How To Make Jalapeño Popper Quiche Cups
Jalapeno popper quiche cups are perfect little creamy savories for parties, potlucks, holiday spreads, game day treats, snacks, or lunch.
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
- Medium bowl
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Hand mixer or Blender
- Parchment paper - for rolling out the pie crust
- Rolling Pin
- knife
- cutting board
- Cheese grater
- Frying Pan - only needed if your adding bacon.
Ingredients
- 1 lb cream cheese (450g, or 2 cups) - see notes for choices and substitutions
- ½ C heavy cream (120g)
- 3 lg eggs
- 8 oz sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese (225g) grated
- 6-8 large jalapeños mild or hot, or substitute with sweet peppers to adjust heat.
- 1 tsp garlic powder or 2 tsp garlic paste or finely chopped garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder or flakes
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ cup chives or green onions
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley - double if you don't have chives.
- 4 rashes of bacon - optional
- 1 recipe flaky pie crust - allow for 2 hours of chilling time if you're making it from scratch. Find the flaky pie crust recipe here!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375
Prepare the pie crusts
- If you're making the pie pastry from scratch, allow for 2 hours extra for chilling time.
- Roll out your pie crust between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Dust with flour several times while rolling out and keep adjusting the parchment if necessary.
- With a 4" round cutter or other object (maybe a tin can or jar lid), cut out circles for mini pie crusts. I used an english muffin ring that's just under 4 inches and then I just stretched the dough a bit to fit.
- Place the cutouts into the muffin cups and pierce the bottoms with a fork to eliminate trapped air for easier forming. You'll want to push the pastry all the way into the bottom edges. Piercing the dough will also prevent trapped moisture when baking, which will yield a flakier crust.
- Place the muffin tin with the pie crust into the freezer while you prepare the filling. This will ensure the best flakiness.
Prepare the Filling
- If you're using bacon, fry it in a pan till crispy and set aside to cool.
- Add the cream cheese or quark to a medium sized bowl along with the heavy cream. (You will need a blender or food processor for this if you're using cottage cheese or queso fresco to break up the curds).Beat the cheese with the cream till creamy and smooth.
- Add the eggs and spices and blend till smooth.
- Add the grated cheddar cheese and give it another whirl.
- Stir in the jalapeños, chives, green onions, or parsley.
- If you're adding bacon, crumble the bacon and use half of it in the batter, and reserve the other half for a topping.Your batter should be fairly thick unless you used ricotta or unrinsed cottage cheese
- Grab the mini pie shells from the freezer and use a table spoon or ladle to fill the muffin cup just to the edge of the shell. Sprinkle with the remaining bacon
- Put the muffin tins into the oven and bake till the filling is showing a golden tinge and is firm in the middle when you press on it, about 25-30 minutes.
- Take the pan out and let it cool for 10 minutes on a rack. Invert onto a baking sheet and serve warm or serve at room temperature.
Storage & Reheating
- Refrigerate leftovers for up to 4 days, or freeze for longer storage. I prefer freezing them uncooked in the muffin dish, then, once frozen, just invert and remove the quiches from the muffin pan and put them into a freezer container or freezer bag with as much air squeezed out as possible. When needed, pop them back into a muffin tin and bake.When freezing fully baked quiches, you can wrap them individually in parchment or plastic film and keep them them in a freezer container or bag for easy snacks, just defrost them in the fridge and eat cold or heat, defrosted or still frozen, in a toaster oven.Reheat at 350 degrees until heated through and the crust is sizzling. It will take longer for frozen pies.
Notes
Tips For Your Best Jalapeño Popper Quiche Cups
- Choose Your Cheese: I like to use my homemade cheeses for this dish but they taste fantastic with purchased cream cheese or cottage cheese too. If you like it really rich and creamy, go for the cream cheese! For a bit lighter version, use cottage cheese, homemade queso fresco, Greek yogurt, ricotta, or homemade quark cheese, chevre cheese, or clabber cheese.
- Choose Your Heat: Make these hot or not with your selection of peppers. I like it spicy and use regular jalapeños, but you can use mild jalapeños or bell peppers instead of hot jalapeños.
- Add greens: I like to include some greens in these tarts. My favorites for jalpeno popper quiches are green onions or chives, they are a perfect partner! But some finely chopped parsley or celery greens are great too.
- Make-Ahead: You can freeze the assembled raw quiches or the fully baked ones.
- Use Fresh Milled Flour, Organic Cheese, and Butter or Lard from pastured animals to make this a health-supporting treat. It is important to me to eat clean foods that count and support my health and I like to offer helpful information on how I choose ingredients that support this goal, in case you feel the same. See more info in the ingredients list below.
- Substitute leftover Smoked Ham for the Bacon, or bits of smoked sausage.