Mini quiches are versatile and delicious snack products, which can be good enough to serve as a course at a dinner party. A good quiche is worthy of its one-time great reputation, now spoiled by numerous attempts to reduce the cost! So it’s worthwhile for bakers to return to the delicious authentic recipe, with a rich savoury custard an essential ingredient, particularly for Quiche Lorraine. The recent brochure of an upmarket chilled and frozen foods supplier gave a clear indication that the snack- sized version has much greater sales potential. These quiches are good eaten warm or cold and they reheat well in a microwave. A single mini quiche consists of a 40g pastry disc, 15g filling and 50g savoury custard. Mini Quiches Ingredients Pastry Case Flour 1,000g Butter, chilled and diced 600g Salt 20g Water, chilled 120g Savoury custard Fresh egg 750g Whipping or vegetable cream 1,500g Salt 30g White pepper 5g Method 1. Mix the flour, butter and salt to a crumble, not a paste. 2. Add water and mix quickly to bind together, chill for one hour or more before use. The pastry must be very soft and needs a high water content to create the crisp, buttery character. 3. Mix all the savoury custard ingredients together - do not aerate. 4. Next, roll out the pastry to a disc around 14cm and no more than 2mm thick and, using a 7cm top/5cm base diameter, 3cm deep baking tin, line with pastry. Allow the pastry to overlap by about 4mm. Endeavour to create a craft/homemade appearance. 5. Put the filling* into the pastry case, top up with custard, within 3mm of the top. Bake at 180°C until the custard is firm, or freeze and bake from frozen at 175°C. * Favourite fillings include: smoked ham and leek, cheeses, smoked salmon, poached fresh salmon, juicy prawns or Morecambe Bay shrimp but be careful with the salt. Onion or leek, lightly fried in butter and cooked spinach with feta cheese are good, too, but are best if mixed with the custard before filling into the cases.