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This broccoli quiche tart is a riff on the one my mom used to make, only instead of the store-bought frozen deep dish pie shells, I've dressed it up with a cornmeal cheddar crust.

I rarely get to make quiche, because Jimmy doesn't love it. But I was craving some comfort food and had a bunch of frozen broccoli to use up (even after making broccoli stalk soup!) before we moved last month, so you bet quiche happened.

Since I was making the quiche not just for me, but also to share with you all, I wanted to make it special. I gave it a handmade crust (and by handmade, I do mean "in a food processor") with crunchy cornmeal and lots of shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese.

The cheddar adds lots of great flavor to the crust, while the cornmeal adds a really nice texture. Because I baked it in a 1-inch high fluted tart pan, the heftier crust means the quiche still feels hearty even though the recipe is smaller overall.

a low angle photo of a quiche. half the quiche is cropped out of the left side of the frame.

When I was growing up quiche was always for dinner affair, always with canned baked beans on the side.

In college I'd make my mom's broccoli quiche — two of them, because I couldn't be bothered to divide the recipe in half — and inevitably end up eating one of them cold out of the fridge for breakfast. Yes, occasionally with cold baked beans, too.

It wasn't until I spent a summer abroad in London, where beans are a staple of an English breakfast, and quiche appeared often on brunch and breakfast menus that I realized perhaps I'd been on to something with my morning quiches. Of course, the Brits served their quiches warm and on plates with forks, as opposed to eating them with their hands while standing inside the fridge door in their underwear so...

Where was I again? Oh right. Quiche.

an overhead shot of a quiche tart resting on a white dish towel. three wedges have been cut out of the top right quadrant of the quiche.

You can use fresh or frozen broccoli in the filling, and it's up to you how small you want your broccoli pieces to be. In a deeper dish broccoli quiche, I usually chop slightly larger pieces, but since this is a shallower quiche tart, I chop my broccoli and onions pretty small.

Did you know that a quiche is technically a baked custard? I always thought of it more like a frittata in a pie shell, but it is, in fact, an egg custard. The mixture inside should be creamy, silky, and soft, but firm enough to hold a cut edge without spilling out when you slice it.

Some quiche recipes use heavy cream or creme frâiche to thicken the custardy egg filling, but this one uses a roux. If you aren't familiar with what roux is, don't let it intimidate you — it's basically just a cooked mixture of butter, flour, and milk. Roux are used as thickeners in sauces, soups, stews, and also, on occasion, quiches.

I rarely have heavy cream in my kitchen, so the roux is a far more practical option for quiche, imo. Butter, milk, and flour on the other hand, are common pantry staples and much easier to come by.

an overhead shot of two white plates with slices of quiche tart on them. one of the slices has been cut in half with a fork, which is resting on the plate.

The cheddar cornmeal crust for this broccoli quiche tart is a variation on my go-to tart crust recipe from How to Bake Everything by Mark Bittman. Since quiche is savory, not sweet, I removed the sugar from the recipe and replaced some of the flour with crunchy corn meal.

Just like in my pear and gruyere tart, the shredded cheddar cheese goes in along with the butter so that it incorporates evenly. It helps the crust brown so, so nicely too.

One of the nice things about the cheesy, high-fat content of this dough is that, even chilled, it's super malleable and very easy to press into the tart pan.

Some tart doughs are delicate and need to be rolled thin before you transfer them to the pan. They're also hard to stick back together if the dough tears or if you need to patch a hole or thin spot in the dough. Not this tart dough.

This cheddar cornmeal tart dough smooshes easily into the bottom and up the sides of the well-greased tart pan. Use a paring knife to trim any crust that sticks up over the edges of the pan as you work, saving the excess to patch holes or thin spots.

an overhead shot of a quiche tart still in the tart pan on a white linen kitchen towel. three forks are visible just out of frame in the bottom right.

If this is all starting to feel overwhelming, or like it's just too much work just remember: You can make the crust a day or two in advance and it needs to pre-bake for about 15-20 minutes before you add the filling, which gives you plenty of time to make the eggy filling.

And if the crust is done before the filling, that's okay too! Let it cool on the counter while you finish up the custard.

Remember: Practical doesn't always mean quick! This isn't necessarily a fast recipe, but it is well-paced. You shouldn't feel rushed while making it, and there are plenty of steps where you can pause until you're ready to keep going, which sometimes is the most practical thing of all.

a few quick broccoli quiche tart notes

As with any pastry or pie dough, it is CRUCIAL that you keep your butter and cheese chilled up until the moment before you add them to the food processor. Grate the cheese, cube the butter, then put them back in the fridge until you're ready to use them.

If at any point your dough seems too soft or too warm, wrap it in saran wrap and pop it back in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. Your dough is most at risk for becoming too warm while you're pressing it into the tart pan.

Always add the cheese at the same time that you add the butter. If you add it after the butter has been cut into the dry ingredients, the cheese won't incorporate evenly into the dough.

Water evaporation is the reason pie and tart doughs shrink when you bake them. There's a lot of moisture in the cheese and butter, so resist adding any more than the 1 tablespoon of ice water the recipe calls for. If the dough really isn't coming together (meaning: if you squeeze a handful of it, it doesn't stick to itself) then you can add more ice water a teeny tiny bit at a time just until the dough forms.

Docking the chilled tart crust means poking it all over with a fork before you bake it. These holes create paths for steam to escape and will help prevent your tart crust from bubbling as it bakes. If you've frozen your tart crust for longer than 20-30 minutes (e.g. overnight) you may need to let it defrost slightly before you dock it so that it doesn't crack when you poke it.

Any cheddar cheese will work here, but I prefer and recommend using an extra sharp cheese for a really intense cheddar flavor.

I did, of course, convert everything to weight measurements for accuracy. Honestly, if you're still baking without a kitchen scale in this, the year 2020, what are you even doing? As always, I included volume measurements as well, but think of them more as a guideline so you don't find yourself trying to weigh 100 grams of flour with a teaspoon.

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