I make - Lardon and Leek Quiche

This is a riff on the traditional Quiche Lorraine but what I want to tell you is the crust. Through experimentation, I managed to improve my gluten free pie crust even further, with protein powder! Just a tablespoon makes rolling like a dream. No more breakage, no more patch work. It's a complete piece of crust which can be molded into a pie dish. I feel so happy to be normal again at pastry baking.

Lardon and Leek Quiche

Pie crust

220 g gluten-free flour (your favorite blend*)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp (7g) unflavored whey protein powder
100 g cold butter, in cubes
1 egg, beaten
3-4 tbsps cold water

Quiche Filling

250 g lardons
1 tbsp oil
1 leek, cleaned, wipe-dry and sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs
200 ml double cream
pinch of ground nutmeg
50-80 g grated cheese

To make the crust, combine flour, salt, sugar and protein powder in a bowl. Mix to combine. Rub the butter into dry ingredients until they look like big crumbs. Stir in the beaten egg and 3 tablespoons of cold water. Mix until big clumps of dough start to form. I find a small rubber spatula handy for this job. If the dough is on the dry side, add more water until you can't find any powder at the bottom of the bowl. Knead the dough a few times and wrap it in clingfilm. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours or more.

To prepare the filling, fry the lardon strips in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil until all water evaporates. Add in sliced leek and cook them until soft but not colored. Season with some pepper. There is no need of salt as lardons are salty enough. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven at 180C. Lightly grease a 23-cm pie pan. Remove the well chilled dough from the fridge and lay it between two pieces of clingfilm. Roll out to a thickness of 3mm to cover the pie pan. You probably only need 3/4 of the dough to cover an 9-in/23-cm round pie dish. Save the pastry scrapes for jam tarts.

Blind bake the pie crust with baking beads at 180C for 15 minutes. Remove the baking beads and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven while you prepare the filling.

Beat eggs, cream and nutmeg together. Stir in the leek and lardon mixture and pour the whole filling unto the pie crust. Even out the lardon strips with a spatula. Scatter the grated cheese on top. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

*My blend is: 25% White rice + 25% Buckwheat + 25% Oats + 20% Tapioca + 5% Sweet Rice