All blog posts | All Classic Recipes | All TM Recipes | Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch | Easy dinner recipes | Pies and Tarts
ByRebecca McLeod
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Quiche is one of those recipes that’s great to have in your repertoire. It’s pretty quick and easy as far as tarts go, and you can use any filling ingredients you have on hand, even leftovers. This recipe for Quiche Lorraine is a long time favourite from our Cafe days.
I often make it for full-day classes where we offer lunch to our students.For Dinner Party classes, I make you work for your lunch ??? Although you do get to eat everything that’s made, and there’s usually a whole lot to try.
Step by step
First of all, you need pastry. Of course, you can make a crustless quiche or an impossible pie without the pastry, but learning to make a quick easy pastry like this is a great skill to have. We use a simple shortcrust for quiche. Shortcrust should be light and crisp and that’s easy once you know the rules. Many of you may have heard of these rules, but if you haven’t, and want to know more, I’ve developed an online shortcrust pastry course that will help a lot. I’ve developed a method from my cafe days, it’s quick and easy and you don’t need a lot of space. You’ll never buy frozen pastry again, after you see how simple this is.
Ingredients used in the pastry
- Plain flour: We use plain because it has a lower gluten content, you can also buy pastry flour (which has even less gluten).
- Water: Best if chilled, one huge tip I can share is that pastry should be chilled at all times prior to baking.
- Butter: Yep this needs to be chilled as well. Room temperature butter is not as good for this type of recipe.
Ingredients for the Filling
Earlier on I talked about making a quiche with any ingredients that you have on hand. If you know the base you can swap out whatever you like or add whatever you like to a quiche filling. The base ingredients are eggs, milk and cream. You can leave the cream out but it is seriously good with it.
For the filling base
- Eggs: I choose to use extra large free-range eggs. In fact, I have a whole post on eggs. You can find it here.
- Milk: Full cream here, if you are making it for a luncheon or a dinner party.
- Cream: Ok so you don’t have to have it, but it makes it delicious.
Inclusions for the filling
For Quiche Lorraine, you need some key ingredients.
- Bacon: I like to use a good quality smoked bacon. YUM Alternatives could be smoked salmon, or even no meat at all.
- Onion: Always best to cook this off a little before adding to the quiche. You don’t want uncooked onion trust me. I cook the onion and bacon together in the pan, that way you don’t need to add much oil or any at all if you have enough fat on the bacon. The fat will render down and help cook off the onion. If you’re using short cuts that have no fat, you’ll need to add a little to the pan to get things going. Try a touch of olive oil.
- Cheese: Cheddar or other cheeses, but make sure its got good flavour. I often keep a pizza mix or bake mix on hand for quick meals, one of those is good too.
- Parsley or spring onion tops.
Quiche Lorraine FAQ
Why is my quiche watery?
Your egg to liquid ratio may be out. It shouldn’t be with my recipe unless your scales are out. Or you may have overbaked it. When you cook eggs the proteins coagulate. We want them to come together but, if we overcook them the water starts to separate. You may have seen this when cooking scrambled eggs?
Why isn’t my quiche setting?
The ratio of egg and liquid has to be right. It could be that you may have this ratio out of balance. Not enough eggs to bind will prevent setting. My recipe has 3 eggs to 200 ml of liquid, this is a good balance to work with.
Why is my quiche flat and rubbery?
If you’ve added too many eggs to liquid, you’ll end up with a flat rubbery quiche. Overcooking will also give you a similar result.
How can I get my quiche into the oven without spilling it?
Mix your egg/liquid in a jug and set it aside. After blind baking, add all the inclusions to your base. Get your quiche tin and the jug of filling ready, open the oven door and sit the quiche tin on the oven shelf, then gently pour the custard filling in on top. Gently slide the shelf in and close the door.
How do I tell if my quiche is cooked?
Just like any other custard-filled tarts and pies, you need to give it a little jiggle and if the sides are set and the very centre has a little wobble take it out, you’re done.
Which oven shelf should I cook my quiche on?
Anywhere from the centre and lower down is good. Heat rises and we want to see even baking and browning. It will depend on your oven though. Most ovens today are pretty good, although I’ve used some in the past that have strange hotspots. Learning how your oven works is so beneficial if you enjoy baking.
Don’t want to bother with the pastry?
- Try my Crustless Quiche
- Or what about a mini quiche that even the kids will eat? Check out these Mini Pizza Quiches recipe
- Or check out my picture perfect Beetroot and Feta Filo Tarts recipe
Bec’s Quiche Lorraine
5 from 3 votes
5 stars tells us you love the recipe
becs-table.com.au
Delicious quiche that even real men can eat (as it has bacon).
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 45 minutes mins
Difficulty Easy
Course Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine French
Servings 4
Method Conventional
Equipment
Food Processor (optional)
Ingredients
- For the short pastry
- 200 gm Plain flour
- 50 mls Water
- 100 gm Butter
- For the filling
- 100 gm Bacon
- ¼ Onion
- 3 Eggs
- 150 ml Milk
- 50 ml Cream
- 30 gm Cheddar cheese
- 1 -2 Tablespoon of Parsley or spring onion tops
Instructions
For the pastry, Conventional Method
Sift the flour into a bowl.
Rub in the butter to resemble fine sand
Mix in the water to the flour and butter do not work the dough to much. Allow to rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Blin
For the pastry, processor method
Add the flour and butter to the food processor, blitz just enough to cut the butter throughout the flour.
Add the water in a steady stream while the blades are running.
Spread out a sheet of cling film, place the dough from the processor bowl into the middle, gather together to form a cohesive mass, wrap and place in the fridge to rest.
For the filling
Butter your flan pan or pie dish and set aside till the pastry has rested.
Cut bacon into lardons (that's a posh/chef's way of saying chunky strips) and chop the onion and sauté in a frying pan till the onion is transparent, then set aside to cool.
Grate cheese and set aside.
Heat the oven and add a tray to your oven so it heats up ready to add your pie dish on top. I have a pizza stone that lives in my oven most of the time just for this purpose.
Mix eggs, cream & milk together into a small jug or bowl and season.
Once the pastry has rested, roll out and line the pan (you can pop it back into the fridge here to rest again if you think you might have over worked it, around 10 mins is usually fine this will prevent any shrinkage.) Then blind bake for 10 mins remove the beans and give it another 10 minutes before filling.
Spread the bacon and onion over the base of the pastry, then top with the grated cheese.
Then carefully pour the egg/milk mix into the pie dish.
Bake at 160°c fan or 180°c conventional, for around 30 minutes. (All depends on your oven and the depth of your pan.) What you're looking for is for the top to be golden brown.
Notes
Bec’s Tips:
Using a food processor. As a pastry chef, It would be great if my hands were cool. Unfortunately, most of the time, they’re quite warm. This is where a food processor comes in very handy. In fact, I think a food processor does a better job even if your hands are cold due to the blades cutting in the butter rather than kneading or rubbing it in. By using blades to do the job quickly, you’re less likely to develop gluten strands.
Blind Baking: In a home kitchen, I prefer to blind bake most of my tarts. In a pastry kitchen or bakery, the ovens are set up with a heated floor so you can control where the heat is directed. So in some cases, you can get away with a single bake. It isn’t enjoyable to slice a portion from a tart only to find a raw base.
How to Serve: Serve with a fresh garden salad.
Prevent pasty disasters by learning all my tips to make quick, easy shortcrust. After doing this quick course, you’ll never think pastry is too hard again, and you’ll definitely never need to purchase frozen sheets. Click here to see my online pastry course.
