Crustless Breakfast Quiche

This Sunday's breakfast will be a meal-on-wheels as Team Grace isn't able to assemble in person for live cooking.  We're turning to one of the best make-ahead recipes in our breakfast repertoire, a crustless breakfast quiche.  We're making and baking on Friday afternoon, wrapping things up nice and tight, and doing a drop-off (with directions for reheating) for Sunday morning.  The time in between cooking and eating is time well spent, as this dish only gets tastier as the flavors have time to mingle and marry.  If you really want to go "crustless" and turn out a totally bread-free quiche, omit the bread in the recipe below and increase your quantity of egg-custard accordingly.  There's no perfect formula for this one -- just experiment until you find a version you love.  The flavors below are Italianate (for lack of a better description) but if you have a favorite classic quiche recipe, swap and sub ingredients as your heart desires. 

A few cook's notes...  We used a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer to mix our egg custard in two batches and highly recommend that method.  If you don't have a stand mixer, try a hand held mixer and several large work bowls.  If you're mixing things manually, whisk the eggs by hand prior whisking in the liquid egg whites to make the mixture more manageable. Tranfer each batch of egg custard to a very large (12+ qt) stock pot where the ingredients can rest until you've finished the recipe.  As for cooking, we happened to have half-size disposable aluminum pans on hand, so that's what we used.  Although you end up with six pans, half-size pans are easy to transport and don't over tax a conventional home oven.  If you're using a commerical oven and/or pans, you can use 2 or 3 full-size hotel pans depending on your preferred thickness for the finished dish.  Cooking times below are for half-size disposable pans in a conventional home oven. 

We served this with fresh fruit and orange juice, but also think a side of something sweet (muffins, pastries, quick breads, etc.) would round out the meal very nicely.  Either way, it's a savory and hearty start to the day.  Enjoy!





(Make ahead) Crustless Breakfast Quiche
Serves 36 (Makes 6 half-size disposable aluminum roasting pans with 6 slices each)


For the egg custard:

36 large eggs, cage-free
64 oz liquid egg whites
1/2 gallon 1% milk, organic
1/2 gallon heavy cream, organic
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper



For the filling:

1/4 cup olive oil for brushing pans
2 loaves savory bakery bbread (about 2 lbs), cubed into 1" pieces (we used rosemary-olive oil)
1 lb solid genoa salami, cut into very small cubes
5 bunches scallions, tops and bottoms trimmed, wilted stems removed and chopped into thin rings (about a 3/4 lb yield)
1-1/2 lbs roasted brocolli florets, roughly chopped into small, bite sized pieces
1 lb sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped 
1 lb Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
12 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped (about a 1/4 lb yield)



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the work bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine half the eggs and half the egg whites.  Use the whisk attachment to whisk until well combined.  Transfer contents of the work bowl to a clean, covered stockpot and set aside.  In the same work bowl, combine the remaining eggs and egg whites.  Return to the stand mixer and whisk until well combined.  Add the dijon, salt and pepper and whisk again.  Transfer contents of the work bowl to the stock pot.  Add the 1% milk and the heavy cream to the stock pot and mix by hand until all ingredients of the egg custard are well combined.  Cover stock pot and set aside.

Use a basting brush to lightly oil the bottom and sides of six half-size disposable aluminum pans.  Scatter 1/6th of the diced bread in the bottom of each pan.  In the same manner, divide the cubed salami, chopped scallions, chopped brocolli, sundried tomatoes, parmesan cheese, garlic and parsley between the pans.  Ladle 1/6th of the egg custard into each pan.  (This equates to about 6 cups of egg custard per pan.)   Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, gently mix the custard with the filling to fully saturate and cover the quiche ingredients. 

Transfer three of the half-size pans to the oven, stagger on the oven racks to allow air to circulate around the pans and bake for 45 minutes (give or take 5-10 minutes depending on the strength of your oven) until just set.  You don't want to overcook at this point, as quiche will cook further while reheating. Repeat baking process with the second batch of quiche.

Allow quiche to cool slightly and cover tightly with aluminum foil.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Before serving, bake covered for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees until fully warmed through.  Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Serve with fresh fruit, sweet breads and orange juice.  Enjoy!