The farmer I buy from had put TWO humongous heads of broccoli in my bag instead of the one that I planned for.
So I went to the store to pick up some deep dish frozen pie crusts so I could make broccoli quiche. But I couldn’t find it at first and started to get creative about what I could use instead because the pie crust always ends up mushy. Even the time I had pre-baked it – that did not work out well at all.
I eventually found the frozen pie crusts, but I decided to try something new because, again, the crust often ends up mushy.
So I came home with a box of puff pastry and some GRANDE Burrito flour tortillas. My thinking with the flour tortillas is that I could bake the quiche with crust and then serve it with the flour tortilla. But that doesn’t seem like a great idea after all.
Same with the puff pastry. Soggy egg and puff pastry sounds disgusting.
So now I’m thinking maybe cherry pie filling using the puff pastry somehow? I have never used puff pastry – good idea, or terrible idea?
All ideas welcome.
Anyway, I’m probably not the first person to have an idea that “seemed like a good idea at the time”. So feel free to share your stories, too.
edit: And anything else not related to The Horrors.
Professor Bigfoot
I vacuum sealed a rack of baby-back ribs with a marinade of various seasonings and a splash of apple cider vinegar on Sunday to put in the smoker on Monday.
Alas, ’twas not to be. ;)
By the time it gets cooked, it will be well and truly marinated.
Xavier
Pie crust is easy to make from scratch and turns out great. Just don’t mix it any more than you have to, because too much kneading makes bread dough. For a two crust pie, 2 c all purpose flour, 1 t salt, 2/3 c plus 2T shortening, 6 or 7 T water.
Scout211
If you’re needed a suggestion for using the extra broccoli, I would suggest a casserole with chicken, broccoli, cheese and rice. Lots of good recipes on the internet for that. It always goes over well in my house and good as leftovers.
Rachel Bakes
My main use for frozen puff pastry is as the top crust for chicken pot pie.
or for Brie en croute
Dan B
Have you brushed the bottom crust with ghee? That should seal the crust from moisture.
Suzanne
@Xavier: I have my mom’s food processor from the 70s and I have used it to make pie crust very successfully and easily. I like to make quiche for holiday brunches. I’ve never had an issue with it being soggy.
SpaceUnit
We should totally mess with WG and use this thread to discuss Fighting Them Where They Are.
TheOtherHank
Make a frittata. It’s basically a quiche, but has a layer of cooked, thinly slice potatoes instead of a crust. I assemble mine in the cast iron pan in which I fry up the potatoes.
Comrade Colette
I’ve made puff pastry quiche many a time – not soggy. The key is to bake it long enough. Here’s the recipe I start with, which conveniently for you includes broccoli. You can switch up the other ingredients however you like.
I agree that the flour tortillas don’t match up with the quiche, but they do sound like an excuse to make some nice seasoned shredded chicken.
Bon appétit!
ETA: Sure you can use the puff pastry for a pie or tart, but I’d suggest something less wet than cherry pie filling. Apples, pears, or even pumpkin would work, and in summer nectarines or plums would be great.
Scout211
@Xavier: That’s pretty close to my pie crust recipe that my mother taught me. It’s from the circa 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook.
I agree that it’s easy to make pie crust from scratch but many people would disagree with us. It is always flakier and even when making quiche, I don’t get soggy crusts that often occur with ready-made ones.
Steve in the ATL
I’m afraid to post on your threads now!
Bupalos
If it’s quiche, my input is “nothing can make that work.”
Egg pie? Seriously y’all? Egg fucking pie?
I second the frittata suggestion above. Also I don’t know where you are but ramps are up in my woods, and ramp greens and eggs are a match made… wherever the best matches are made.
WaterGirl
@Dan B:
ghee – I don’t know what that is, so I’m going with “no”. :-)
edit: Answered! (clarified butter)
WaterGirl
@TheOtherHank: Hmmm. So how do you keep the milk/ egg/ cheese liquid from oozing between the potato slices?
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: I hope you’re teasing because this is not a good day for me, so if you mean that it will make me sad.
Keith P.
Puff pastry? Try cherry tarts instead
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: clarified butter, but simmered rather than strained like French clarified butter.
An on topic post!
karen gail
@WaterGirl: ghee; is clarified butter. Most butters contain some butter milk, cooking or clarifying rids you of that milk.
Unless you were kidding about no knowing what ghee is.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Clarified butter.
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: just joking!
Scout211
Mmmmmmm. Egg pie. Yum.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@WaterGirl: it’s clarified butter. They use it a lot in Indian cooking, which I think is where the name comes from
ETA as usual, late to the party!
Jay
Philo first with butter, (crunch) then puff pastry in the pie plate, with butter coated, keeps it from getting soggy from the egg.
Lose the broccoli, add bacon, caramelized onions and browned chanterelles.
karen gail
@Xavier: I still like my grandmas recipe; she used lard, which used to be really cheap. For some reason one lady I knew liked to make meat pies and she always used bacon grease; then of course she fried bacon and poured off the grease into can that was in easy reach of stove.
scav
Puff pastry? Works well in these sort of flat tarts. Don’t know if this is exactly the one mom makes, but it’s close: Asparagus Tart She’s also got a stellar rhubarb one close to this one: Rhubarb Frangipane tart.
TheOtherHank
@WaterGirl: I’ve never had a problem with that. My usual frittata is a layer of potatoes (I usually slice up 2 or 3 reasonably sized yukon gold potatoes. And I do this in a 10″ cast iron pan, so the layer is several slices deep) that have been fried in some of the bacon grease left over from frying up a few slices of chopped up bacon. Then some spinach that I wilt in the pan, then the bacon, maybe some pre-sauted onions and garlic, may some mushrooms. Then shredded cheese (usually swiss) and finally some whisked up eggs (usually 6 or 7 or 8). I let all that cook on the stove top until the eggs touching pan start to cook and then put it in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or so.
Edit: subbing some steamed broccoli for the spinach would work great
zhena gogolia
I love quiche.
If you prebake the crust, it doesn’t get too soggy. But it’s always going to be a little soggy. But it’s soggy with eggs and cheese, so it’s delicious!
WaterGirl
@Keith P.: How would you make a tart with puff pastry? Aren’t those round? The sheets are square.
edit: oh my gosh, tarts apparently don’t have to be round. Who knew? (besides everybody but me!)
persistentillusion
I just did the veg and cheese roll-ups from the back of the box. I substituted spinach and mushrooms, cooked down and lots of cheese. Yummy. Didn’t last a day until all gone.
persistentillusion
Puff pastry. Just did the veg and cheese pin-wheels from the recipe on the back of the box. Substituted spinach and mushrooms for the veg and added lots of cheese. Yum.
kindness
I use a cream cheese crust and add sesame seeds to it for my quiche. Yea, you have to pre-bake it but takes nothing.
SpaceUnit
I remember getting some sort of puff pastry meat pie at a festival a while back. Can’t recall what the vendor actually called them. Very tasty. I just googled puff pastry meat pie though and it brought up a bunch of recipes.
Damn, now I’m getting hungry.
WaterGirl
@kindness: Pre-baking for me made the crust completely inedible. It was bad.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
I have heard of using vodka, or a mix of water and vodka, to make the crust so that the liquid element evaporates more quickly and the pie is therefore less soggy.
However, most of the people who do this kind of thing make their dought in a stand mixer, those $500 behemoths that serious bakers use. If you have one of those, here’s a recipe:
https://cheflindseyfarr.com/vodka-all-butter-pie-crust/
The return of Mo Salad
Sanders Hot Fudge CreamPuffs.
Split them in half horizontally, put ice cream in the middle, put the top back on, then drown in hot fudge or caramel topping.
WaterGirl
Maybe I could do a (sort of) quiche with the puff pastry, but leaving out the eggs and milk?
broccoli, onions, cheese, with the puff pastry. I’ll have to look at what else is in the recipe.
@scav: I will see if I can modify those.
Jay
@TheOtherHank:
You must be rich. How the hell can you afford an 8 egg frittata?
That’s like $24 dollars just in eggs alone.//
bluefoot
A friend of mine recently made buffalo chicken bites and buffalo cauliflower bites with some puff pastry she had lying around. She cut it into squares, put them into cupcake tins, and filled with the two fillings and baked. A different friend uses puff pastry to make savory palmiers. Lightly sautes finely chopped mushrooms, scallions, some herbs. Let cool, mix in some grated cheese. Spread onto puff pastry, roll into palmier shape, cut and bake. Stores them in ziploc bags in the freezer until wanted
I’d probably use puff pastry for something sweet – maybe berry turnovers? Which is probably why both my friends above are in better physical shape than I am….
Doc Sardonic
To make the square sheets fit, cut them to shape with a sharp pair of kitchen shears, or a straight razor if you wish to go all Sweeney Todd on it.
mrmoshpotato
Cherry turnovers! 😋
karen gail
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: I found that fresh ground flour works the best for vodka pie crusts; I also have a recipe for using rum in pastry when you fry with meat and veggie fillings.
bluefoot
If I had extra broccoli, I’d probably end up doing a bunch of stir fry. Which you could then put into the tortillas maybe?
I made some broccoli quiche for a brunch a while back and it froze quite well. I ended up eating quiche + salad on days when I didn’t have time to cook. Microwaving it was fine.
Melancholy Jaques
I like to wrap brie in puff pastry & bake it. Eat with jalapeño jelly.
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: mmm
Ten Bears
Tortillas make great quiche! I do it all the time, with spinach and broccoli and stuff. Do it in a buttered glass pie-tin in the freezer with the tortilla while mixing everything up in one big bowl, poured over the tortilla as you’re putting into a 4:20 oven for whatever it takes for it to souffle. I’m at sea level these days (really) so usually about thirty minutes; temps are also personally variant and by stuff I mean onions and habaneros and maybe chipotle grain sausage topped with some shredded veggie cheese
I have also found that Pillsbury pie-crusts out of the dairy section work as well …
zhena gogolia
@Ten Bears: You put the tortillas in the freezer while you mix the filling?
They Call Me Noni
@Melancholy Jaques: That sounds good.
Xavier
@Scout211: Right, Betty Crocker red hardcover with the covers worn completely off.
Martin
Nearly accidentally walked into traffic yesterday and caught myself at the last second. Starting to reconsider that decision.
Pyre Light
https://www.purewow.com/recipes/deb-perelman-carrot-tarte-tatin
This is a great recipe for using up that puff pastry
Scout211
@Xavier: Yes! I bought a new one when they reissued the 1950 edition and then I gave the falling apart one to my daughter.
It was reissued in 1998 and Amazon still sells it, if you need a new one. :) I love that cookbook!
Ohio Mom
Chop up one of the heads and put them in a freezer ziplock bag and save them for another day. Maybe you have to blanch them first? I don’t know, that’s what google is for.
I like broccoli but not several times in a row.
Tim C
My son was elected to be senior patrol leader to his accepting, trans-friendly, all-gender scout troop. He’s a good dude and the scouts (formerly boy scouts, now Scouting America), seem to be going in the direction of progress and being a 2025 version of what Norman Rockwell might approve of.
Fight the Nazis and we will mostly be okay.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Yikes, glad you are okay!
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
Blanch.
WTFGhost
@Xavier: It also helps to rest the dough in the refrigerator, or, to use it cold. This helps with flakiness – the cold fat turns liquid, then to steam, while baking, creating the flakes.
Puff pastry will hold up to some toppings, though not especially soggy ones. I would consider spreading a cream cheese mixture (guarding against sogginess), and some jellied-cherry on top of that (thicker than cherry pie, but it will thicken some while baking), and you should get puffiness, and deliciousness.
Or so I think.
Keep in mind, I didn’t even start watching Great British Bakeoff until y’all had seen 4-5 seasons, so all of my baking experience with puff pastry is… well, cruel people would say “purely imaginary!” but some of my TV friends did it, and it worked!
WTFGhost
@Jay: She’s the one who always depended on the kindness of strangers. Why?
zhena gogolia
@Tim C: Great news!
zhena gogolia
@WTFGhost: That was Blanche.
WTFGhost
@Martin: Never, ever, accidentally walk into traffic. Try to avoid doing so intentionally, too – we don’t want you hurt, harmed, or clinging to the hood of some idiot driving like a bastard for Vegas, with at least a quart of ether (cf: Hunter S. Thompson).
(Someone else can add the “and besides, you might wreck someone’s car or cause a traffic jam” joke – I’m not in a lighthearted mood today, so no jokes about death mattering less than property or time.)
WaterGirl
@Tim C: Great news. So hopeful.
windpondalaska
I bake for a living and have found Julia’s Pate Brisee Ordinaire recipe a never fail. You just have to be able to read. 3.5 C white flour, 2-1/4 sticks chilled butter cubed, 5T Crisco, 2t salt 1/4t sugar, 3/4 C ice water more or less. Combine all but water until butter starts to blend, then slowly add water until mixture forms a ball that stays together but isn’t mushy. Divide into 3 or 4 balls, press into a flat circle, wrap, refrigerate. Then roll out into 10-12″ circle and bake.
NotMax
Skip the crust, go with a creamy casserole?
(Can substitute a mix of half sour cream, half cream cheese for the canned soup.)
NotMax
@Scout211
After 25 years in the General Mills kitchens Betty Crocker went stir crazy.
::rimshot::
Jay
@WTFGhost:
Cute, blond, presented a dumb, outlived them all and had some pretty epic burns,….
Still like Lake Placid.
CarolPW
@Melancholy Jaques: Or mango chutney!
HinTN
@karen gail: Mama had a can that had a strainer upper section and a top right next to the stove. Bacon grease was always available.
We leave our butter on the counter in a butter dish. Fat is fat. Yum
NotMax
@HinTN
In Hawaii that results in a puddle of butter.
:)
Betty
@Scout211: Make sure you use cold water and do not handle the dough more than necessary. If the shortening melts from your warm hand, it makes the crust hard rather than flaky. My Mom was a master pie baker. Often made three before Mass on Sunday morning.
Lymie
Well, my comment got eated by network loss.
Consider a no-crust quiche, perhaps with a water bath, and serve with toasted crostini.
Puff pastry is super easy and useful as long as you keep it cold, or give it time in the fridge, and pop it into a hot oven.
If you google cherry cream cheese puff pastry you get some lovely choices…
Rachel Bakes
@Bupalos: We rented a car and drove around Britain around 2003, stopping to grab lunch at bakeries usually in the form of pasties. One day my husband saw “bacon and egg pie” and figured “quiche” so he got a slice. Two hours later he learned that it was a pie shell with a dozen eggs cracked into it, some rashers of raw bacon thrown in and baked as is, with nary stir or whisk. Whole egg yolks solidified in the white with barely cooked bacon winding through it. His lunch was not a success that day.
Melancholy Jaques
@CarolPW:
Or both!
WaterGirl
@Rachel Bakes: eeewww. sad day.
WTFGhost
@Rachel Bakes: After reading Terry Pratchett, and a bit about UK pie making, I decided I’d be awfully careful about trusting anything called “pie” after hearing of something called a “wet pie” with seafood. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the concept – I’m just saying I was going to know what was in it, before I ate it.
Thankfully, I already knew about haggis, and was unafraid. Sheep stomachs don’t scare me, odd pies do. (So do odd pis, because when pi isn’t roughly 3.1415926535897932385, and is instead 3, or 5, things get really freaky.)
Steve in the ATL
@Rachel Bakes: British food bad? What????
NotMax
@WTFGhost
Haggis is yummy, both from and to the tummy.
Scots version of the Jewish dish stuffed derma.
;)
WTFGhost
@Bupalos: Hm. I kinda-sorta-see your point, but, I also know that there’s a kind of worship of eggs that seems required of most capital-c Chefs. You must be able to make a perfect omelette (is that the correct spelling en fran-seis?), custard, and otherwise gently perform miracles with egg protein, and I’m sure there’s something about quiche (pronounced “kwishee”) that is supposed to be heavenly food, undoubtedly what one eats along with the golden apples that restored youth.
Still: you’d probably find that it’s still egg pie, and more power to you.
NotMax
@WTFGhost
Not to mention soufflé.
;)
JaneE
Puff pastry on top of almost anything. Fruits/berries call it a cobbler. Savories call it a pot pie. Multiple blind baked pieces with strawberries and whipped cream on top of each one call it a shortcake. Just don’t put it on the bottom of anything. Or cook up your broccoli quiche sans crust in a skillet and serve it as a burrito in your tortillas.
AnneWith
Puff pastry + Nutella = if I make this I will eat every last bit.
Kayla Rudbek
My mom has a broccoli hot dish recipe that I sorely miss now (cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, and stuffing are not foods that I can or should eat anymore due to allergies and diabetes).
ingredients:
10 ounces of frozen broccoli
1.5 cups stuffing (Pepperidge Farm or other)
1/4 cup chopped almonds (optional)
1 can cream of mushroom (or cream of celery) soup
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese minimum
Directions: cook broccoli, do not drain, mix other ingredients together, add cooked broccoli. Place in greased 8×8” casserole dish, put on grated cheddar cheese, bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, serves 4-6.
Gloria DryGarden
@Kayla Rudbek: I’m messing with your recipe:
broccoli
gf panko. Or chickpea noodles. Or some higher protein gf thing, bread, crackers, oats, coconut flour, almond flour..depends on the texture you want.
chopped up mushrooms. I suggest cremini, or portabellas, or oyster shrooms, or shiitake.
coconut milk, or the cream part of it.
maybe some herbs. Maybe some diced up onion.( Some thing to mimic the seasonings in cream of mushroom )
maybe fake cheese like daiya, it sort of melts, they have mozzarella, and Swiss, I like their smoked “Gouda”. Some boxed Mac n cheeze uses brewers yeast, mooch, for a cheese like flavor.
I wonder if any of these variations will give you something close in flavor or texture.
lmk
Gloria DryGarden
Water girl, I like my broccoli cooked fresh. Just steamed until soft. I’d Blanche the extra florets, then freeze them for another day. Or eat broccoli for three days in a row.
puff pastry is a sore subject; I can’t have it anymore. But mom and I used to make it, and we did all kinds of things with it: wrapped a marinated rack of lamb that was covered in sliced mushrooms, then bake. Palmiers, napoleons (you need a nice egg custard, like Julia Childs crème patissiere). We didn’t, but you could make beef Wellington. I’m not sure but it seems you could fake a baklava on puff pastry, just adapt a recipe you find.
oh, and you could make cream of broccoli soup, or puréed broccoli soup using any veg you like. It might freeze up well. Or this amazing purple and green soup: chicken stock, red cabbage, broccoli, the cilantro at the end. Add chicken if you want.
Kayla Rudbek
@Gloria DryGarden: Daiya melts well, Miyoko and/or Violife added would give more flavor. I will have to play around with your suggestions and see what works best in terms of mushrooms and filler/bread/pasta/rice substitute.
Frank McCormick
Puff pastry makes the perfect lid for chicken pot pies, regardless of size (individual through 9×13 baking dish).
RA
I made a chicken pot pie with puff pastry in a crockpot. I lined the whole crockpot insert with the pastry and then turned it on so it cooked first. When it looked done and was puffy, I added the completely cooked pot pie filling and put more puff pastry on the top. I put the ceramic insert in the oven to cook the top and when it looked cooked, I put the insert back in the crockpot. It looked a bit funny but it worked.
Cathie from Canada
I know I’m late to the party so maybe this was mentioned upstream, but I sprinkle a little flour on a crust now before I fill it, so it doesn’t get (as) soggy while baking. I also usually lightly butter a glass pan before I put the crust in, so it browns better and this also reduces sogginess.