Storing, freezing, reheating, and enjoying your buttery flaky deliciousness
They say real men don’t eat quiche — but being neither male nor vulnerable to the persuasions of ignorant food snobs — quiche is a definite yes for me.
Highly-versatile and always a crowd-pleaser, add quiche to a nice brunch spread, bring it to a potluck, present it at the family holiday table, or serve it with your favorite salad (and a glass of white wine) for a satisfying lunch or light dinner.
Not only is it sure to be eagerly consumed, but quiche also doesn’t take too much prep work (use a ready-made piecrust to make it a snap) and can be served hot or cold, making a Sunday picnic a great place to debut that new quiche recipe you’ve been dying to try.
Attributed to the French — but actually German in origin — this flaky-crusted delight can be filled with endless combinations to tickle your palate: vegetables of every color, cheeses of any type, meat, seafood, and did I mention cheddar cheese?
Combined with a rich mixture of eggs, milk, and cream, seasoned however you like (definitely lots of fresh parsley), and baked to golden brown perfection — what’s not to love?
But nothing’s worse (well almost nothing) than having that melt-in-your-mouth goodness turn into a soggy-bottomed no-longer-instant-worthy mess from improper reheating. Cold on the inside but overly crunchy on the outside? No thanks. Shoe-leather crust and rubbery filling? Certainly not.
So what are you to do with that third of a spinach feta quiche leftover from cousin Sheryl’s bridal shower yesterday that you’re craving for lunch?
There are a number of methods for reheating leftover quiche, but the first step actually precedes the reheating, and that’s the storage.
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Storing Leftover Quiche
If you plan on eating the leftover quiche within the next three days or so, be sure it’s covered tightly in aluminum foil or cling wrap. Avoid placing anything on top of it in the fridge, as a squished quiche is not what we’re going for.
If you opt for freezing, the best method is tray freezing. Tray freezing entails laying the desired items on a lined tray and placing it (flat!) in the freezer for a few hours.
Once completely frozen, remove it from the tray, carefully wrap it, and place it in a labeled (contents and date) zipper storage bag for future use. Try to ensure your bag is airtight, and certainly avoid using a bag that is bigger than necessary as that will cause unwanted air to get trapped in.
The tray freezing method is a perfect food prep hack for those of us that don’t have the time, patience, or organizational skills to always start everything from scratch. Try tray freezing fruit and vegetables, hamburger patties, cookie dough balls, or just about anything.
To tray freeze your leftover quiche, place it on a lined tray and stick it in the freezer for a few hours. Once completely frozen, carefully remove from the tray, wrap very well in tinfoil, and place it in a zipper storage bag before refreezing. The quiche will last a good 2–3 months in the freezer.
So, now that you made a delicious quiche (or better yet, were bequeathed it) and stored it properly, how should you proceed with reheating?
Oven Reheating
In order to keep your crust flaky and your filling a nice satisfying kind of gooey, the oven is definitely the best method for reheating.
1.Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C — do not skip the preheat or your crust will get soggy.
2. If the quiche is not already in an ovenproof dish, transfer to a lined or nonstick baking tray.
3. Whether it needs to be covered or not depends on how browned the quiche was initially:
- If it’s well-browned, cover with tinfoil. Just be sure to ‘tent’ the tinfoil, i.e., wrap the tinfoil in a tent shape so it does not adhere to the quiche and pull off that decadent top layer.
- If the quiche was not too browned, to begin with, leave it uncovered.
- Heavily browned crust but yellow filling? You can wrap tinfoil just around the crust to prevent it from becoming too hard and leave the rest uncovered.
4. Bake the quiche for about 25 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F / 74°C.
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5. Allow your warm quiche to rest for a minute or two before digging in.
6. If the quiche is frozen, you will need to add about 10-15 minutes of oven time. Do not defrost the quiche before heating as that can create a soggy crust, instead unwrap from the freezer and proceed directly with the above directions.
Microwave Reheating
Although not the preferred method, we don’t all have the necessary time, foresight (or patience!) to wait for the oven to heat up that leftover spicy caramelized onion and cheddar quiche. Microwaves can be a real time saver and can do a sufficiently good job of warming your food (now!).
- Remove quiche from the refrigerator and place it in a microwave-proof dish. Don’t forget to remove any tinfoil.
- Should you have a large piece of quiche left, ideally it should be warmed up in individual portions to ensure an even distribution of heat.
- Place quiche uncovered in the microwave on medium heat (50%) for 2-3 minutes, checking every 30 seconds after the 1 ½-minute mark until it reaches 165°F/74°C degrees internally.
- If the quiche is frozen, use the defrost function according to the user manual’s directions, checking it periodically. Once fully defrosted, proceed with the above directions.
Now that you’ve got your quiche properly heated up, serve it to on your nicest plate (oh, you already ate it out of the pan, well I hope you enjoyed!), put on a relaxing Spotify playlist, and enjoy every bite.
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