If You Want a No-Fuss Quiche, Make This Savory Cobbler
I believe that quiche is a meal for the day. Sure, it’s egg first, which makes it a prime breakfast candidate, but put a crumbly salad next to it and you’ve suddenly got yourself a great lunch or dinner. Unfortunately, many people avoid making quiche because the pie crust requires extra work. Consider now the custard cobbler. It’s quick and easy, and it can feed a crowd, too.
What is a custard cobbler?
I wanted a dish that had all my favorite parts of quiche, but without the rolled out flaky crust. A logical person would have simply made a frittata—an Italian version of a French quiche without the crust—but I didn’t want to give up carbs entirely. It would be an unnecessary demotion. After some introspection, I remembered how fruit cobblers eat cookies with ease and carefree.
Custard cobbler is a savory variation on the fruity cobbler. Instead of a prepared fruit sauce, you layer the instant batter over scrambled eggs, meat, and cheese. This is an extremely flexible dish, a real food that can be cleaned out of the fridge. You can make an egg mixture with whatever ingredients you have on hand and use any cake batter recipe you like.
How to cook quiche cobbler
1. Prepare the egg mixture.
I beat eight eggs with a little cream, seasoned the mixture with salt and a pinch of garlic and onion powder. Then I added some green onions, cooked potatoes, sliced ham, havarti chunks, and sautéed mushrooms to the bowl. You can really go anywhere with this: add cooked bacon and cheddar, try onions and peppers, or mix in pieces of salmon and cream cheese. Anything you eat with eggs goes into this dish. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
2. Prepare biscuit dough.
Once again, the world is your saucepan. You can use any cookie recipe for this and maybe even cut up some cookie dough (I haven’t tried this type yet, so keep me posted). Puff pastry dough differs from cut puff pastry dough in its texture. It is soft, shapeless and does not require special care. Instead of fiddling with cold butter pieces or using a knife or cookie cutter to shape them, you simply scoop the dough and toss it in with a spoon. You can make this type of cookie with pancake mix, Bisquick mix, or from scratch using my recipe below or your favorite recipe.
Stir the dough until it is slightly moistened. Spoon the biscuit dough into the baking dish. Arrange the cookies so they look folded. I like to brush a little of the egg mixture onto the top of the cookies to lazily rinse the eggs to crisp up the cookies.
3. Bake the cobbler
Bake the quiche in the oven at 375°F for about 25-35 minutes, depending on the size of your baking dish and the depth of the quiche layer. I baked mine in a seven-by-nine-inch pan, which made it quite deep, and on a baking sheet to prevent the bottom from browning. These factors meant that my quiche took a full 35 minutes.
Once the edges have puffed up and the cookies are puffed and browned and the centers are set but slightly gelatinous, remove the casserole from the oven and let it cool. The resulting dish is sliced, tender and savory, with a fluffy and moist cake for each person. It’s a great way to start your day (or continue or end it).
The custard cobbler is best eaten during the day, but will keep in the refrigerator for up to four days and reheats decently in the microwave.
Cobbler’s Custard Recipe
Ingredients:
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8 eggs
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2 tablespoons cream
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1-2 cups of extras (I used boiled potatoes, mushrooms, ham and cheese).
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¼ teaspoon salt
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A pinch of garlic powder
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Pinch of onion powder
For the biscuit dough:
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1 cup all-purpose flour
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2 teaspoons baking powder
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1 teaspoon sugar
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¼ teaspoon salt
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3 tablespoons canola oil
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⅓ glass of milk
1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a baking dish. Place it on a baking sheet.
2. Beat the eggs and cream thoroughly. Add your own additives and seasonings. Mix them and pour into a baking dish.
3. Prepare the sponge dough by mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients and stir until combined. The dough will be soft and lumpy, but there should be no pockets of flour. Drop spoonfuls of batter around the baking mixture. Spoon some egg onto the cookies as a lazy “egg wash.” Bake the quiche for 25 to 35 minutes or until the cookies are set and browned on top and the egg is no longer runny in the center. Cool thoroughly before eating.