Boxing Day for us (the day after Christmas for those who don’t know what it is) is the day we have all the kids over to have a Christmas celebration with them. I find it easiest to put together a buffet of finger food as that way there is something for everyone. Purchasing premade finger foods though can and is really expensive so this year I am making my own and it all starts with there Mini Quiches.

I could’ve made the pastry myself to cut down costs even further but I decided not to. I have half a freezer of premade pastry due to picking it up while on offer and popping it in the freezer until I needed it.

I used 2 packs of prerolled puff pastry and 2 rolls of prerolled shortcrust pastry the normal price is £1.25 per sheet. Total coming to £5.

I also had 2 double block roll your own puff and shortcrust pastry the normal price of which is £2.60 per pack. Total coming to £5.20.

I used 1 tray of the catering eggs so 30 eggs the cost being £3.16.

We had some ham we found marked down a few weeks ago and placed them in the freezer that cost 53p normal price is £2.00.

We purchase a 5Kg block of cheese you can get them in the Food Warehouse/ Iceland for £27. It is amazing cheese which is great as is, it melts beautifully for toasties and grates incredibly well as well. Tanny’s work has them as well so we get ours from there but for the purposes of this blog I will use the shop price. I used 500g of cheese for this grated on the smallest grater on my box grater the cost was £2.70 for the cheese.

I used a pack of smoked salmon trims which cost £2.20.

Fresh asparagus £2 for the bunch

Random wonky veg from the veg drawer approximately £2 worth.

Total cost being £22.26 approximately

Those ingredients made 180 mini quiches in 10 different flavours many of which can’t be found in shops.

If I had to buy them it would’ve cost a minimum of £50 or upwards to £120 depending on the flavours and most mini quiches are mini muffin sized so you need double the amount really.

I made 10 different flavours in the end.

1. Ham and Cheese 2.Cheese and Onion 3.Salmon, Red Onion, Dill and Asparagus 4. Asparagus 5. Red Onion, Spring Onion and Leek 6.Ham and Leek 7. Spaghetti Squash and Red Onion 8. Red Onion, Spring Onion and Sweet Pepper 9. Ham Spring Onion and Pepper 10. Leek and Cheese.

Honestly the options are endless and you can jsut use whatever is in your fridge and due to them being mini quiches everything has to be diced up really small so a little goes a very long way. This is a great way of using up leftover bits and pieces which will save you money and noone will ever know.

So lets get on with the recipe…

MINI QUICHES

6 blocks frozen roll your own pastry

30 Eggs

1/2 pint cream

Several different wonky veg from your veg drawer cut into very small dice or grated small.

500g Cheese, grated on the smallest grater on your box grater.

Leftover cooked meats or fish if you want to.

Lefotver tofu or other vegetarian protein options if you want to.

1. Roll out your pastry to 1-2mm / 10th of an inch thick.
2. Cut out your pastry around 1cm/1/2 inch bigger than your mini tart tin or miffin tin. This gives room for the ingredients. Place them in your tart tins.
3. Mix your eggs and cream together and place some of the mix in a smaller jug to make filling easier.
4. Shred into very thin strips your meats, seafood or veggie alternatives. Place in seperate bowls or containers
5. Cut up all veg into tiny dice. place in seperate bowls or containers.
6. If you are using cheese place a loose teaspoon or pinch of cheese on the base of the tart case.
7. Place your next ingredients on the cheese or just the base and remember a little goes a long way in these.
8. Pour around a Tablespoon maybe less than that of egg mix . make sure there is plenty of room at the top of the pastry to allow for expansion of the egg mix.
9. Cook for 15 minutes on 180C/ 350f /Gas Mark 5. It doesn’t matter the pastry isnt fully cooked as you will be cooking them again when needed . You only want the egg mix to be set.
10. Move careful onto racks to fully cool.
11. Lay waxed paper on the base of a freezer box and layer your quiches in single layers between parchement or waxed paper between each layer before popping on the top and placing in the freezer.
12. Continue this process until your pastry or egg mix runs out. If you run out of ingredients just use what’s left to make whatever you want.
13. When you want to use them either bring them out the day before to allow to defrost overnight and cook for 10 minutes on 220C/ 430f / gas mark 7 or until the pastry is golden.
14. The second way is to bring them out frozen and layer them on your baking trays that have a rack on them. Place the mini quiches on the rack and cook for 20 minutes on 220C/ 430f / Gas Mark 7 or until the pastry is golden.
15. Can be served hot or cold.