Ham and Apple Quiche with Olive Oil Crust

This is a quiche made heavy on the fillings and light on the eggs. Big Pete and I are not big egg lovers however, he actually really loved this because it tasted like there was lots of filling and not so much egg. If you want to play around with amounts to get the ratio your family likes feel free. I also made the crust with frozen olive oil instead of butter. It is a bit more fussy than butter and creates a very flaky crust however, if you want to replace the oil with butter you can do that or avoid the whole crust preparation and buy a store bought pie crust.

You will need:

Olive oil crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour - bit more for rolling out
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil - frozen at least 1 hour (you can replace with 1 stick cold or frozen unsalted butter cut into small cubes)
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 tbsp ice water

Filling

• 2 cups ham - diced in food processor until finely ground or the way you like it
• 4 asparagus spears - chopped
• 1 small leek - sliced fine
• 1 apple - sliced thin then chopped 
• 1 tbsp hot pepper jelly
• 4 eggs
• 30 g goat cheese
• salt/pepper
• parsley and basil chopped fine
• shaved Manchego or Parmesan cheese to cover top of quiche

Step 1: in a food processor add flour, salt and lemon zest. Pulse 2 times.

Step 2: add your semi-frozen olive oil (scrape out with a spatula)  Pulse 5 times.

Step 3: remove the wet crumbles from the processor and quickly  form a ball with a bit more oil. This dough will get greasy quickly because the oil doesn't stay cold and solid like butter does for long. It is a bit more fussy that a butter crust for this same reason but, if you like olive oil like I do you might want to try this.

Step 4: roll out quickly with flour on the parchment paper (both sides) or it will stick.

Step 5: place dough into a tart pan or pie plate.If it breaks just press it back together. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes with no filling. Let cool slightly. I placed tart tin on a piece of foil to avoid any oil that might leak and burn.

Step 6: place ham, asparagus, apples, leeks and hot pepper jelly in a  bowl. Mix.

Step 7: in a small bowl add eggs, goat cheese, salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Whisk to combine.

Place the ham mix in the slightly cooled crust and them pour over the eggs. Grate some shavings of Parmesan or Manchego and bake in 375 degree oven until browned on top and cooked to the middle of the pie 30-40 minutes. Let cool.