A Quiche Lorraine with crispy shell, tender custard, stringy Gruyère and nice bites of lardons, fresh out of oven……
I’m writing now at a tire center. Did I mention I had a flat tire yesterday? The long story short: I went to pick up Gabby and her bestie/carpool buddy Lulu. When we all settled down in the car to head back home. The sign of tire pressure lit up. But since it’s a less than 10 minutes drive, I drove home anyway and then found out one of the driver side tire is completely flat. Maybe it was already flat at the school parking lot, and obviously I’m not aware of the danger and the feel of driving with a flat tire since I’ve not yet had one before.
Right now, while inhaling strong rubber scent inside a tires pyramid and letting my rear frozen on a cold steel bench, I’m feeling very grateful and lucky: 1, the flat tire did not happen on a raining day considering it rained 6 days straight; 2, it was during the short pick up commute not the one that takes 1 hour to get Ana and back; 3, Lulu’s dad lend me his car to get Anais on time; 4, the triple A came less than an hour after I called; and right now I know the tire is under warranty and they are going to fix it today. Hooray!
The same grateful feeling came when I thought of Quiche Lorraine dinner I’m going to make today. I have two quiche shells already made in the freezer, ready to be popped in the oven. While they are blind baking, I can fry my lardons and shred my Gruyère. I always make 2 quiches at a time, so I can pack some for my girls and hubby’s lunch.
Quiches are definitely not a weekday meal if you don’t plan in advance. Once my shoulder gets a little better, I made 8 quiche shells in a roll. I always make them by lot of 4 since my food processor can handle that amount at a time, that is 5 cups of flour, 1 stick of shortening and 2 sticks of butter. See, that’s easier to measure, and less clean up than you would to make one individually. So in the dough recipe below I will list the ingredients by 1 quiche or 4 quiches.
I used thick-cut pancetta here, but bacon works as well.
For cheese, Gruyère has a very distinctive flavor, that’s what makes it a Quiche Lorraine. So I recommend not to substitute it. But if you cannot find any Gruyère, the most close one is Comté, or aged Gouda (use less quantity).
For the baking dish, I found both this inexpensive Pyrex pie dish, and this ceramic dish work pretty well. Do yourself a favor, DO NOT use a non stick quiche pan with a removable bottom. It is more suitable for making desserts, like fruit tarts or chocolate tarts, that won’t risk having custard spill all of the place (Yes, it has happened to me!). A solid bottom dish also can save you if you underbake the quiche and find out only when cutting it, you can just pop it back in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. (This has happened to me too! )
Since I’ve baked quite a few quiches and have learned many lessons along the way, I want to share with you some tips and tricks to achieve a perfect Quiche Lorraine:
- Chill shaped shell in the freezer. Most of the people would let dough rest in the refrigerator after they made the dough into a disk. But without freezing shell for at least 15 minute, it will SHRINK when you bake it. This is not a step that you should skip.
- Blind bake with pie weights. I’ve tried just poking quiche shell and bake without pie weights, it always rises in some places and make an uneven base. Only pie weights can help a shell stay flat so you have enough space to fill it with custard. I prefer cover shell with parchment paper and pour ceramic pie weights over and distribute them evenly.
- Don’t under bake the shell. A quiche shell takes a good 30 minutes to bake with pie weights and another 15-25 minutes to have a completely baked, dry and crispy crust that won’t turn saggy even after being soaked with liquid custard for half an hour or more.
- Don’t over bake the custard. Quiche should be taken out of the oven when a knife inserted into about 2 inches off center comes out clean. The center will set but soft like gelatin. The custard will become more solid while it cools. If you saw through the oven door that the surface of custard starts to puff up, it’s definitely the time to take it out of the oven, at which moment quiche is slightly over baked. It should still tastes good though.
- Use a pie crust shield. Since the total baking time will be over an hour, if you don’t protect the quiche rim with a pie crust shield, if will brown too fast and may even tastes like burned. Put shield on right away after removing pie weights and keep it there until custard finishes baking.
Quiche Lorraine
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Yield 6 Servings
Ingredients
Make one 9-inch quiche shell:
- 1 1/4 cup flour (190g)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 tbsp of butter (57g)
- 4 tbsp vegetable shortening (47g)
- 3-5 tbsp of ice water
Enough for a batch of 4 quiche shells:
- 5 cup flour (1.4 lb or 650g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 2 sticks of butter (8 oz or 227g)
- 1 stick vegetable shortening (6.7oz or 190g)
- 12-20 tbsp of ice water
Make the custard for one Quiche Lorraine:
- 4 oz of Gruyere cheese, grated (113g)
- 8 oz of lardons or bacon (about 8 slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces) (227g)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 ground white pepper
- 1/2 salt
- pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Instructions
To make the quiche shell:
- Put flour, salt, sugar in the bowl of a food processor, pulse a few times to distribute salt and sugar evenly into the flour.
- Cut the butter and vegetable shortening into 1/2 inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture, pulse 10-15 times until the pieces of butter not bigger than the size of a green pea.
- Sprinkle 3 tbsp of ice water over the flour mixture, and pulse a few times. Using your fingers (pay attention not to touch the blade of food processor), pinch some of flour mixture to see if it holds together, if not, add 1 tbsp of water at a time until it does.
- Pour flour mixture on a floured surface, gather flour into a ball, and flatten it into a 4-inch wide disk. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it into a 12-inch round disk, using your rolling pin, transfer the rolled out dough onto a 9-inch pie dish (glass or ceramic). Work around circumference of pan, fold dough edges outward so you have about half inch tall of double thickness dough resting on the rim of the pie dish. Using thumb and forefinger of one hand and thumb of your other hand to press along this part of the dough to form a fluctuated design as shown on 2nd photo above.
- Poke the bottom of the quiche shell with a fork, and put it in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. This will help the quiche to keep its shape and not shrink during baking. You can freeze the shell for up to 3 months. No need to thaw before baking.
To bake the quiche shell:
- Heat your oven to 375Fº (190Cº).
- Cover the quiche shell with a piece of parchment paper (size about 18”x12”), pour ceramic pie weights (or some dry beans) on top of parchment paper. Spread the pie weights to the whole surface of the shell until the rim. Parchment paper should cover the edges of quiche shell to so it won’t brown too fast. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the bottom of quiche seems dry.
- Lift parchment paper carefully to remove the pie weights. Cover the rim of quiche with a pie crust shield, or strips of foil. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the surface have slightly browned.
To make the filling:
- While quiche is blind baking, cook lardons or bacon pieces in a skillet, until extra fat has been rendered and they are just about to get crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pieces onto a plate covered with paper towel.
- Slightly beat the eggs, add milk and heavy cream, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Whisk until everything is well blended.
- Add the shredded gruyere on the bottom of the quiche, then layer lardons or bacon pieces on top. Then pour custard mixture into quiche, use a fork to poke the mixture a few time to remove air bubbles.
- Put the quiche back to the oven (always cover it with a pie crust shield) and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into about 2 inch off center comes out clean (no eggs traces, but clear water/steam on the knife is ok). The center of the quiche should be slightly jiggling, it will solidify while it cools.
- Let quiche cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.
Courses Main
Cuisine French
Leave a Reply