It is one of the things my husband and I will never agree on. I will never be able to convince him nor him me. I am not referring to an ethical or theological question, but instead our opinions of Marmite. The are two clear camps in our house: Marmite lovers and Marmite haters. Simon hates it and I love it. Despite being on opposite sides of this crucial topic we do manage to have a happy marriage. I just make sure I eat marmite when he is nowhere near me.
While volunteering in Ecuador during my year abroad (many, many years ago), the family I was living with had a small pot of Marmite that they ceremoniously brought out when I arrived. It turns out that another English volunteer had left it behind and they were convinced that it would make me feel at home. Touched by the gesture, I asked them if they liked it. The youngest (around 7) said to me: “it is OK mixed in with rice, but it tastes a bit funny.” His response made me 
chuckle and I ended up explaining that not all British people like Marmite and some in fact hate it. I never saw any of the family touch the Marmite in my presence, but I did manage to polish off the jar during my stay. I think they were quite relieved! I was very happy to have something to remind me of home.
Luckily for me, the kids agree with my assessment and love Marmite.
It is such a versatile ingredient: Marmite on toast, in sandwiches, plain rice, spaghetti and of course quiche. Now before you dismiss me as crazy for adding Marmite to quiche (or any of the other ideas…), I promise you it works (if you like Marmite). Don’t believe me try it and decide for yourself.
We have made both mini marmite quiches as well as a big one. I must admit I 
tend to make way too much pastry as then it doesn’t matter if the children don’t roll it out thin enough. It is easy enough to chop excess pastry away from a flan tin or just make more mini ones. We used muffin trays for the small ones, but I would recommend using a shallow bun tin instead though.
Ingredients
For the pastry (this is enough to easily fill a 23cm diameter flan tin or make between 14 and 18 mini ones)
- 280g flour
- 130g butter/margarine
- 70ml water
- pinch of salt
For the filling
- 3 large eggs
- 120ml single cream (you can use milk instead but it will make the filling runnier when making. It doesn’t impact upon the finished quiche though)
- 100g grated cheese
- 1tbsp marmite (use less for a milder taste and more for a stronger taste)
- 1tsp mixed herbs
Method
Place the butter, flour and salt into a bowl and rub with fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.- Pour in the water and knead together to form a ball. Add more water if it is too dry and more flour if too soggy.
- Place a silicone baking mat on your surface and flour it well.
Put the pastry on the mat and sprinkle with flour. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll it out. - Grease and flour the flan dish or the shallow bun tin. Lay the pastry over the flan tin and gently press into the
edges. Cut off any excess, but leaving a bit extra on. Prick the bottom of the pastry and cover with greaseproof paper and baking beans. Make sure some of the beans are close to the edge.
If using the shallow bun tin cut into rounds with a circular cutter a bit larger than the holes. Bake blind at 200ºc (15 minutes for the large one and around 7-10 minutes for the mini ones). - Meanwhile make the filling. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk.
- Add the cream (or milk), cheese and herbs and mix.
Grease the measuring spoon for the Marmite (we used frylight and squeezy Marmite) and add the Marmite. Mix thoroughly. This may be quite difficult due to the Marmite’s texture, so you may well need to help with this.- Remove the pastry from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 170ºc. Pour the mixture into the pastry base (or spoon
into the mini ones) and bake for 40-45 minutes until it is set. The quiche may look a bit brown as it cooks, but this is because of the Marmite.
My kids and I really enjoyed these and unsurprisingly we didn’t share them with Simon. It seems to be the kids’ new favourite quiche flavour replacing pizza quiche which formerly held the top spot for a very long time.
As he is not a jam fan (something which he adamantly tells me every time we make jam tarts or I even move to get the jam out of the fridge for anyone else) they really did have to be filled with Nutella. I also filled some with lemon curd for the grown ups and those who aren’t as fond of Nutella as my kids are. 
And great news for all my gluten-free friends this recipe can be made gluten free by substituting the regular flour for its gluten-free counterpart. You do sacrifice a bit of the rise that you get with the regular flour, but they are still yummy. It has to be said that both versions taste better and more doughnut-like when eaten immediately after rolling in sugar and still warm from the oven, but they do also taste good a bit later either warmed in the oven or even cold.
which require more greasing and silicone which were easier and mini ones. Overall the silicone ones were the best).
Whisk the buttermilk and the eggs together and then add them to the dry ingredients along with the melted butter. Combine them with a metal spoon.
While they are cooling mix 100g caster sugar with 1tsp of ground ginger (add more ginger or sugar to adjust taste) and spread on a plate. Remove the doughnuts from the tin and immediately roll in the sugar/ginger mix. You can omit the ginger and cover them in just sugar which may well work better with jam, but the ginger did work nicely with the Nutella and lemon curd.
participating in the exercise classes I attend during the week with increased enthusiasm and energy. This is not altogether surprising when you count how many doughnuts I consumed over 2 days. The day after his birthday the remaining doughnuts were distributed to the people of Atticus’s choice (he had very particular ideas about who should receive them) and I am already planning my next baking project (no surprise there).