Quiche cupcakes!?!?!? Has the cupcake fad gone too far? Well, don't you worry your pretty little heads. Quiche cupcakes are just a really cute way of describing these delicious mini quiches that are topped with a little bit of cream cheese. It's really just a different way of combining the classic lox and cream cheese flavors and that other breakfast stable, eggs. This recipe was inspired and borrows from a recipe of the same name created and humorously presented by the boys over at SORTED FOOD. What? You haven't been to SORTEDFOOD.com or YouTube.com/sortedfood! Go immediately!!!! Food has never been so fun or easy, ever. Anyways, I liked the idea of their recipe, but I chose to use a short crust dough and changed up the filling just a bit. Recipe for my version below!

RECIPE

Yield: 6 quiches | Prep Time: 30 minutes | Inactive Time: 1 hr | Cook Time: 30 minutes

CRUST

1/3 c shortening or butter, cold
1 c AP flour
Dash of salt
1/3 c ice water

FILLING/TOPPING

4 large eggs
1 ½ c heavy cream
3-4 oz smoked salmon
3 spears of asparagus, cut in thin strips
2 T chives, chopped
salt + pepper to taste
6 oz. cream cheese, softened

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

A jumbo muffin tin

1) Starting with the crust! Prepare the crust by rubbing the cold butter or shortening together with the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

(SIDENOTE: The choice of butter versus shortening is a personal one. The butter is “tastier” but more crumbly, while the shortening gives a flakier crust. I tend to use a combination of the two in a (potentially vain) attempt at having the best of both worlds.)

2) Add the water a little bit at a time and mix carefully until it coalesces into a rough ball. At this stage you want to mix enough so that you have a stable dough, but not too much so that you don’t build up gluten and make the dough tough. Tender dough is the key. My mother is particular adept at this, but I honestly have yet to master the secrets of perfect pie crust. Grumble…grumble…grumble…

3) Anyway, once you have your perfect dough, shape it gently into a disk and wrap it in cling-film and put it in the fridge to rest, relax that gluten, and solidify the fat in the dough. This will take about an hour.

4) When your dough is almost ready to come out of the fridge, preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare your workspace by clearing off a large space and covering it with some cling-film. The cling-film isn’t completely necessary, but I find it helps combat my inevitable messiness. Sprinkle flour on your cling-film clad workspace and on your rolling pin.

5) Remove the dough from the fridge and start to roll it out. Keep it as even and circular as possible and continue to be gentle so it doesn’t crack all over the place. Roll it to pie shell thickeness, 2-3 mm in my estimation. Cut out circles large enough to completely fill the cups of your muffin tin. I really suggest using a jumbo muffin tin because it creates six perfectly portioned quiches. Using a smaller muffin tin is theoretical possible, but I think the ratio of crust to filling would be wrong and unsatisfying. I am, however, nothing if not accepting of others’ preferences; so if you are making this yourself, go with your gut.

6) Line the tin with your circles and then lightly prick the bottoms with a fork. Blind bake the crusts in your preheated oven for 4-5 minutes until they are a very pale gold color. (This step may be unnecessary, as I think that the crusts would bake thoroughly either way. But I’m not a fan of soggy bottoms as Mary Berry calls them, so I’ve opted for the blind baking step. Once again, dear reader, go with your own gut.)

7) While the crusts are baking whisk together your eggs, cream, and salt + pepper in large spouted measuring cup. When the crusts come out of the oven, fill each with a few torn strips of salmon and a few pieces of asparagus. Fill them almost to the brim with the egg-y mixture and finish with a little bit of chopped chives (reserve about half of the chives for use in the “frosting”).

8) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the egg is set and only has the slightest hint of a wiggle.

9) While the quiches are baking, preparing the “frosting” by whipping the cream cheese with a little bit of salt + pepper and the remaining chives.

10) To finish the quiches and turn them into quiche cupcakes, top each slightly cooled quiche with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture. I got a lil’ bit fancy and used a jumbo star tip to pipe the cream cheese on. Totally unnecessary, but fun nonetheless. One tip I have if you do choose to pipe: make sure the cream cheese is softened and spreadable. It’s REALLY hard to pipe if you don’t. (Hence the tiny swirls on my quiche cupcakes.) Now they are ready for you to serve, eat and enjoy. Yum!