Today we’re making none other than the granddaddy of all brunch dishes, the lovely, the wonderful Quiche Lorraine!
Honestly, out of all the dishes you can make for brunch, none of them can beat a quiche. Not only is it incredibly delicious, but best of all the dish is meant to be prepared the day before. Which is great because brunch is all about eating and being social, and you can’t really do either if you are busy cooking.
But before we get into the recipe I want to talk about what exactly constitutes a quiche. Because it seems that there’s a lot of confusion surrounding it online.
For starters, you should understand that the filling of a quiche is made out of a relatively equal mixture of eggs, cream, and milk. So you really shouldn’t view it as an egg dish. Instead, it’s best to view a quiche as a type of savory custard, ok. And secondly, a quiche requires a pie crust. So if it doesn’t have one then you really can’t call whatever you made a quiche.
The reason I’m bringing all this up is that too often I’ll see recipes described as a quiche which are mostly made of eggs and lack any crust. Which I’m sorry to break it to you folks, but that’s basically just a frittata, not a quiche. And that’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with frittata, it’s still a great brunch dish. But if you invite someone to brunch and say you’re having quiche and instead you serve them a mangled frittata then they’re probably going to be disappointed. I know I would.
But don’t worry because today we are going to be making a real quiche. And while there are plenty of variations on the dish, nothing can beat the original, quiche lorraine. Why? Well, it’s because it is stuffed with two main ingredients, bacon, and cheese. A combination that pretty much everyone loves! So if you’re ready then let’s get to the recipe.
Tips, Tricks & Suggestions
- As I stated above we are going to need a pie crust for this dish. So you can either use a store-bought crust or better yet make some yourself with our easy recipe.
- What cheese to use? Personally I like to use either gruyere of white cheddar. However, it’s your quiche so feel free to use whatever type of cheese you like.
- While you can use a regular old pie pan for this I highly recommend using a tart pan that has removable sides. It will really make presenting and serving the quiche a lot easier.
- As I said above quiche is best made the night before. Not only does this save you the trouble of making it in the morning, but also because a quiche needs at least an hour or two after baking to set up.
- Quiche is actually meant to be eaten cold or at room temperature. However, if you want it hot you can either put it in your microwave for a couple of seconds or place it in a 200 degree oven for a couple of minutes.
- Once you’ve mastered this dish try experimenting by adding in some other ingredients like mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, or ham.
- I highly recommend blind baking the crust or else it might end up soggy. So if you want to learn more about that then I suggest you read our lesson on the topic.
Quiche Lorraine Recipe
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes (plus another 50 minutes if you blind bake your pie crust)
Servings: 8
Ingredients
1 Homemade pie crust
2 Whole eggs
2 Egg yolks
1 Cup of milk
1 Cup of heavy cream
1 Cup of grated cheese, gruyere or cheddar
½ Lb of Bacon
1 to 2 Tablespoons of fresh chives, minced
½ Teaspoon of salt
½ Teaspoon of black pepper
⅛ Teaspoon of nutmeg
⅛ Teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Form the crust into a tart pan: Get out the pie dough and roll it out until it is roughly a 12-inch diameter circle. Then place the dough into a 1 to 1 ½ inch tall and 10-inch wide tart pan and lightly press it into the sides and bottom.
Use a knife to cut off any excess pie dough that is overhanging the tart pan.
Place this in your fridge for now while we cook the bacon, or do the optional next step of blind baking.
- (Optional) Blind bake the pie crust: This step isn’t necessary but it will result in a pie crust that is less soggy. To do it simply cover the pie crust with either heavy-duty aluminum foil or parchment paper. Then fill this up with either uncooked beans, uncooked rice, sugar, or store-bought pie weights. Then place this into your oven and let it bake for 20 minutes until it is cooked.
- Cook the bacon: Begin by cutting the bacon into roughly inch sized pieces.
Then get out a skillet, place it over high heat and cook the bacon until it is done to your liking.
Remove the cooked bacon from the skillet and set it aside.
- Make the egg, cream, and milk filling: Get out a mixing bowl and add the eggs, egg yolks, cream, milk, nutmeg, cayenne, salt, and pepper to it. Then whisk this all together until it is uniform.
- Assemble the quiche: Get out your pie crust. Then disperse half of the bacon along the bottom of the pie crust followed by all of the cheese and then the remaining half of the bacon.
Next, pour the filling over top and use either a spoon or fork to agitate everything so that the filling gets into every nook and cranny. Finish this by sprinkling the minced chives over the top.
- Bake the quiche: Carefully place the quiche in your oven and let it bake for 35 to 40 minutes. You will know the quiche is cooked when the top has browned and when a toothpick poked into the filling comes out clean.
- Let it rest: As you take the quiche out of the oven you might notice that it still jiggles a little. Don’t worry that is perfectly normal as the quiche hasn’t fully set yet. So all you need to do is let it rest for at least an hour or preferably overnight.
- After the quiche Lorraine has been given time to set it is ready to be sliced up and enjoyed.
Quiche Lorraine Recipe
Equipment
- tart pan
Ingredients
- 1 Homemade pie crust
- 2 Whole eggs
- 2 Egg yolks
- 1 Cup of milk
- 1 Cup of heavy cream
- 1 Cup of grated cheese gruyere or cheddar
- ½ Lb of Bacon
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons of fresh chives minced
- ½ Teaspoon of salt
- ½ Teaspoon of black pepper
- ⅛ Teaspoon of nutmeg
- ⅛ Teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Form the crust into a tart pan: Get out the pie dough and roll it out until it is roughly a 12-inch diameter circle. Then place the dough into a 1 to 1 ½ inch tall and 10-inch wide tart pan and lightly press it into the sides and bottom. Use a knife to cut off any excess pie dough that is overhanging the tart pan. Place this in your fridge for now while we cook the bacon, or do the optional next step of blind baking.
- (Optional) Blind bake the pie crust: This step isn’t necessary but it will result in a pie crust that is less soggy. To do it simply cover the pie crust with either heavy-duty aluminum foil or parchment paper. Then fill this up with either uncooked beans, uncooked rice, sugar, or store-bought pie weights. Then place this into your oven and let it bake for 20 minutes until it is cooked.
- Cook the bacon: Begin by cutting the bacon into roughly inch sized pieces. Then get out a skillet, place it over high heat and cook the bacon until it is done to your liking. Remove the cooked bacon from the skillet and set it aside.
- Make the egg, cream, and milk filling: Get out a mixing bowl and add the eggs, egg yolks, cream, milk, nutmeg, cayenne, salt, and pepper to it. Then whisk this all together until it is uniform.
- Assemble the quiche: Get out your pie crust. Then disperse half of the bacon along the bottom of the pie crust followed by all of the cheese and then the remaining half of the bacon. Next, pour the filling over top and use either a spoon or fork to agitate everything so that the filling gets into every nook and cranny. Finish this by sprinkling the minced chives over the top.
- Bake the quiche: Carefully place the quiche in your oven and let it bake for 35 to 40 minutes. You will know the quiche is cooked when the top has browned and when a toothpick poked into the filling comes out clean.
- Let it rest: As you take the quiche out of the oven you might notice that it still jiggles a little. Don’t worry that is perfectly normal as the quiche hasn’t fully set yet. So all you need to do is let it rest for at least an hour or preferably overnight.
- After the quiche Lorraine has been given time to set it is ready to be sliced up and enjoyed.
Check out these other blogs for different quiche recipes
From Spend with Pennies
From Skinny Taste
