Name: Easy Quiche Crust Recipe
Prep time: 50 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 75 min
Ingredients: 110g cold unsalted butter; 150g plain flour; 1/4 tsp salt; 2-3 tbsp chilled water

by Greer Worsley Last updated on 04/26/2021

Supermarket pastry is a great short cut, but it’s just so easy to make and cook your own pastry, and you’ll be rewarded with a delicious, buttery crumb that can’t be replicated by the frozen stuff. Use it for quiches, tarts and pies. This recipe fills a 24cm quiche tin. - Greer Worsley

Ingredients

110g cold unsalted butter
150g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp chilled water

Method

Step 1

Cut butter into small cubes and place in a food processor with the flour and salt. Pulse until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add water a little at a time, and process in bursts until mixture just starts to come together in a ball. Tip out onto the clean kitchen surface and form into a flat disc. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Step 2

Remove pastry from the fridge and place on a lightly floured kitchen bench. Dust a little more flour on top of the pastry. Roll out to form a rough circle that’s slightly bigger than your tin and about 2-3mm thick. The easiest way to do this is to roll, then turn the pastry 90 degrees, roll, turn 90 degrees, etc, until you have an even circle.
Step 3

Place the rolling pin at the far end of the circle and roll it towards you, with the pastry wrapping around it as you go, then lift the whole thing and, starting on one side of your tin, unroll the pastry, draping it carefully across the tin. Gently ease the pastry down into the tin, pressing it into the edges. Trim any overhanging pastry.
Step 4

If you will be blind baking your pastry case, place it in the freezer for 20 minutes. Otherwise, add your filling and bake according to the recipe.
Step 5

To blind bake the case, preheat the oven to 200C. Place a sheet of aluminium foil over the pastry to line it. Fill with baking weights - you can use uncooked rice or lentils - and set it on a flat oven tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and discard the foil and weights, then return the tin to the oven for a further 5-8 minutes until golden. If any part of the pastry still seems raw, bake for a little longer.

Recipe Notes

from Australia’s Best Recipes team

Blind baking is just the process of cooking the pastry case prior to filling it, and avoids having raw pastry at the bottom of your quiche or pie. You need to weigh the pastry down so it doesn’t puff up in the base and sink in the sides, so line it with a large sheet of foil and use whatever baking weights you have on hand.

I have two jars of dried lentils in my pantry that have been serving as my baking weights for over 10 years. Each time I use them, I just tip them back into the jars for next time.

Recipe and photo by Greer Worsley.