Quiche Lorraine

Quiche is so satisfying and makes a good choice for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can add just about any veg, meat, fish, cheeses to a rich, custard base to make a quiche, but the quiche I made last week for my Canasta Ladies is the quiche of all quiches.

Quiche Lorraine is considered a classic due to its ancient origins (some believe dating back to the 16thC) in the northeastern area of France, known as Lorraine. It’s a culinary blend of French and German heritage. This luxurious savory tart is defined by its rich, silky base enhanced by smoky bacon, nutty Gruyere, salty parmesan and onion. Add lots of heavy cream and eggs and you create a thing of beauty!

This particular recipe was developed by Craig Claiborne, one of the three best-known food writers in America in the 60’s, 70s’ and 80’s, along with Julia Child and James Beard. He worked for the New York Times for nearly 30 years as both food editor and occasional food critic. He was also a book author and fabulous chef. Mr. Claiborne truly was an “influencer” long before social media adopted the term. He helped shape Americas tastes by introducing and making ethnic cuisine, particularly French cuisine, accessible to American palates.

I am not the worlds greatest at making pie pastry, but figure I had to go for it since I was making such an iconic French classic. The recipe for the crust is also developed by Craig Claiborne along with Pierre Franey. It’s fairly straight-forward and actually came out pretty good. I put the crust together the day before our card game and pre-baked it, also known as blind baking. This step is essential to keeping the crust from getting soggy once you put in the custard. I will share this recipe another time.

You will only need 1/4 cup of the parmesan.

By pre-baking the pie crust day before, it made putting this quiche together fairly easy. I also grated the parmesan and cubed the Gruyere cheese the day before. The Gruyere I used is Mifroma Le Gruyere Switzerland and the parmesan is BelGioso’s American Grana extra aged parmesan. It’s a hard, grainy cheese made from raw cows milk produced by BelGioso Cheese in Wisconsin. It’s aged for at least 18 to 24 months. I love it! Its designed to mimic Italian Grana Pradano’s rich, nutty, salty flavor. Very similar to regular parmesan, but a bit milder.

I also wanted to pre-bake the crust as I figured if it’s a complete failure I would have time to run to the store for a frozen crust. Fortunately that was not the case.

4 strips of bacon crisped and chopped.

I like to keep crispy bacon in the fridge to add to salads, breakfast omelets, BLT’s, etc. so had 4 nice slices of bacon all cooked. I chopped those a day ahead as well. And finally even chopped the shallots and scallions.

Craig Claiborne’s recipe called for 1 onion, thinly sliced, but I decided to use 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots and 1/4 cup chopped scallion, both white and green parts.

If you are making the crust same day, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

Line a 9 inch pastry plate with the pastry. Be sure to build up the pastry on the sides and flute it as there is a lot of custard and you don’t want a custard flood on the bottom of your oven. That’s also why you place the pie plate on a baking sheet before baking.

Cover the bottom of the pastry with a round of parchment paper and add enough dried beans, peas or rice to partly fill the shell. Bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce oven heat to 375 degrees. Remove and discard the beans and parchment and set the pastry-lined plate aside. If you made a day ahead, once cooled, lightly cover with wax paper and leave on the counter until the next day ready to fill.

If you did not pre-cook the bacon, that is the next step. Cook until crisp. Pour all, but one tablespoon of fat remaining in the skillet. 

I usually have a jar of bacon fat in the fridge and because I pre-cooked the bacon used 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat to cook the shallots/scallions.

Cook the shallot and scallions until they are just transparent. Do not crisp.

Combine 4 eggs, 2 cups heavy cream, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper and Tabasco to taste. I just used a quick splash. Place the pie crust on a baking sheet. Crumble half the bacon over the crust, add shallots/scallion and the cheeses. Top with the second half of bacon. Gently strain the cream mixture over the onion-cheese mixture. Straining the custard ensures an extra-smooth, consistent, more refined texture by removing the chalazae–that’s the white stringy bits in eggs. Same reason you strain custard before making ice cream.

Click on photos to enlarge.

I like to cover the edges of the pastry with foil to ensure it doesn’t get too crisp. Bake the pie until a knife inserted one inch from the pastry edge comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes. Remove to a wire rack. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. You can serve at room temperature, but it is really best when right out of the oven!

I hope you enjoy Craig Claiborne’s classic Quiche Lorraine as much as my lovely ladies did.

Print Pin

Quiche Lorraine

Rich, creamy delicious with smoky bacon flavors and cheesy goodness.

Ingredients

• Pastry for a one-crust 9 inch pie
• 4 strips Bacon
• 1/2 cup Shallots, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup Scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese, cubed You can also use Swiss cheese.
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 4 large Eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups Heavy cream Or 1 cup each milk and cream.
• 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Black pepper, freshly ground
• Tabasco to taste

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Line a 9 inch pie plate with the pastry. Build up the sides of the pastry on the rim so the custard does not over-flow. Crimp or flute the edges.
• Cover the bottom of the pastry with a round of parchment paper and add enough dried beans, peas or rice to partly fill the shell. Bake for 10 minutes.
• Reduce oven temp to 375 degrees. Remove and discard the beans and parchment paper and set the pastry-lined pie plate aside.
• Cook the bacon until crisp and remove it from the skillet. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp. of the fat remaining in the skillet. Cook the shallots/scallions in the remaining bacon fat until they are just transparent.
• Combine the eggs. Add cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle one half of the bacon into the shell, add shallots/scallions and cheeses. Top with the second half of bacon crumbles.
• Slide the pie plate onto a baking sheet. Strain the custard mixture into the shell.
• Bake the pie until a knife inserted 1 inch from the pastry edge comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes. Remove to a wire rack. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.