Tomato Florentine Quiche Cups

*Note* – You can use a pre-made rolled pie crust if you wish. I chose to use Ree Drummond’s Perfect Pie Crust recipe cut in half…

Prepping the quiche ingredients:
On a cutting board, prepare tomatoes by cutting into quarters. With a spoon, remove the seeds and inner pith of tomato, discarding them. Take remaining meat of tomato and cube into ½” cubes. Place into collander or sieve. Place sieve over a bowl and sprinkle cubed tomatoes with 1 tablespoon of salt. Toss tomatoes with salt and place into the fridge for 1 hour. This will help extract extra moisture that would water down the quiche.

In the meantime, fry bacon over medium heat in a large pan until done and crispy. Drain bacon on paper towels. When cool enough to handle, chop into ¼” pieces. Set aside.

Remove 1 handful of spinach leaves from the stems, rolling the leaves up cigar style and slicing into thin pieces – chiffonade. Set aside. If feta is in large pieces, crumble until approximately pea-sized. Set aside.

In medium bowl, whisk together whole milk, half and half, pepper, egg and egg yolk. Cover and place in fridge until final assembly step.

For the pie crust:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, whisk together salt and flour. Add shortening, incorporating with a pasty blender or two forks until small pea-sized balls form. Take lightly beaten egg and blend it into dough. Next blend in water and vinegar. Use immediately, or store in a freezer bag with all of the air removed for later using.

If you are making the quiches now… Roll out dough on a floured work surface until it is approximately ⅓” thick. Using a cereal bowl or cutter that is about 5” diameter, cut out 12 round shapes. Re-roll dough if necessary to achieve desired number of cutouts.

Spray a standard 12-count cupcake tin with baking spray and place 1 dough round into each space. Partially bake the crusts for 5 minutes to begin to set up crust.

For final assembly:
After tomatoes have been in fridge for approximately one hour, remove from fridge and rinse them under cold water thoroughly. Pour out onto layered paper towels and pat dry to ensure all excess moisture has been wicked away.

When dough has been partially baked, remove it from oven and assemble all of your ingredients on the counter. Reduce oven temperature to 350F.

Evenly distribute feta into the bottom of all twelve cups. Next top with spinach, bacon and rinsed and dried tomatoes.

Pour egg/cream mixture over the top of all cups until it reaches the rim of each crust. Sprinkle with pepper.

Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the cups comes out clean.

Let cool in the tin on a cooling rack. When cool enough to remove, run a butter knife around the edges of the quiches gently removing them from the pan. Serve warm or cold.

Enjoy!