Don´t be afraid of making quiche from scratch + mini linzer pie for dessert

Today some tips and tricks of making a quiche. I wrote already some time ago how much I do love quiches, sharing my absolute favourite quiche recipe (PUMPKIN QUICHE) and I do not know anyone who does not love them either....BUT I do know quite some people who are a bit afraid of preparing them from scratch...especially when it comes to the base (crust).

I know there are many ways how the crust can be done and some of them are quite complicated or time consuming indeed, sometimes when I do not have that much time to prepare a quiche, but still have some cravings for it, I quickly jump to the following tricks to save time but still delivering a tasty dinner for my family. Not sure how many quiches / pies I have been preparing so far (too many for sure) and every time I would try another trick...of course not all of them are working out, so I did reduce the list to the following tips, which still will guarantee a perfect result and for sure save some of your time....

• Use your food processor to prepare the dough - put flour, salt and butter cut in cubes into the food processor, pulse couple of times, till butter is incorporated into the flour. Add the liquid (spoon wise) till you will reach desired consistency
• Always use ice cold butter, as this will make your crust light and flaky. You will achieve even more lightness in your dough, if you will add a teaspoon of baking powder
• Line your baking form with the rolled dough...as loosely as possible trying to avoid the tearing. Dough is always shrinking while it is baking, it will shrink even more if you are tearing it apart.
• Put the baking form into the freezer while you are preparing the filling, by doing this you can avoid the pre-baking of the crust

Moving on to the easy dessert which can be done within couple of minutes and does not require special ingredients as such.

Linzer mini pie

• 200 g flour
• 60 g brown sugar
• 80 g butter cold
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• your favourite marmalade

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put flour, sugar, butter cut in cubes, baking powder and salt in the food processor and give it couple of spins. Add egg and pulse another couple of times till dough starts to form. Should the dough be too dry, add some cold water (spoon wise) to reach a firm ball of dough (not too sticky).

Roll the dough out, using a cookie cuter cut some circles and flowers (hearts, stars etc.). Grease your muffin thin and put one dough circle in a muffin mold, gently pushing it in. Fill it with your favourite marmalade, about one teaspoon, and top it with a flower, star or heart. Bake for ca. 15-20 minutes, till golden brown. Take the muffin form out of the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for couple of minutes. Take the pies out, dust with some powdered sugar and serve.

Enjoy!