This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosures.
This Stilton Quiche with Chestnut and Cranberry makes a lovely festive lunch. The richness of the stilton and woodsy notes of the chestnuts are sharpened with the zesty cranberry sauce.
A good vegetarian quiche is a blessing over the Christmas period. It’s a lovely respite from all the roasted meat heavy meals and is also a delightful alternative offering for all our veggie friends. We serve this quiche up every single year as part of our Christmas Eve table and it always goes down an absolute storm.
What makes this Stilton Quiche so brilliant?
- The flavours are gorgeously festive. Rich blue cheese, earthy chestnuts and zesty cranberry sauce.
- This recipe uses a gluten-free buckwheat pastry which is an excellent flavour foil to the filling. You can easily substitute with a regular pastry recipe.
- The cheesy filling is very easy to assemble. Just a case of mixing the ingredients together and pouring into a blind-baked pastry case.
- It’s made with cranberry sauce and it gives the quiche a touch of sweetness that is an impeccable match with the cheese.
READ MORE >>> Homemade Cranberry Clementine Sauce
What ingredients do we need for the filling?
- Stilton – a traditional Stilton is unrivalled but you can swap in any blue cheese.
- Chestnuts – you buy these vacuum packed.
- Cranberry sauce – shop bought is fine, homemade is sublime.
- Onion – caramelise the onions in a salted butter to give an excellent flavour base for our quiche.
- Crème fraiche – for a lovely creamy and subtly tangy flavour.
- Eggs – 4 eggs plus 2 extra egg yolks give this quiche such a richness. Medium sized.
How do you make the filling?
- First caramelise the diced onions in butter then leave to cool.
- Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and crème fraiche together, then add the stilton, chestnuts, caramelised onions, salt and pepper. Do reserve some of the stilton and chestnuts for crumbling onto the top.
- Pour the filling into a blind-baked pastry case and then dot the remaining stilton, chestnuts and cranberry sauce on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes, the quiche will still be a little wobbly when removed.
Pro Baker’s Tip
The resting of the quiche is key. You want to let it stand for at least 30 minutes out of the oven before cutting into. This way the quiche will become a little more stable for cutting.
More Quiche recipes you'll love!
- A Simply Perfect Gluten-Free Quiche
- Nettle Leaf and Cheddar Tart
- Pancetta, Onion and Gruyere Tartlets
Pastry Crust
So we have our gloriously cheesy filling, but we need a pastry crust to pour it into. This recipe is made with a gluten-free pastry which is deliciously buttery and improbably flaky. The use of simple alternative flours also means no xanthan gum is needed.
If you have no need for this quiche to be gluten-free then you only need to swap in a more traditional pastry recipe to make the crust.
What ingredients do we need for Gluten-Free Pastry?
- Buckwheat flour – here is where we get all our flavour. Such lovely rich earthy notes.
- Sweet rice flour – a lovely flour with a neutral taste and brilliant binding properties.
- Oat flour – just a touch of oat flour which helps with the flaky texture and has a lovely subtle taste. You can sub the oat flour for millet flour or sorghum flour if you are intolerant.
- Cornflour – this starchy flour helps bind but also contributes to a lovely flaky crust.
- Tapioca flour – it’s a starch so helps keep the pastry together but also tapioca is an excellent flour for a golden brown crust.
- Chia seeds – we use chia seeds to give the pastry a little stretch so we can roll it out without cracking.
- Unsalted butter – use this straight for the fridge for ultra flakiness.
- Egg, medium sized. Adds richness to our pastry and helps bind it all together.
- Iced water – just a few drops of iced water for added moisture.
Shop the recipe: Gluten-Free Buckwheat Flour, Gluten-Free White Rice Flour, Gluten-Free-Oat Flour, Gluten-Free Tapioca Flour, Chia Seeds
Here are the steps to make it:
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flours, chia seeds and salt.
- Rub the butter into the flour in between your fingertips so it resembles rough breadcrumbs then stir in the beaten egg.
- Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time and start to bring the dough together with a pastry scraper.
- Tip the dough onto the work surface and quickly bring the ball into a slightly sticky round ball with your hands.
- Wrap in baking parchment and flatten it slightly to make for easy rolling.
- Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill before rolling out.
Pro Tips
- Except for an extra two minutes to sift the different flours together, this pastry comes together just as quickly as a regular pastry recipe. In fact quicker as you don’t need to work the pastry as much to activate the gluten.
- You can roll out the pastry in between floured baking parchment which is really helpful in avoiding any cracking.
- Blind bake the pastry crust for 20 minutes before pouring in our glorious filling for the ultimate crisp crust with no soggy bottom.
READ MORE >>> For loads of tips on how to make excellent quiche including all the details on blind baking >>> A Simply Perfect Gluten-Free Quiche
FAQs
- How long does Stilton Quiche keep for? - It keeps really well refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- Can you freeze it? - Yes. Let the quiche cool completely then wrap it up well in a double layer of cling film and aluminium foil to avoid spoilage. Let defrost completely before re-heating.
- Can you re-heat it? - Absolutely. Just bake for 20 minutes from chilled in an oven pre-heated to to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas mark 4
More festive recipes you’ll love!
- Easy Christmas Cranberry Pie
- Cheesy and Creamy Brussels Sprouts Gratin
- Braised Red Cabbage
- Glazed Christmas Ham
- Easy Mincemeat Recipe
- Gluten-Free Cauliflower Cheese
I urge you to give this Stilton Quiche a try. If you do then please leave a comment below and give the recipe a rating which helps others find the recipe on Google. If you then go on to use this recipe as a launch pad for your own culinary creation then I’d also love it if you’d share it and tag me on Instagram. It is so lovely for me to see your versions and variations of my recipes.
Stilton Quiche with Chestnut and Cranberry
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- 80 g sweet white rice flour
- 25 g oat flour
- 45 g buckwheat flour
- 30 g cornflour
- 15 g tapioca starch
- 15 g ground chia seeds
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 115 g cold unsalted butter - cut into very thin slices
- 1 egg - medium, lightly beaten
- 2-4 tablespoons iced water
- A few tablespoons of a gluten-free flour blend for rolling
- 1 egg - beaten for the egg wash
For the filling:
- 15 g salted butter
- 1 large onion - diced
- 4 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 400 ml crème fraiche
- 175 g Stilton - crumbled
- 100 g vacuum packed chestnuts - roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 75 g cranberry sauce
Instructions
To make the pastry
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flours, chia seeds and salt.
- Rub the butter into the flour in between your fingertips so it resembles very rough breadcrumbs then stir in the beaten egg with a fork.
- Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time and start to bring the dough together with a pastry scraper. It should start to form quite quickly.
- Tip the dough onto the work surface and bring the ball into a round ball. You want the pastry to still be a little sticky.
- Wrap the pastry in baking parchment and flatten the ball slightly.
- Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas mark 4
- Dust the work surface with a gluten-free flour blend then roll the pastry out into a circle large enough to line a 25cm tart tin.
- Once you have lined the pastry in the tin and neatened the edges with a knife, place baking parchment over the pastry, so it comes up the sides, then fill the tin with baking beans.
- Place the tart tin in the oven for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven then remove the baking beans and parchment and brush the surface of the pastry with the beaten egg.
- Place back in the oven for a final five minutes to seal the pastry. Remove from the oven and leave to cool to room temperature before adding the filling.
To make the filling
- Prepare the onions by adding them into a saucepan along with the salted butter. Cook on a low heat for 25-30 minutes until the onions are completely soft, translucent and just beginning to caramelise around the edges. Leave to cool for half an hour before adding to the other ingredients.
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas mark 4
- Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and crème fraiche together, then add the stilton, chestnuts, caramelised onions, salt and pepper. Do reserve some of the stilton and chestnuts for crumbling onto the top.
- Pour the filling into the ready-baked pastry case and then dot the remaining stilton, chestnuts and cranberry sauce on top.
- Place the quiche in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- You can either eat the quiche straightaway hot from the oven or leave to come to room temperature where the quiche will firm up a little more.
Notes
- Pastry adapted from ‘Flaky Pie Dough recipe in Alternative Baker by Alanna Taylor-Tobin.
- Rest the quiche for at least 30 minutes after it has been removed from the oven. It helps for more stable slices of quiche.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in December 2016 but has been updated in November 2020 for further clarification on the method.
sally says
looks fabulous! did you know that a lot of medications also contain gluten?