A while back, we ran across this post from Smitten Kitchen and this incredible Over the Top Mushroom Quiche.  The recipe was from Thomas Keller – previously published in Food & Wine using his famous/infamous (depends how you see it) buttery pastry shell.  This pastry is famous because it is so beautifully flaky and delicious…infamous because of its tendency to bring many a regular-belle cook to her knees in agony!  In other words, we regular-belle cooks need a few more very specific guidelines in order to make it work.  Enter sweet Smitten Kitchen!  Read her spot-on tips for working with the pastry here…and read our belle-tips below for the most amazingly amazing (and successful) mushroom quiche you have ever tasted!!!

Our number one tip:  Do a few steps ahead!  This is not a done-in-a-day deal for the everyday, busy cook!!

Prep your pastry, sauté the mushrooms/shallots, make the custard, grate the cheese… ALL a day or two ahead!!

Check out our steps below:

1-2 days before serving, gather and measure the pastry ingredients:

Ready to go…

Our pastry in process…

Now for the filling…

1-2 days before serving, gather filling ingredients:

Our mushrooms in process…

Our notes:  

We used a combo of oyster, baby portabellas, and white mushrooms.  Once done, cool and store in the fridge until ready to use.

Next, we made the custard in two portions.  We simply placed the ingredients in two large mason jars, did a quick shake, and stored in the fridge until serving day.

On the day you plan to serve this divine concoction…here’s the how-to:

Roll out your dough.  It’s pretty stiff at first, but keep working…and keep it cold!!  Once you have a 16″ circle, place in the greased ring of a 9″ springform pan (no bottom, unhinged, on a parchment-lined cookie sheet).  Place parchment paper inside the dough and fill with weights (we used a slightly smaller springform with coins inside…Smitten Kitchen uses rice and/or beans) to keep the dough in place…otherwise, it will slide right down the sides of your springform and leave you devastingly disappointed!  

Again…here are some specifics from Smitten Kitchen:

We chose to par-bake our shell which yields an amazingly browned, flaky crust.  This is done at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Remove beans/rice/coins and bake another 10 minutes for good-measure browning.

Now for the assembly…

Place 1/3 of your cheese in the bottom of the crust.  (By the way…if some cheese is good, more cheese is better!!  We used a full cup of grated emmentaler)

Cover the cheese with about half of your mushrooms

Pour one of your jars of “custard” over this layer, and do it all again – ending with cheese.

Time for the baking!  Place the quiche in the oven at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours…

And you might get something that looks like this disappointing mess!!  We were convinced we had failed miserably!!  The crust apparently sprang a leak despite our best efforts and following Smitten Kitchen’s tips very carefully.  We figured we were just no match for this endeavor.  We were just not worthy!  Or were we??…

Although it might have turned out to be a slightly messier version of Mr. Keller’s creation, it was, indeed, a success!!

We initially thought would never attempt this beautiful mess again…but it is just TOO GOOD!!!  We will indeed be doing this one again and again!  And ya know what they say…practice makes perfect!

On another note…we recently found this article touting the benefits of certain superfoods, including MUSHROOMS!!  Just another reason to have this one on repeat!

a&a