Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sunday Brunch

I live for Sundays. Usually, during the week, I am all about healthy eating. But I always look forward to the weekend, where I can forget about being healthy. I try to cheat a little bit and spoil B and of course myself with food I won't normally eat on a regular.

So this morning, I decided to make crustless spinach and mushroom quiche. A recipe (but I added my own spin to it), which I adopted from Joy the Baker's blog, which I am currently obsessing.
And coffeehouse scones to go along with the quiche, a recipe I adopted from Joy of Baking.

Crustless Quiche with Spinach, Zucchini, and Mushroom

R
ecipe from JoytheBaker:

1 10-12 ounce bag of spinach, stems trimmed ( I used fresh bunch of Spinach I got from WF)

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups chopped mushrooms ( I used baby bella mushrooms)

1 cup of chopped Zucchini (my own addition)

1 garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper

3 large eggs

1 cup half and half ( did not have any so I substituted with heavy cream)

1 cup crumbled blue cheese (used a mixture of grated Parmesan and American cheese instead)

3 Tablespoons chopped walnuts or lightly toasted pine nuts (opted out for this)

butter for greasing the pie plate (used Canola light spray instead)

Directions:

Place the spinach in a large pot, cover and cook over medium heat just until wilted, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and spoon into a strainer set over a bowl. Let cool.

Press hard on the spinach in the strainer with the back of a spoon to remove most of the moisture, then squeeze in your hands to remove more. Turn out onto a cutting board and coarsely chop Place between two layers of paper towels or wrap in a clean kitchen towel and press to remove more moisture. You should have about 1 cup packed spinach. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, zucchini and cook, stirring until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minutes more. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, until any remaining moisture has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add a pinch of salt (the cheese is salty, so you won’t need much) and pepper to taste.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until light. Stir in the heavy cream. Spoon the spinach mixture evenly into the buttered pie dish. Sprinkle with the fresh grated Parmesan cheese and top with American cheeese. Pour in the egg mixture.

Bake the quiche until puffed and golden brown, about 35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into generous wedges.

My first time making quiche, and it was a success. B had two slices of this baby:-)

Coffeehouse Scone from Joy of Baking

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
2/3 - 3/4 cup (160 - 180 ml) buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Coffeehouse Scones: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in middle of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or spatula if you don't have one. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Add the buttermilk and vanilla extract to the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surf
ace and knead the dough gently and form into a round that is about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. Use a 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round biscuit cutter to cut the dough into circles. Transfer the scones to the baking sheet and brush the tops of the scones with a little milk.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 6-8 scones.

(Note to self: must buy a cookie scoop so that next time these are perfectly shape)




You can eat this with preserves or on its own. The butter milk really makes a difference. I feel guilty, I ate at least 4 of these :(.

Happy Sunday Mes Amis!

Bisous,
Contessa



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