Quiches that leak!

[HappydaysArehere]

Started making quiches again. I used to put the eggy milk, etc in before any baking (sheer need for speed). No problems with leakage. I have now purchased ceramic beads and bake the pastry before adding the eggy milk. It loses a lot of the liquid. I leave it to cool before adding the ingredients. What am I doing wrong? The liquid is very eggy. Grateful for any suggestions.

I am RUBBISH at pastry, so probably shouldn't be answering this, but...

Are you sure you are baking it for long enough? For a while, I was baking mine too hot so the edges were going golden but the middle was still soggy.

And do you take the beads out for the last 5 minutes of the blind bake? This can help I hear!

Also, have you tried sealing the quiche? So when you take the beads out, you brush some beaten egg on it and put it back in, and then put the eggy mix in?

The beaten egg brushed on is the charm (assuming you have no holes in your pastry!)

Do your blind bake, take out your beads/beans/lentils, brush the whole of the inside of the pastry with beaten egg, give it another 5 mins or so in the oven (you should be able to see the shiny hard egg coating) and then add your filling and bake again.

Don't over fill it - pastry shrinks a little while baking, so if you fill it up to the top it might overflow a little during the final bake.

Thank you shove and maleen. Brilliant! Yes shove. I recognise your brown edges and still much lighter and soft base. Maleen, I am sure your procedure is the route to success. It makes complete sense. Will do. Thank you again.

You need to rest the raw pastry before rolling it out- in the fridge in clingfilm. This helps stop it shrinking. Ideally, rest again before baking once it's in the flan dish and make the pastry slightly higher than the tin to allow for a bit of shrinkage.

Prick the bottom lightly to stop it rising when it cooks- even if you line with baking parchment and ceramic beads. But don't prick so much it puts big holes in the pastry!

Also- don't add so much milk to the eggs- something like one tablespoon per egg is quite enough.

My first Mumsnet post! One of the main mistakes with pastry is being tempted to stretch it a bit as it goes up the side of the flan dish or tin. Downside is, it just pops back to its pre-stretch size as it cooks. Press, don't stretch, they used to tell us in domestic science. Ooh, that dates me!

I put mine in the oven naked (the pastry cases) until the look cooked - sort of dry. Then I brush with egg and bake again for a few mins.

I used to make quiche every week but now they're a luxury so I always use cream rather than milk.