Caprese Breakfast Quiche Recipe

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It took me a long time to love quiche –- it was actually only a few years ago, when I was working at a bakery across town, that I finally came around to it. This bakery made them deep dish-style, meaning it was an all-day cooking affair for our head baker, who would make the enormous quiches every Friday to serve throughout the weekend. One lucky Friday she sliced a piece for the bakers to share, and I experienced loving quiche for the first time –- so much so that I went home and versed myself in all of the tips of making a similarly creamy deep dish quiche in my own springform pan.

Since then, I've made dozens of regular-sized quiches for all types of breakfast occasions. There's nothing you can't put in a quiche, but some of my most favorite combinations have been classics like this caprese. Infused with green basil pesto and topped with fresh mozzarella and sliced tomato, it's a bold, classic flavor perfect for any time of the year. Fluffy and creamy, the custardy filling perfectly complements the fresh mozzarella and basil flavor, while the tomato bakes into a perfectly soft and tangy topping. Full of flavor and easy to put together, this caprese breakfast quiche is the perfect way to start the morning.

To make the dough, you'll need flour, salt, and butter. From there, you'll just need ingredients for the filling and the topping. To start, you'll need egg, salt, pepper, and heavy whipping cream. You'll then need shredded mozzarella and pesto, which get mixed into the filling, as well as fresh mozzarella and tomatoes for layering on top. I recommend buying sliced mozzarella, which layers easily on top of the filling and melts cleanly. You could also tear pieces of mozzarella from a large ball, or slice mozzarella pearls in half for a similar effect. To finish the quiche, grab some fresh basil to sprinkle on top.

Make the dough: Add the flour, salt, and cubed butter to a food processor. Pulse until the butter is pea-sized and the mixture is coarse.

Stream in ¼ cup ice water and pulse until a dough forms.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead into a smooth disc. Wrap tightly in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Unwrap the chilled dough and roll flat.

Press the dough into a pie dish.

Place a layer of parchment paper on the bottom of the pie crust, then fill with beans or pie weights.

Bake the crust for 15 minutes, or until just barely golden brown.

Make the filling: Whisk together the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper until smooth.

Remove the pie weights or beans and parchment paper and fill the bottom of the crust with half of the shredded mozzarella.

Dollop the pesto across the cheese, then pour the egg mixture over the cheese and pesto to fill the crust.

Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup shredded mozzarella over the egg mixture, then carefully layer on the sliced mozzarella and sliced tomato.

Bake the quiche until the filling is jiggly but set, about 35 minutes.

Top the quiche with fresh basil before slicing and serving.

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Tomatoes are tricky to bake with because they release a lot of water. This can result in excess moisture seeping into your baked goods, ruining fluffy crusts or causing watery fillings. With quiche, this isn't necessarily a big problem, being that the filling begins in liquid form and the crust is pre-baked. However, to prevent the filling from becoming overly watery with tomato juices, you can try a handy trick to dry the tomatoes first: salting the tomatoes.

After slicing the tomatoes, add the slices to a colander. Sprinkle with salt, then let sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before topping the quiche. You'll notice the tomato's juices collecting under the colander, which means that the tomatoes are losing the excess moisture that would release during baking. This doesn't ruin the tomato or its flavor at all –- in fact, the salt adds flavor, making this a great method to try with any tomato.

Par baking, which refers to a method of pre-baking crusts prior to filling them, is useful when making quiche because of the nature of the filling. Unlike blind baking which is reserved for chilled desserts or those that have fillings that aren't baked, par baking is used in recipes that require a second bake. In this case, we are continuing to bake the quiche after baking the crust. This won't overbake the crust –- in the par bake, we are baking it just enough to harden so that the wet quiche filling doesn't deteriorate it into a mushy crust.

If you are low on time, you can make the crust in advance and simply fill the quiche day-of. To do this, make and chill the dough, then press into the pie pan and par bake as directed. Let cool, then wrap and chill until ready to fill, up to five days in advance. You can also freeze the par-baked pie crust for up to three months, meaning you can make quiche anytime without needing to make a crust first.

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