Gracia’s Quiche from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Everybody, just take a moment to look at this gif. Let it all sink in. Appreciate how delectable this quiche looks.

Does that not look SO GOOD?? Even Al dreams about it later in the episode, asking Ed how it tasted. (BTW, what do you think Al does at night, since he can’t technically sleep? Like…how boring must it be to just watch Ed sleep all night long?). I love Full Metal Alchemist, it was one of the first anime I watched, and the story is just so heart-wrenchingly good. I remember crying at the end of FMA, and being overjoyed to learn that they were gonna make FMA: Brotherhood. (I like both, btw. They are equally great in different ways.) And guys, I started watching the dub first, and you know Vic Mignogna? (Minoganog? Minurganurg? How do you even say his last name?) I love his voice. I don’t care if he tries to sell me his audio-book Bible, I will never stop liking his voice. Basically, I love everything about this anime, including the delectable looking food.

Only problem is, I hate eggs. I really do. Have I said this yet on this blog? Eggs are really kind of gross, but this quiche looked so good that I decided to give it a try anyway. To make it edible, and to try to mimic the green coloring on the top of the quiche in the anime, I decided to make a bacon, swiss, and spinach quiche. Quiches, though fancy looking, are actually really easy to make, so this is a good recipe to try out if you are a cooking noob.

The Ingredients

Quiche Crust

1. 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter, COLD

2. 2 1/2 cups flour

3. 1 tsp sugar

4. 1 tsp salt

5. about 1/4 cup ice water

Quiche Filling

1. 5 eggs

2. 1 1/4 cup cream

3. 2 pinches salt

4. healthy grind of black pepper

5. 7 pieces of bacon

6. 1 cup swiss cheese, grated or cubed

7. 1 cup spinach, chopped

Special equipment: A tart pan with a removable bottom.

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To Make the Quiche:

Sadly, Alchemy won’t help us here. The quiche crust is going to require a bit of elbow grease.

Start with the crust ingredients. Place flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. With a knife, cube the frozen butter as small as possible, and then toss it into the flour mixture.

Then, work the butter into the flour, until you only have small, pea-like pieces of butter instead of larger chunks. It will still be really crumbly, don’t worry.

Next, drizzle in your 1/4 cup of ice water, and mix everything together with your hands or a wooden spoon until the dough will hold together when you squeeze it in your hand. It will still be really crumbly and annoying to work with, but trust me when I say you will be rewarded for your valiant butter-wrestling efforts.

Tip the whole thing out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, press it into a disc, and then let cool in fridge for at least 1 hour (preferably overnight). Also, don’t skip this step you slacker, you need to let the butter re-harden before you roll it out. If you are lazy and last-minute like me, you can chuck it into the freezer for 30 minutes and hope for the best, but I really do recommend letting it sit overnight. It will let the liquids distribute evenly throughout the dough and allow the butter to harden up. While you let it rest, assemble the quiche filling ingredients.

To assemble the quiche filling, you want to cut your bacon into bite-size pieces. As you can see, I used a full pound of bacon, but that ended up being way too much.

Pop all of the bacon into a pan over medium-high heat, and just allow to cook through, developing a little crunch. While this is cooking away, cube your cheese (I don’t have a grater TT_TT) and chop your spinach.

When the bacon is done, drain it on some paper towels on top of a plate and set aside. We now return to the crust.

Once it has had time to rest, pull out a piece of parchment or wax paper about the size of your tart pan.

Pop your disc of dough out onto the paper, re-settling the plastic wrap over the top, and roll out your dough with a rolling pin, picking up and moving the plastic as you need to roll out different areas. The dough will still be crumbly and annoying, but just use your pin to push it all into shape, and redistribute dough as you need to. Roll it out until it’s about an inch wider on all sides than your tart pan.

Then, remove the plastic wrap, carefully pick up the paper, and flop the rolled out dough onto the tart pan, peeling back the paper as you do. It will probably be a mess, but no fear. Utter a few mental oaths, and just push the crust into the pan and up into the grooves. If you don’t have enough crust to go up on side, tear off little pieces from a side that has to much to fill in the gaps. Pinch any cracks back together, and fold any extra dough back into the edge of the pan, creating a double-wide edge for your quiche.

Then, allow this to rest in the freezer for about ten minutes. Once rested, the shell is ready for filling. Take this opportunity to preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Next, whip up the egg mixture. Place eggs, cream, salt, and pepper into a bowl and give it a good whisk.

Pull out your now well-chilled tart shell, and layer in the ingredients. First the bacon, then the cheese, and finally the spinach. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top, until it comes to the top of the tart shell.

Bake for 35-45 minutes (I let mine for for the full 45 minutes), until egg is cooked through and it is golden brown and delicious looking.

This quiche is best eaten warm, so let cool for a few minutes, and then un-mold carefully, avoiding the hot metal as much as you can.

And now it’s done! 😀 Please enjoy, and I hope you can try it out. If you have any questions, comments, or funny jokes, feel free to leave a comment below! I am always looking for new recommendations of food to make, so leave those suggestions below as well. Have a good day 🙂

#cheese #Bacon #Delicious #Yummy #EdwardElric #swiss #spinach #quiche #AlphonseElric #Eggs