Quiche Lorraine

A Quiche Lorraine is a tender, buttery crust that holds bacon, onions and cheese encased in the most delicate egg custard. The custard is rich and creamy but doesn’t feel heavy. You can use other fillings too, instead of bacon and onions, such as sausage, ham, mushrooms, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, etc.

This Quiche Lorraine has become the ultimate breakfast/brunch epitome of perfection in our family. Every other morning we are in a rush or not together as a whole family, so that why Saturday mornings have become a time for us to wake up slowly and we make it a breakfast to make up for all the other days of the week. It is a feast, with both savory and sweet treats, and we love every minute of it.

The tender, buttery and flaky crust holds bacon, onions and cheese encased in the most delicate egg custard. The custard is so rich and creamy but doesn’t feel heavy or greasy at all. You can use other fillings too, instead of bacon and onions, such as sausage, ham, mushrooms, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, etc.

Not only is this Quiche Lorraine so good you will be talking about it the rest of the day, you can do so much of it in advance and not have much to do on Saturday, but still enjoy a complete feast.

What Is a Quiche Lorraine?

It is a savory pie, with a single bottom crust and a rich and creamy egg custard filling. Traditionally, Quiche Lorraine is made with bacon, onions, cheese and eggs, but you can also use so many other filling variations – sausage, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, etc.

How To Make the Pie Crust Dough

This is my favorite pie dough to use for many other pie recipes, both savory and sweet including Apple Pie and Potato and Bacon Pie.

1. Place the butter, flour, and salt in the food processor, and pulse lightly just until the mixture resembles wet sand. (Freeze the butter before using, so that the butter stays really cold.)
2. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition of water. Keep adding water until the dough just begins to gather into larger clumps.
3. Shape the dough into a disc, cover in parchment paper/aluminum foil or place in a plastic ziptop bag and refrigerate at least half an hour or overnight. You can also make pie dough in advance and freeze it up to 6 months. (I always make a double batch and store the extra pie dough to be used for later.)
4. To Make Pie Dough Without a Food Processor – use a pastry cutter/blender, or a fork and cut the flour into the flour and salt, leaving clumps of butter in the dough, about the size of peas. Add the ice cold water, mixing to combine with your hands, working quickly, so that the butter doesn’t melt. Mix to combine until the pie dough is mixed. Shape into a disc, wrap and chill.

How To Make the Quiche Lorraine

1. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before rolling it out.
2. On a floured surface, roll the pie crust and place it into a pie plate. (If you’re using a deep dish pie, roll out the pie dough into a 12 – 14 inch circle and if you’re using a regular size pie plate, roll out the dough into a 10-12 inch circle. Crimp the edges of the pie to make a pretty edge all the way around. Use a fork to make perforations all over the bottom of the pie crust.
3. Place the pie shell in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Chilling the rolled out pie dough before baking does two things: prevents the pie dough from shrinking and slumping while baking, as well as keeping the pie crust from getting brown too quickly. In this recipe, it’s extra important, because we’re using a large amount of custard, so it needs a long time to cook through.
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover the entire pie with parchment paper or aluminum foil and distribute pie weights or dry beans into the center of the pie. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper with the weights and continue baking the pie shell for another 10-15 minutes.
5. While the pie crust is chilling and then baking, prepare the filling.

Quiche Filling:

1. Cook the bacon over medium heat on the stovetop (or in the oven and then crumble into small pieces). Remove the bacon from the grease and place on a paper towel to drain. Get rid of most of the grease except for about 1/2 Tablespoon and add the onion, if using, and cook over medium heat until the onions are tender and slightly golden, 3-5 minutes. Add the onions to the bacon on the paper towel to drain and cool slightly.
2. Distribute the bacon, onions and grated cheese on the bottom of the partially baked pie crust. If you want the quiche to have a lot of bacon, onions and cheese throughout the entire egg mixture, you can certainly add more. (As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, you can use other things instead of bacon and onions: sausage, ham, chicken, mushrooms, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, etc.)
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together until combined. Add the milk, heavy cream, salt and ground black pepper and mix to combine. Pour the egg custard over the bacon, onion and cheese.

Baking the Quiche

Place into the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, then cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil so that they don’t get too brown. Continue baking for another 20-30 minutes, until the center of the quiche seems set. You can check for doneness by inserting  a knife blade into the quiche and it should come out clean. Remove the quiche from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Preparing the Quiche in Advance

1. Make the pie dough in advance. Store in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer from 3-6 months.
2. You can also roll out the pie dough and crimp the edges in advance and store in the refrigerator 1-2 days in advance or in the freezer up to a month in advance. In both cases, make sure the pie plate with the dough is sealed very well, so the crust doesn’t absorbs any odors.
3. You can cook the bacon and onions in advance and store them in the refrigerator until ready to assemble the quiche.
4. The entire quiche can be made in advance, baked and then stored in the refrigerator and then reheated.
5. A completely prepared and baked quiche can also be frozen and then reheated. Wrap tightly and freeze up to 3 months.

Reheating Quiche

You can reheat the quiche in the microwave or in the oven until warmed all the way through.

If reheating in the oven, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven is preheating, take the quiche out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Heat in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes until warmed all the way through.

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