The Royal Family’s Coronation quiche is packed full of moist ingredients, including cream, eggs, spinach and milk. While the contrast between the creamy filling and hard pastry base is what makes it so tasty, a “soggy bottom” can ruin the entire recipe. But according to TV chef Clodagh McKenna, it can be avoided by making just one adjustment.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla have named a bean and spinach quiche, coined the “Coronation quiche” as the signature dish for the event.
The royal recipe was crafted by a Buckingham Palace chef who shared how to make the “deep” baked dish on social media.
Described as having a “crisp, light pastry case”, the creamy filling could easily weigh down the shortcrust base if home cooks skip one crucial step.
And according to recipe writer and TV chef Clodagh McKenna, it all comes down to preparing the vegetables.
READ MORE:Â King Charles and Camilla share recipe for Big Lunch Coronation QuicheÂ
While making her own take on the official Palace recipe on ITV’s This Morning, Clodagh added a few extra steps to the process.
After frying off 90g of lightly chopped spinach and half a leek in a pan, host Philip Schofield pointed out the high moisture content in the quiche filling.
He said: “You’ve got to squeeze the moisture out of everything haven’t you because there’s so much moisture in spinach.”
Clodagh pointed out that in the Palace recipe, they had “missed this step out”, which, as a recipe writer, she wouldn’t have done.
As she gathered the cooked greens up into a clean tea towel, the TV chef explained: “You have to wring it out because look at all that liquid!”
To do this, she placed the spinach and leeks into the centre of a towel and gather the remaining fabric up into a parcel.
Over a large bowl, she then squeezed the top of the tea towel to allow the excess water to seep through the bottom of the towel.
Clodagh said: “If you don’t wring out the spinach, all this juice will go in and give you a soggy bottom… like egg soup.”
READ MORE: How to make King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Coronation quiche
Outlined in the Palace recipe, blind baking is another important step to follow once the pastry has been made.
The Palace guidance reads: “Line the tin with the pastry, taking care not to have any holes or the mixture could leak. Cover and rest for a further 30 minutes in the fridge.
“Preheat the oven to 190C. Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes, before removing the greaseproof paper and baking beans.”
However, TV chef Nigella Lawson recommended another quick step bakers can add to ward off a “soggy bottom”.
On her website, Nigella explained that brushing the semi-cooked pastry base before adding the filling can help.
She said: “Some people like to paint the surface of the pastry base with lightly beaten egg white after the beans have been removed, and before returning the dish to the oven as the egg white cooks onto the surface of the pastry and can act as a slight sealant to help to keep the pastry crisp.”
Cooking the quiche in a fluted metal tin with a loose bottom will make it even easier to remove once baked, and preserve the flaky texture.
This is because the metal heats up very quickly which gives an attractive presentation when the tin is removed.
