Quiche Crust

Tonight when I made this spinach mushroom quiche I had enough extra dough to make this nice beaded border for the crust.  It looks impressive but is very easy to do.  After I rolled out the dough the first time I turned the pie plate upside down and cut around it to make a perfect circle.  I then rolled the dough out a little bit more to make it wide enough to compensate for the vertical side of the pie plate.  When I placed the circle of dough into the pie plate I had about 1/2 inch of space between the top of the dough and the top of the pie plate.  This provided a nice little "ledge" for the dough balls.

To make the dough balls I squeezed and rolled the dough into a snake shape about 1/2 inch thick and then squeezed off pieces of dough roughly every 1/2 inch or so.  I just rolled the dough between my hand to make dough balls and then placed them on the ledge.  They had a tendency to fall off so I pushed them down and out against the side of the dish.

The recipe for the crust is from Molly Katzen's Sunlight Cafe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter
up to 3 tablespoons of cold water, milk, or buttermilk

Instructions:
Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.  Cut the butter into slices, add to the processor, and buzz several times, until the mixture is uniform and resembles coarse meal.  Continue to process in quick spurts as you add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time.  As soon as the dough adheres to itself when pinched, stop adding water and turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  Gather it gently into a ball.  Roll the dough into a circle 11 inches or so in diameter.  Lift the dough and ease it into a 9-inch pie pan or 10-inch springform tart pan. If you're not going to use the crust right away, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze until use.

I substituted Earth Balance for the butter and it was delicious!

(The recipe for the quiche is here.)