Non-Dairy Quiche Fail... Help for the Future?

Question

So here's the deal... I had a whole lot of mushrooms I needed to do something with, and decided to make a quiche. However, there are people in my house who are lactose intolerant, so we have almond milk, not regular milk, and I want them to be able to eat this.

So here's what went wrong...

First, I decided to attempt to make a crust using Bisquick and a recipe I found online (at Betty Crocker's website, no less). The dough looked like less of a pie crust and more of a flaky biscuit crust, but whatever. I also had to triple the recipe because the recipe I found made, like, a tiny ball of dough. Spreading it throughout the pie pan was a pain, but I managed to do it... messily. I did go for an initial bake at 350, but never thought to line it with parchment paper and use some kind of weight. Which means the dough started to puff. I took it out before it could start cooking, but I ended up being forced to pull the dough from the middle entirely and ring it all around the sides.

So anyways...

Next came the filling... I sauteed the mushrooms and onions so they gave up their water, and squeezed everything afterwards to get them as dry as possible. Then I mixed two cups of almond milk, 3 eggs, 1 cup daiya vegan cheese (again... lactose intolerant people eating this), salt, pepper, and the mushrooms and onion, poured them into the pie dish, and put them all in the oven at 350 for 35 minutes...

The outside was nice and cooked, but the inside was a liquid slosh. So I set another 10 minutes... then another 10 minutes... then another 15 minutes... then *another* 15 minutes... then *another* 10 minutes...

We used foil to try and stop burning, we'll peel off some of the top layer of the center to try and get the inside to cook, turned down the heat...

WTF is going on? Is it because I used almond milk which means there was no fat to help things solidify? Should I have used cornstarch? This attempt is edible but failed, but I could use pointers for my next attempt...

Including pointers for crust (is Bisquick just a bad base to use for crust, or was it my forgetting to use parchment paper and weights that screwed the crust up?)...

(What really pisses me off is that this is not my first quiche, and my last one was pitch perfect... except that I used a premade crust and that one was dairy because the lactose intolerant person wasn't eating it...)

Answer

What recipe did you use last time?

It’s tricky to do two new things together - new custard and new crust.

3 eggs to 2 cups liquid is the higher end of liquid proportions I’ve seen for milk, cream, half & half, buttermilk - more often its 1.5 cups, but 2 cups does work for those liquids.
https://www.thekitchn.com/use-this-ratio-to-make-perfect-quiche-every-time-tips-from-the-kitchn-217464

Almond milk is much thinner, so you could reduce the liquid or make a thin bechamel or add an egg if the pan can take it. For japanese-style egg custard made with water, the proportion is more like 1 egg to 1/2 to 3/4 cup water, and almond milk is not that much thicker. 

I’ve used this oil crust before (increase by half for quiche):
https://www.somethingswanky.com/no-rolling-press-in-the-pan-pie-crust/

Or KAF has a similar recipe for a 9” pie (skip the sugar):
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-roll-pie-crust-recipe

Answer

I should have added that I used a *lot* of mushrooms... 16.2 oz, to be exact. I had yellowfoot, black trumpet, king trumpet, porcini, wood ear, and a couple others. I had to use them before they went bad. That perhaps was another one of my problems... I could probably get two, even three quiches out of that much in mushrooms, but... I just didn't think about it...

Answer

- bisquick isn’t going to make the kind of crust you need for quiche. Either purchase a frozen pastry or premade pastry or make your own (or make a crust-less quiche, aka frittata) 

-this basic dairy free quiche recipe for a 10” pie plate gives you the proportions of egg to nondairy milk, for baking i much prefer UNsweetened plain soymilk- it is thicker than almond milk and most similar to dairy milk (with higher fat and protein than almond milk)
https://www.thespruce.com/basic-dairy-free-quiche-1001094

- be very careful what pan or baking dish you use, if using a deep dish pie plate vs an 8” or 10” that will certainly cause issues cooking all the way through

- this quick frittata is cooked in a cast iron skillet, first stove top and then in the oven. It’s mostly filling with just enough egg to hold it together and only 2 TB “milk” (such a small amount it doesntmatter what kind of unsweetened nondairy milk you use), just keep the proportions the same so if you want to do 2c veg filling instead of veg and meat that works too
https://nomnompaleo.com/post/1983505174/easy-paleo-frittata

Answer

Since you have the Bisquick, I wonder what would happen if instead of traditional quiche with crust you tried a Bisquick "Impossible Pie" (many recipes online and all over the place). Maybe with an extra egg or two? It would be much, much, much, much easier.

Answer

instead of so much kitchen macgyvering, i'd have sauteed the mushrooms, put them over toast and just served poached eggs on top. :-)


shame about the shrooms. :-(

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Non-Dairy Quiche Fail... Help for the Future?

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