This is my first quiche. I feel proud of it, the way you might about a newborn baby or a puppy that you’ve finally house trained.

I think that before, I was scared to make quiche. I’ve had a lot of traumatic experiences with homemade pie crust and I didn’t want to repeat them. Thankfully, that did not happen tonight.

The trick to making pastry crust is time and patience. If you’re willing to wait, you will be rewarded with delicious, flaky crust. My crust didn’t reach all the way to the top of the pie pan like I wanted it to, probably because I was worried about ripping the dough when I rolled it out. It still tasted delicious, though.

My favorite part about the quiche is the filling. I love shallots and eggs together, and the Gruyère takes the combination to the next level. I was a little wary of using frozen chopped spinach because I like using fresh ingredients when I cook. But it ended up being delicious. Just make sure that you wring all the liquid out of the spinach before you put it in the quiche. Otherwise, the quiche will get soggy. There is nothing worse than soggy quiche, except, maybe, no quiche at all.

Here’s a song that I played while I waited for the quiche to bake. It’s good for moments when you need motivation. Or, you know, whenever.

Spinach Gruyère Quiche (slightly adapted from NYT and here)

Ingredients

for the crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter (1/4 pound), cut in 1/8-inch pieces
3 tablespoons ice water

for the quiche:
1 9-inch deep dish frozen pie crust
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 cloves of garlic, minced
4 large eggs
1-1/4 cups heavy cream
pinch ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup grated Gruyère
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and wrung free of water

Directions

First, make the crust. Put flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor. Add butter and quickly cut it into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water and mix briefly, about 30 seconds, to form a soft dough. Remove dough, shape into a thick disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Bring to cool room temperature before rolling.

To roll, lightly flour dough and counter. Roll out gradually, periodically letting dough rest for a moment before continuing. This makes rolling easier and will keep dough from shrinking back during baking.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Roll dough to a thin round approximately 13 inches in diameter, then trim to make a 12-inch circle (refrigerate and save trimmings for patching). Lay dough loosely into a 9 inch pie pan (or fluted pan if you have one), letting it relax a bit. Fold overlap back inside to make a double thickness, then press firmly against the pan so the finished edge is slightly higher than the pan. Bake the crust for 10-15 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Remove the crust from the oven and let it cool on a baking sheet. Turn down the oven to 325 degrees F. Meanwhile, make the quiche filling.

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook shallots until slightly brown. Add in garlic after about 3 minutes and cook the mixture until fragrant. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy cream, nutmeg, salt and cayenne pepper.

Spread shallots over bottom of cooked crust, then sprinkle grated Gruyère over top. Scatter spinach evenly over cheese (breaking up clumps as best you can), then pour egg mixture over top.

Bake at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes until custard is set and top is lightly golden. Serve hot or warm. Enjoy!