Mini quiches

These little Mini quiches are easily adapted to suit your favourite flavours and are great eaten warm or cold, making them perfect for lunch boxes and picnics. Speed it up by buying ready rolled shortcrust pastry.

You will need a muffin tray, 6 muffin paper cases and a 10cm/4in round pastry cutter.

Ingredients

• 125g/4½oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 65g/2¼oz cold unsalted butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 handful of your favourite vegetables, such as baby spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, cherry tomatoes, courgettes or peas
• 1 rasher of bacon or 1 slice smoked ham (optional)
• 1 large free-range egg
• 100ml/3½fl oz single cream
• 60g/2¼oz of your favourite cheese, such as cheddar, Stilton, feta, goats’ cheese
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Put the flour into a mixing bowl, cube and add the cold butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

2. Add 2 tablespoons cold water and mix until you get a rough dough. Bring the dough into a ball with your hands, then wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3. Put the onion and garlic in a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil and cook for 5 minutes, or until soft, stirring regularly.

4. Prepare your chosen vegetables – clean and slice the mushrooms, slice the broccoli into very small florets, deseed and finely slice the peppers, finely slice the cherry tomatoes, dice the courgettes.

5. Add your chosen vegetables to the pan (there’s no need to cook the tomatoes) and cook for 3–4 minutes, or until starting to soften, stirring occasionally and adding splashes of water, if needed. Finely chop and add the bacon or ham (if using), and season with salt and pepper.

6. Crack the egg into a jug, pour in the cream and beat with a fork, then grate in most of your chosen cheese.

7. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5.

8. Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour and roll out the pastry so it’s around the thickness of a £1 coin.

9. Stamp out rounds of pastry using a 10cm/4in pastry cutter and gently push them into the wells of a muffin tray. Any leftover pastry can be pushed back into a ball and re-rolled. Prick each base with a fork.

10. Place paper cases inside each well, fill with baking beans or uncooked rice, and blind bake for 15 minutes, removing the paper for the final 5 minutes.

11. Evenly divide the vegetable mixture between the pastry cases, pour over the egg mixture and grate over the rest of the cheese. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden-brown and just set. Delicious served hot or cold.

Mini quiches