Savory French Leek Pie
For this Savory French Leek Pie, you’ll need approx. 3 cups chopped leeks, quality Gruyère or Comte cheese, light cream, and salt and pepper. That's it! Then it bakes to perfection in a homemade or store-bought pie crust. Voila!
Servings: 0 people
Ingredients
Homemade Pie Crust: (or substitute with store-bought)
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose, unbleached, flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup butter, chilled and cubed
- 1/4 cup ice water
Leek Mixture:
- 1 9-inch (23 cm) pie crust homemade or store-bought
- 3 tbsp salted butter
- 3 leeks, white & light green parts only, cleaned & chopped roughly 3 cups chopped
- fine sea salt, to taste
- fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup light cream substitute with a mixture of 1 part heavy cream and 1 part milk.
- 1 ½ cups grated Gruyère or Comte cheese
Instructions
- If making homemade pie crust, prepare the crust first and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Recipe for homemade crust below.
For Homemade Pie Crust:
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt, mix well. Cut in the chilled butter using a food processor, pulsing until the flour resembles coarse sand. Stir in the cold water, 1 tablespoon (15 ml) at a time, until the mixture is moist and comes together to form a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and gently press down to form a slight disc shape. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.
- Roll out the chilled dough to fit a 9-inch (23-cm) pie plate. Gently place the crust into the pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the plate.
- Before pouring the mixture into the crust, poke a fork into the bottom and sides of the crust a few times, to allow air to escape when baking.
For the Leek Mixture:
- Preheat oven to 375 F. (190.6 C.).
- In a large skillet over medium-low heat, melt the butter and stir in leeks. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender and beginning to caramelize, about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low.
- Add the cream and Gruyère or Comte cheese and gently stir until the cheese is melted. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the top has set and turned golden. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow the pie to cool at least a hour or so, before serving - the cheese will be quite loose if it’s served hot or even quite warm. Best served room temperature or only slightly warm. Refrigerate leftovers or if making this ahead of time. Before serving, make sure the pie has come to room temperature (could take several hours if cold) or briefly re-heat just long enough to take away the chill, don’t serve piping hot.
Notes
Here’s some helpful tips when working with homemade pie crust from Cook’s Illustrated:
“First, always work with well-chilled pastry; otherwise, the dough will stick to the counter and tear.
Second, never roll out dough by rolling back and forth over the same section; each time you press on the same spot, more gluten develops that can toughen the dough”.
Use cool hands when handling pie dough. If your hands are naturally very warm, run them under cold water for a little bit and dry them thoroughly.