell at a delicate stage.
Country Quiche with Ham, Leek, Peas & Gruyère and the Easiest Gluten-Free Pâte Brisée Crust
Makes: One 9-inch deep-dish quiche | 6-8 servings
Active Time: 45 minutes | Baking Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Special Equipment: one 9-inch deep-dish pie plate | pie weights (or dried beans or rice or coarse salt)
Crust:
1 1/3 cup + 2 Tbsp. (260 g) white rice flour
5 Tbsp. (40 g) tapioca starch
2 Tbsp. confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (113 g / 1 stick) cold butter, cubed (I only bother with salted, but do what you want)
1 large egg
Filling:
5 Tbsp. butter, divided
1 large leek (about 1 lb.), trimmed, quartered, and thinly sliced (250 g / 3 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
12 oz. ham steak, cut into 1 cm / 1/2-inch cubes (340 g / 2 cups)
1 cup (140 g) frozen peas, thawed and drained
8 oz. (225 g) gruyère, grated
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (355 ml / 12 oz.) heavy cream
2 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon leaves
3/4 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
For the Crust:
1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Whisk the rice flour, tapioca starch, confectioner’s sugar, baking powder & soda, and salt in a large bowl. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, crumble in the cold butter until the mixture looks and feels like damp, clumpy sand. Add in the egg and stir until the mixture forms into a cohesive ball of dough.
2. Using your hands or the bottom of a drinking glass or ramekin, press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate, about 1/2 cm (1/4-inch) thick. With your fingers, press the dough around the upper edge of the pie plate into a wedge about 1 cm (1/2-inch) above the rim. Using the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand, lightly pinch the outer edge of crust, and with the forefinger of your other hand, make an indent on the opposite side. Repeat this step all the way around the crust to flute the edges. (Or just leave the edges unfluted; either works!)
3. Line the crust with a large piece of overhanging parchment, gently pressing the parchment into contact with the dough. Fill the parchment-lined dish with baking weights and bake 15 minutes. Remove the pie dish from the oven, and grasping the overhanging edges of parchment, lift out the baking weights and set them aside. Using the bottom of the drinking glass or ramekin you used earlier, gently press down the slightly puffed dough along the bottom and sides of the dish. Return the crust to the oven without the weights and bake an additional 8-10 minutes until the crust is set and the edges are lightly golden. Remove from the oven, place the crust on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any filling overflow or spills), and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
For the Filling:
4. While the crust is baking, heat 3 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leek and garlic and cook until soft and beginning to brown, 4-5 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper, remove to a small bowl and set aside. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the skillet and add the ham. Cook until lightly browned and crisp, about 6-8 minutes. Remove to a separate bowl and set aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl or measuring cup, whisk the eggs with the cream, tarragon, salt, pepper, and nutmeg until smooth.
6. Layer half of the leek mixture over the bottom of the crust. Top with half the ham, then half the peas, then half the grated gruyère. Repeat the layering with the remaining ingredients. Carefully pour the egg mixture over the filling all the way to the bottom of the fluted edge. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 1 hour, or until the center is set but still slightly jiggly and the top of the quiche is golden and bubbly. Turn off the oven, crack the door slightly with the handle of a wooden spoon, and let sit for 15-20 minutes more until the center is completely set. Let cool 15-20 minutes before serving, or cool to room temperature before refrigerating loosely covered.
