Make at least a cup of white cream sauce the day before and drizzle some on steamed vegetables for dinner. Refrigerate the remaining sauce overnight. Use the cold cream sauce to make a quiche the next day. The result will be a light, puffy ham and cheese quiche...delicious warm from the oven or reheated in the microwave.
For the cheese, I used Armstrong brand shredded cheese with bacon so it also had bacon bits in it and a nice smoky flavour. You can use cheddar, marble, mozzarella, swiss, farmers cheese or a combination.
If you butter a casserole dish well you can bake the filling without lining the pan with pastry for a crustless quiche.
- pastry round to fit a 9" pie pan
- 3/4 cup cold cream sauce (substitute milk or heavy cream, result will be different)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 cup cubed smoked ham
- 1-1/2 cup shredded cheese, divided
- 3 Tbsp fresh coarsely chopped green onion or finely diced chives
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Roll out a round of pastry dough and line a 9" pie pan.
- Spread chopped ham, onion, and 1 cup cheese on the uncooked dough.
- In a large bowl, whisk 6 large eggs with salt and pepper.
- Whisk in the cream sauce (cold cream sauce will have solidified but it will whisk in, don't heat it first or the eggs will cook.)
- When fully mixed, stir in green onion lightly.
- Pour the egg mixture on top of the ham and cheese in pan.
- Top with remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
- Bake 35-40 minutes or until pastry crust looks golden and eggs are cooked.
- Let sit on a cooling rack out of the oven for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Note: Maybe double the recipe and make two. I thought I'd have enough for left-overs but people in my family who won't ever eat flat spinach quiche wanted more of this one, "It's like the most delicious baked, fluffy omelette."
