These bite-sized delights are one of the best party foods I've come across. They're mini-quiche in puff-pastry shells. You can make them the day of, you can make them ahead of time and freeze them and they reheat like a charm. They're tasty and you can change the fillings to suit the event. The original recipe I got from my mother has leeks and bacon in it and it's tough to improve on that. But we've made them with leeks and smoked salmon, turkey and no onions, small pieces of ham, or whatever combination suits your fancy!
Two things make this recipe easy. Invest in a few mini-muffin tins. They're not expensive and if you can bake 4 dozen at a time, this recipe is a snap. If you have to wait around for a dozen to bake before you can rinse, cool, and re-fill the pan, this recipe is tedious. Trust me.
The other tip: don't forget to spray the pans. Let me repeat that: Don't Forget to Spray the Pans. You got it, that was the voice of experience speaking. If you forget to spray the pans, the little, lovely, tasty quiches will stick right to them like glue and you will have some pretty ugly little things to plop on a plate for your guests. If you dare. So, with those two things in mind, let's head to the main event.
The recipe called for cutting little circular pieces of puff pastry then re-rolling the scraps, like cut out cookies. We use little square (no scraps!) and let the corners stick out. They look home-made and irregular but not a single person has ever said "gee, I wish you'd make those with round edges." So we're okay with that. And it's a lot simpler.
The filling is simple. Some half-and-half, yolks, cheese and savories of your choice. Salt, pepper, nutmeg and you're good to go.
As I said, we made ours with bacon and leeks this year.
If you use leeks, don't forget to slice them and then swish them around in some cold water to get any sand out before you cook them.
We use the tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop the filling and it's the perfect size. They cook for about 12 minutes then you can serve them, keep them in the fridge for a few days or freeze them for up to 3 months. To reheat frozen ones, about 10 minutes on a cookie sheet at 250* will do it.
And we actually did have a couple of scraps left over. So they were sprinkled with a little sugar and baked for about 5 minutes to make some scrappy little cookies. Double the yum!
We'll put the full recipe for these treats in our cookbook download, coming later this week, so check back!
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