Recipe

Four De Lys Quiche

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by Aliwaks

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by Aliwaks

This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Late Winter Tart (Sweet or Savory)
Chef
Aliwaks's Notes: Perfect for a blustery day with a glass of red wine and salad of bitter greens, the onions turn almost meaty after a long cook. This quiche reminds me of one of the things I love best about...
Perfect for a blustery day with a glass of red wine and salad of bitter greens, the onions turn almost meaty after a long cook. This quiche reminds me of one of the things I love best about my hometown NYC, the Pletzel... if you've never had one you really must, its a chewy poppy seed and onion sort of flat bread bread that is near impossible to find anywhere other than Crown Heights, the Lower East Side or Zabars and even then they are rare. A warm pletzel smothered in cream cheese is beyond delight on a cold morning....I've used four types of onions, alliums, lillies, to replace the burnt onion taste (hence the name) and a soft super easy extremely pliable poppy seed studded whole wheat cream cheese crust. I used beautiful locally milled organic pastry flour, the dough was so lovely to work with, even for a complete novice like me. If you can't find pastry flour, change to 50/50 (whole wheat/white flour) split to keep the dough tender, and eliminate the extra tbs.

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Cream together butter & cream cheese till fluffy
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Work in flour, salt & poppy seeds, by hand until the dough comes together to a soft ball, shape into a disc and wrap well with plastic wrap
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Refrigerate 30 minutes
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Flour your rolling area and pin, flatten out disc, roll in each direction using quick assertive sort of thrusts, rather than pushing down on the pin and smooshing the dough. Flip the dough over and rearrange until you have a circle of sorts about 1/8" thick
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Drape dough over a 8" spring form pan, sort of nudge the dough gently with your knuckles into the bottom, let it hang over a bit (it shrinks when par baking)
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Using a fork poke hole in the bottom (about 8)
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Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes (left over dough makes great Rugelach)
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Melt butter over a low flame, when it is just frothing add the leeks, onions, shallots & garlic + thyme sprig...season with salt & pepper, stir about a bit and wait for a while, like 15-20 minutes, stirring every so often, you want these to become a brown sticky amalgam (you can do this while the dough is resting)
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Blend together (using hand or reg blender) the eggs, cream cheese & cream..season with salt & pepper and a few grating of fresh nutmeg
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Layer cover bottom of crust with caramelized onion + 1/3 cup gruyere, pour in 1/2 the custard mix, add remaining onions & 1/3 cup gruyere, pour in the last of the custard and cover top with remaining gruyere
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Bake at 350 for about an hour...give it a jiggle test, it should just quiver ever so slightly when it's done. Let sit @ 15 minutes before slicing
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