SUNDRIED TOMATO AND BROCCOLI QUICHE (GF, Keto, Paleo)

sundried tomato and broccoli quiche in almond flour crust

Hi everyone!

As you know I love eggs and there’s no shortage of recipes with eggs on my IG feed @cakebrain & on my food blog 𝐂𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧.

I’m so excited to share with you a quiche recipe I developed for @BCEgg, a non-profit organization that regulates BC's egg farms.  The recipe can also be found on the Vancouver Sun site.

I’m hoping that you’ll vote for my recipe by clicking right here! 

I’ve entered my quiche recipe in their contest and would be grateful if you show me some love by voting for me!  You have to be 18+ and living in BC, Canada to vote and you can vote once every day until the end of the contest on May 17, 2019.  There is no purchase necessary, but you have to fill out a form on the above link proving residency in BC. 

free range eggs from Rabbit River Farms

I'm small potatoes in this contest as many of the other contestants have thousands of IG followers and are professional "influencers"; but I'm hoping y'all appreciate all the recipes I've freely shared on my blog over the past 12 years and give me your vote!  or give me your vote every day until May 17 lol!

I'm sharing a gluten free tart crust recipe for the quiche because some of my readers are Celiac/gluten intolerant, paleo, keto or low carb. I used free range Omega3 eggs from Rabbit River Farms, a local ethically run, organic egg producer. I'm simply in love with their golden yolks! #sponsored #ad #BCEgg

golden yolk love!

prebaked tarts filled with egg custard filling; ready for the oven

baked tart! 

𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗢 & 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗖𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗜 𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗘

Special equip: FOUR 4 ½-INCH tart pans w/ removable bottoms.

Makes 4 tarts

𝗔𝗟𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗 𝗙𝗟𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗦𝗧

(GF, Paleo, Low Carb)

1 ½ cups almond flour

2 tablespoons melted butter (avocado oil, or coconut oil)

½ tsp Pink Himilayan salt

1 cold large egg, free range

𝐀𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Combine almond flour, butter, salt & egg in a bowl. 

3. Equally portion tart dough among 4 tart pans

4. Using fingers, press firmly dough up sides & press evenly across bottom. Prick crust bottom with fork

5. Place on baking sheet & bake for 15-20 min, until lightly golden. 

6. Set aside while you prepare filling

𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚

6 large eggs, free range

¼ cup heavy cream

¼ cup chopped broccoli florets

¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil (drained); chopped

¼ cup shredded cheese (feta, cheddar or mozzarella)

¼ tsp fresh thyme leaves (optional)

salt & pepper to taste 

𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐨 & 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐢 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞

1. Combine eggs & cream in a bowl & lightly beat together; season with salt & pepper

2. Add chopped broccoli florets, chopped sun-dried tomato & shredded cheese to mixture & stir to combine.

3. Equally portion out quiche filling among 4 cooked tart shells, which are on a sheet pan.

4. Bake in 350°F oven for 20-25 min; or until just set

LEMON MERINGUE TARTS (Paleo, GF, Refined sugar free)

A tiny slice of the 4"Lemon Meringue Tart I made 

Am I in the minority? do you salivate like Pavlov's Dog when you see a lemon meringue pie cross-section like this?

TINY LEMON MERINGUE TARTS

It’s tart season! 
When life gives me lemons...
or in my case, a bag of organic lemons,
I made itty bitty Tiny Lemon Meringue Tarts.

This is portion control.  Each tart is one mouthful…about the size of a truffle.

The microplane comes in handy for finely zesting the organic lemons.  Notice how tiny the organic lemons are? They’re about half the size of conventionally grown lemons…but they’re full of awesome puckery lemon flavour.

Here’s a better idea of how tiny the tarts and the organic lemons are:  that’s my Nikon lens cap next to the little critters. 

FRESH BERRY TARTS WITH COCONUT PASTRY CREAM

fresh berry tarts with coconut pastry cream

Long time no see, everyone!

I have been on hiatus.

During my "cleansing/detoxification" of sugar for the last few weeks, I had tons of marking as this is the end of the school year.

As I type this, my last huge pile of projects awaiting marking is sitting on my dining room table: board games, poetry anthologies, art work, dioramas, video-taped skits and other such creative takes on "To Kill a Mockingbird Pride Projects" (so-named for the pride each student is supposed to have, for having created projects that showcase their individual talents). The last few make-up exams are being scheduled, a handful of anxious individuals have yet to recite their memorized "Tomorrow and tomorrow" Macbeth soliloquies, and a stack of textbook receipts for lost books are awaiting my attention. I recently powered through 2 class sets of essays and I'm feeling euphoric. The marking burden is starting to lift slightly from my achey shoulders.

I figured it was time to celebrate with a batch of pastry cream! However, you know me...I had to tinker with the classic flavour of vanilla and add something to it. I decided upon Coconut flavoured pastry cream. From the market I had purchased a fresh little box of blueberries and a huge box of strawberries. In my freezer I had on hand a 24/pack sleeve of frozen tart shells and a half a can's worth of leftover Coconut milk.

I decided that Sherry Yard's Pastry Cream recipe with the Coconut Variation would best suit the bill today. I opted to use 3 large eggs in the recipe instead of the 5 large egg yolks. I thought it would be lighter and less yellow, lending to a more coconutty flavour and appearance.


Yard's recipe is so easy. I was happy with the results of using the whole eggs. The cornstarch I used to thicken the pastry cream enabled me to make the pastry cream in practically a couple of minutes! I was whisking away and it was pretty instantaneous how it thickened to a pudding consistency. It was smooth and though I strained it as directed, only a few bits were left in the strainer. It wasn't grainy at all. Yum. The flavour was very nice. I'll be using this one again.

COCONUT PASTRY CREAM
from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking
yield: 2 to 2 1/4 cups, enough for two 9-inch tarts or 24 mini tarts

1 cup milk
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 t finely chopped orange zest [I left this out entirely]
2 t vanilla extract
3 T all-purpose flour or cornstarch
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks or 3 large eggs, chilled
1 T unsalted butter, softened

• If you will need to cool this quickly, line a baking sheet with plastic film and set aside.
• Bring the milk, coconut milk, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla to a simmer in a medium nonreactive saucepan over medium heat
• Meanwhile, sift together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the flour or cornstarch, and salt onto a piece orf parchment paper. Whisk the egg yolks or eggs in a large bowl. Add the sfited dry ingredients and whisk until fluffy.
• When the milk comes to a simmer, remoe from the heat and ladle out 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture. Drizzle it slowly into the eggs while whisking. Once the 1/2 cup nilk is incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly. Be sure to scrape all the eggs into the pan with a rubber spatula.
• Immediately begin to rapidly whisk the pastry cream. In less than 1 minute, it will boil and begin to thicken. Continue to whisk for about 3 minutes, or until it has the consistency of pudding. To test the cream for doneness, tilt the saucepan to one side. The cream should pull away from the pan completely. Rinse and dry the large bowl.
• Strain the pastry cream through a fine-mesh strainer back into the bowl. Add the butter and stir until it is metled and incorporated. If the cream seems grainy, pulse it in a food processor until smooth. The cream is now ready to use, or it can be cooled to room temperature and refrigerated for up to 3 days. To cool the pastry cream quickly, spread it out on a baking sheet lined with plastic film. To prevent a skin from forming as it cools, place a sheet of plastic film directly on the surface.

FRESH BERRY TARTS

I used fresh strawberries and blueberries, but I imagine raspberries and blackberries would be equally good. I can envision sliced mangos, kiwi and other soft-fleshed fruit being equally delicious resting on the pastry cream.

1 "sleeve" of frozen tart shells (24 count)

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 cups strawberries, sliced

• Bake the frozen tarts as directed on the package. Mine called for 12 minutes at 375degrees F.
• Wash and prepare the fruit. I tasted the strawberries and didn't find them sweet enough. Unfortunately, it isn't strawberry season in Vancouver yet. When it is, I'm definitely going to make this recipe again. Local is the way to go with fruit. Today, I used those honking huge California strawberries that look kind of malformed...and they were slightly white inside. I know that's not a good sign. But that's all that I could find this time of the year. sigh. The way I fixed this washed out strawberry flavour problem was I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar on the sliced strawberries. I allowed the berries to macerate a bit in the sugar and eventually it produced this syrup at the bottom of the bowl. I was short on time and didn't save the juices to reduce on the stovetop to a thick syrup--but if you had the time, you should. Then you'd incorporated the cooled syrup back into the berries.
• I leave the baked tart shells unfilled, stored in a tupperware container until ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, fill each tart shell with a tablespoon or so of cold pastry cream. Arrange your berries on top.
• Refrigerate any leftover prepared tarts. The tart shells will begin to get soft from the moisture in the pastry cream and fruit so I try to consume them quickly after assembly.

******

What else can you do with pastry cream? Take a look at my Cream Puff Trio post!

I'm entering this berry tart in the Nutriferia Berrilicious Roundup. Go check it out!

ALICE MEDRICH'S BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE TART

I've been dying to try out Medrich's Bittersweet Chocolate Tart recipe...and having read it through, I noticed how unconventional it was. It calls for melted butter in the tart dough. While pressing the dough into the pans was easy, I was starting to wonder if I could make the dough stretch to cover all the surface areas. The crust would be super thin I realized.

The chocolate tart filling was also quick to make and only required setting in the oven. After pulling out the baked tart shells, you turn off the oven. You then pour the filling into the hot tart shells, and pop it all back into the oven to set for 10 minutes. Now how easy is that? The hardest part was waiting for it to cool down enough to eat it.

I didn't want to bother with decorating the tarts, so I sprinkled a little Fleur de Sel on top of half of them to see if it would taste okay. It did. But I prefer it without the salt.

Bebe inhaled it. The tart is somewhat like a shortbread cookie and is crispy, light and slightly sweet. The chocolate filling is custardy and truffle-like. I would say the crust to filling ratio is just right in the recipe since it is so rich and decadent. I used organic dark chocolate with 70percent cocoa content and I remember it being expensive. You can really taste the chocolate quality in this tart and should only use good quality chocolate. It's a keeper; especially the tart dough recipe.

as per Posh-Kimchi's request: here's the recipe...adapted by cakebrain

Bittersweet Chocolate Tarts

Crust:
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 t pure vanilla extract
1/8 t salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
Filling:
1 cup half-and-half
2 T sugar
8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 large egg, lightly whisked
Special Equipment:
eight 4-inch (measured across the top) fluted tartlet pans (about 3/4 inch deep) with removable bottoms
*cakebrain's note: I think you can make do with 6 tart pans

• Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 F.
• Crust: Combine melted butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix in the flour just until blended. Divide the dough into 6 or 8 equal pieces (according to however many tart pans you're using). Press one piece very thinly and evenly across the bottom and up the sides of each pan. This takes patience--the amount of dough is just right (according to Medrich).
• Place the pans on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crusts are a deep golden brown.
• Meanwhile, make the filling: In a small saucepan, bring the half-and-half and sugar to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until completely melted and smooth.
• Just before the crust is done, whisk the egg into the chocolate mixture.
• When the crusts are ready, remove from the oven. Turn off the oven. Pour the hot chocolate filling mixture into the crusts. Return the tartlets to the turned-off oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or just until the filling begins to set around the edges but most of the center is still liquid when the pans are nudged. Set the sheet on a rack to let the filling continue to cool and set.
• Remove the pan sides and serve the tartlets warm or let them cool completely. Just before serving.

notes:

To use chocolate marked 62% to 64% instead of standard bittersweet: use 7 oz chocolate

To use chocolate marked 66% to 72% instead of standard bittersweet: use 5.5 oz chocolate and increase the sugar to 5 T