Print the recipe page!   truly impossible pie

A friend of mine who reads the blog and is trying to put together a breakfast plan using her wonder oven, asked me last week about making an impossible pie in a wonder oven.  I thought it was an interesting twist and got to thinking about it.  Well, I’m so glad she asked because now I’m totally in love with this recipe!!  So, what’s an impossible pie, you ask? Children of the 70’s (and their mothers) should remember this Bisquick creation, where Bisquick was poured over top of an egg batter layered with vegetables, meat and cheese and baked.   It’s impossibility was that you got a “crust” without rolling out pie dough.  The result was a quiche that was fast and easy to fix.

Well, if ever there was an impossible pie, I’d give that title instead to this variation!  If you’d asked me even a year ago, I never in a million years would have thought this to be a possibility as a food storage recipe.  Thanks to discovering Honeyville’s OvaEasy Eggs, now it is.  And beyond that, it utilizes the heat retentive cooking of a wonder oven, which makes it a breakfast possibility even if the power is out.  You see, you can’t bake anything — for breakfast— if the power is out.  The sun isn’t out to heat your sun oven so you’re options are limited to cooking over a stovetop of some kind.  Not that hot cereal isn’t great, but it gets old like everything else.

This recipe exemplifies the idea that in using a wonder oven your pot and lid act as a “mini-oven”, just as in making bread, where you can still bake using just a minimal amount of stove top fuel if the power is out.

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Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1/8 cup minced onions

1/2 cup + 2 TBS freeze dried ham dices (+ 1/2 cup water for rehydrating) — or — 1 (4.5 oz) bag shelf stable bacon

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup freeze dried mozzarella cheese (+ 1/2 cup water for rehydrating)

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk (*this recipe uses 1 cup, so reserve 1/2 cup for another use)

1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained –or– 1 1/2 cup freeze dried potato dices

1/2 cup Honeyville OvaEasy Egg Crystals mixed with 3/4 cup water (or 4 eggs)

1/2 cup flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

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That’s right, I’m actually using minced onions today.  It’s their star debut here on the blog!  Just 1/8 cup is equal to about 1/3 cup fresh onion.

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Instructions:

Rehydrate ham dices (with warm water) and potato dices if using.  While waiting, rehydrate the cheese.  To do this, pour cool water over the cheese in a shallow dish.  Allow to sit for 3-5 minutes.  Drain any excess water and blot dry using paper towel.

In a small saucepan, heat the evaporated milk, corn (or rehydrated potato dices), Parmesan cheese, minced onions and diced ham to boiling.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.  Separately, mix the OvaEasy Egg Crystals with their water.  Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine.

Grease both a 9 inch skillet and the inside of it’s lid with oil or baking spray.  Heat the pan with it’s lid on (empty) until both the pan and lid are hot.  Once the milk mixture is boiling, quickly add to the egg and flour mixture.  Add the prepared cheese, stirring, and immediately transfer all to the hot skillet.  Quickly smooth the top with a spoon, replace the hot lid and transfer to the wonder oven to cook for at least 90 minutes.

If baking in a standard oven, heating the milk mixture isn’t necessary.  Combine everything in a greased pie plate and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

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I was surprised how good the freeze dried ham dices were!  This is the first recipe I’ve tried them in, having previously used canned.

Getting the cheese ready.  Just 3-5 minutes soaking time in cool water, then blot dry.

Heat 1 cup of the milk, the Parmesan cheese, drained corn and drained ham dices over medium heat until it boils.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour mixture and add the “eggs” to it.

Get your skillet ready by oiling or spraying it with cooking spray.  Remember also to spray the inside of the cooking lid.

Your milk mixture should be getting close to boiling now, so on another element, heat the skillet with it’s lid on (empty inside) until it’s really hot.

Once your milk mixture is boiling you want to work quickly so as not to lose the precious heat that’s going to bake everything.  Combine the milk mixture with the flour and egg mixture, stirring, and then add in the cheese.  Immediately pour everything into the hot skillet.  Smooth it out a little, if it needs it, but get your lid back onto it as fast as you can.

Replace the lid and move it all to the wonder oven to cook for at least (no peeking!) 90 minutes.

And here it is.  A wonderful cheesy quiche, now truly possible for your food storage plan.

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Notes:

• Freeze dried Monterey Jack cheese would also work in this recipe if wanted.

• I tried this recipe a number of ways.  Traditionally, the ham, cheese and onion are layered before adding the egg and flour mixture.  This didn’t work in the wonder oven (it never set up) and I think it’s because the ham and corn (or insert your favorite vegetable) needed to be hot in order to stabilize the heat throughout the dish.  Also, making it without the corn didn’t work, there was too much air space left in the skillet which killed the heat.  So in substituting things, the volume is important as is mixing the “mix-ables” all together piping hot.  The egg obviously can’t be heated previous to being baked or we’d have scrambled eggs, but everything else that can be heated should be.

• Remember, this could be started the night before and be ready to eat first thing in the morning without any worries of it burning.  So long as the pillows in your wonder oven stay nestled around it, it’ll stay hot until you’re ready to eat!