For those of you who follow us regularly, you know that the little ladies and I like to make and bake something new for each letter we’re learning in home school that week. This past week was Q and as it turns out, there aren’t a lot of foods that start with Q.  Quail, quail eggs, Quesedilla, Quince and Quiche were all I could think of. Probably there’s more, but this was my list.  We decided a quiche would be good, and while I love a sweet onion or delicious dill quiche, momma was craving something real sweet.  So, I googled dessert quiche and the first thing I saw did the trick!  We adapted this French Vanilla Quiche recipe from seriouseats.com and I’m SO glad we did!  Think, sweet vanilla custardy deliciousness baked into a good ol’ flaky pie crust just like grandma’s! Nomnomnomnomnom!

Here’s what you need to make this little quiche baby!

• 1 Pie crust. You can make your own or do what we did & get a refrigerated or frozen pie crust.  There will be enough custard for one deep dish crust or for two regular sized crusts.
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups half and half
• 1 vanilla bean – I learned a little bit about vanilla bean shopping! I looked at 4 places and found that the Private Selection brand at our Dillons grocery store made the least expensive. 2 beans for $10.  I found 1 bean for $9 and the average price seemed to be 2beans for $16. But trust me, it’s worth it!  I’m sure you could use pure vanilla extract if you are unable to hunt down some vanilla beans, but scraping the vanilla from the beans makes you feel cool, and you can decorate the pie with the beans, so there’s that to think about too:D

And here’s what you need do with those ingredients to get this quiche baby ready to put in your mouth! P.S….Don’t eat babies. Eat quiche. We’re making quiche.

1. Place your oven rack in the middle position and preheat your oven to 375°F. Place your pie crust into your 9-inch pie plate, tucking back edges of crust or making it real fancy nice!

2. In a big ol’ bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until the color lightens up and is real nice and frothy, around 2 minutes. Whisk in flour, then your half and half, scrape all that vanilla goodness out of the vanilla bean and mix everything up real good. Prepare for your kitchen to smell amazing!
3. Pour your delicious vanilla goodness into your crust. Place pie plate on rimmed baking sheet and bake until egg mixture is puffed and a light gold.  Cook for about about 55 minutes to 1 hour for the deep dish and about 30 minutes for two of the shallower pie crusts . Remove from oven, leave the room, tell your self no for 15 minutes (plenty of time to change into stretchy pants and get some coffee) and then come back, take a pretty picture, top with anything you might like (we did fresh sliced strawberries) and slice it up and eat that quiche!! It is so good warm or refrigerated a few hours later..and then a few more hours after that, a few more after that and even a little after that too!

   Enjoy friends!!!