King Charles hopes royal fans across the country will be preparing his coronation quiche to take to street parties next month, and amateur chefs are eager to put the recipe to the test.
But what does the coronation quiche really taste like? And how easy is it to make from scratch at home?
Last night, Buckingham Palace has announced that the monarch has chosen the egg dish – which contains spinach, fava beans and tarragon and was developed with Royal Chef Mark Flanagan – on the occasion of his coronation.
But the announcement has already been received mixed reviews from royal fans – with many pointing out that the key ingredient of the recipe is the “hardest product to get your hands on” amid the national egg shortage.
However, Dame Prue Leith was full of praise for Charles and Camilla’s choice when she served the Duke of Edinburgh a piece of quiche at an engagement in Westminster Abbey today.
King Charles III – who loves everything with eggs and cheese – has feasted on a ‘Coronation Quiche’ to celebrate his coronation
The jury of the Great British Bake Off emphasized the social aspect of the dish: ‘Quiche is universal. Even cold, if the ingredients are right and the dough is nice and buttery, it will taste great.”
With just three weeks to go before Charles and Camilla’s big day, FEMAIL’s Senior Writer Lydia Hawken decided to give the divisive quiche a try – with terribly surprising results.
The first time I read the recipe on the Royal Family’s website, I was very confident that I could make this vegetarian dish from scratch.
The recipe includes some everyday household ingredients that I already have in my stash, such as flour, butter, cheese, and whipped cream.
Plus, it’s only 10 steps in total – so how hard can it really be? It turns out to be quite a challenge.
Although I already had some basics at home, it took me three trips to different supermarkets until I finally found a bag of frozen fava beans.
As I sneaked into branches of Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and eventually M&S I couldn’t help but envy King Charles – who undoubtedly has the luxury of picking his own vegetables fresh from the gardens at Highgrove.
FEMAIL’s Senior Writer Lydia Hawken tested the coronation quiche at home – and was a little worried about how anemic it looked compared to the pictures of the royal family
Lydia Hawken (pictured) made the entire quiche from scratch, as described on the Royal Family’s website
The recipe has been released so that Britons can make the dish themselves
After unpacking all 10 components at home, I suddenly felt irrationally nervous.
Growing up, my Cornish grandparents used to make pies with homemade shortcrust pastry – so I already know how hard it is to get it right.
And it turns out my gut was right – shortcrust pastry is just as temperamental as I remembered.
Despite following the instructions to the letter, I ended up with a soggy dough at the end of my second attempt.
But determined to persevere in the face of adversity, I wrapped it in cling film and let it ‘rest’ for 30 minutes.
To my surprise, I quite liked baking with lard – as it dissolved quickly in the flour unlike the cold bits of butter.
When this half hour was up, it was time to roll it out into a thin circle to spread over the cake tin. Chaos ensued.
The dough stuck to my rolling pin and kept breaking apart in my hands.
While it was incredibly tempting to throw it out and use my backup stash of ready-to-bake pastries, I decided to collect what I could into the pastry case.
After covering any holes with my pre-made dough, I put it back in the oven to ‘rest’ for another 30 minutes… wondering how much relaxation a single pastry could ever need.
At this point I started preparing the filling – which was the most straightforward aspect of this bake.
Simply combine milk, cream, eggs, tarragon and season with salt and pepper. Simple.
However, things kicked up another notch when it came time to blind bake the dough for 15 minutes. In an effort to speed up the pace, I had also started chopping the spinach, measuring the fava beans, and grating the cheese.
In other words, my desire for efficiency meant that I got through my hallway/kitchen surfaces pretty quickly.
Left: Ingredients for the quiche. Right: The recipe calls for 25g of lard, which Lydia was happy to work with
Left: Lydia mixes the ingredients until breadcrumbs form. Correct: the dough must also be blind baked for 15 minutes
Left: The recipe calls for 6 ounces (180 g) of spinach. Right: Lydia strayed from the recipe and wringed out the spinach to get rid of excess water
Lucky for me, I had my experienced baker of a mom on speed dial – who urged me not to put the cooked spinach directly into the pie.
Although the instructions say to just add the cooked vegetables with the layer of cheese, I decided to digress a bit and wring it out like an old dishcloth.
After whipping it up with several paper towels, I was sure my shredded spinach wouldn’t make the quiche a watery, slimy mess. Crisis averted.
Once you’ve thrown in your booked fava beans, all that’s left to do is to coat the creamy mixture and add another generous amount of cheese.
Having never made a quiche before, I couldn’t help but hang by the oven for the entire 25 minutes of cooking time.
The recipe states that you should remove the quiche from the oven as soon as it has set. But compared to the pictures on the royal family’s website, there was no denying that my quiche looked a little on the anemic side.
Left: the first layer of cheese in the pie. Right: Lydia pours the creamy mixture over the spinach, cheese and fava beans
Lydia takes a slice of the finished quiche. She felt it wasn’t worth the hassle, but argued it was better enjoyed cold
In an attempt to recreate that golden top, I added another layer of cheese and then popped it back in the oven for another five minutes – which I can’t say made any difference.
Since I’ve never made a quiche in my life, I proudly posted a photo of the final result on my family’s WhatsApp group — in part to thank my mom for being my outside sous chef through the whole ordeal.
‘What are those rocks,’ my sister replied immediately. “They look like olives,” my brother added.
Note to self: push the wide beads further into the mixture next time. But now the important part – is it really worth it? Personally, I can’t say it is.
Even with the tarragon, it’s a bit on the bland side. I can’t help but think it would be improved with some ham or bacon, which probably doesn’t fit Charles’s flexitarian diet.
If I were to make it again, I’d probably add way more than the recommended 100 grams of cheese to give it a bit more bite.
That said, I preferred it cold as it gave the dough a chance to stiffen properly – resulting in that irresistibly crumbly finish.
To my surprise, my favorite part of the dish was the fava beans – which really took over the flavor of the creamy mix and were a welcome change in texture.
However, in my humble opinion, the quiche can’t match a classic Coronation chicken sandwich. Sorry Karl…