French Savory Quiche: Quiche Lorraine

Today, we are cooking a traditional French quiche – quiche Lorraine.  A quiche Lorraine is a French specialty from the Lorraine region (North Eastern area of France bordering Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg).  This savory quiche is a great classic and is certainly one of the most popular quiches.  Nowadays, there are many variations of quiches from seafood quiches to vegetarian quiches and even crustless quiches.  A quiche Lorraine is great as a 1st course, as a main course with a salad, or cut in small pieces for an apéritif.  It is easy and so quick to prepare (about 15 min) so check our detailed Art of the Home recipe and Art of the Home suggestions below.  Enjoy and bon appétit!

Quiche (Quiche Lorraine)
by Art of the Home

Ingredients (for 4-6 servings)

• 1 pie crust dough (store bought or homemade pâte brisée for 9-10 inch tart pan)
• 8 slices of bacon
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup of crème fraîche
• Salt & pepper
• Nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 400 °F.
2. Line tart pan with parchment paper.  Roll out pie crust.
3. Pre-bake (blind bake) the crust in a 400 °F for 12-15 minutes.  Check Art of the Home blind baking steps.
4. Beat eggs and add in crème fraîche.  Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
5. Cut bacon in small strips and brown in pan.
6. Spread evenly on the bottom of your pre-baked pie crust.
7. Pour in egg/crème fraîche mixture.
8. Bake for about 35  minutes.
9. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes before cutting.  Carefully lift quich Lorraine holding the parchment paper and transfer to a large serving plate before slicing.

Art of the Home Suggestions:

1. Ham or Bacon — you can replace the bacon with ham for a quicker and healthier quiche.  Use about 8 slices stacked together and cut in cubes.  Spread at the bottom of the crust as you would the bacon.  No frying pan required.  You can also go half bacon-half ham, nice combo too.
2. Cheese — although the traditional quiche Lorraine does not have cheese, feel free to sprinkle about 1/2 cup of shredded gruyere on top — we do!
3. Crust — you can make it fluffy by using puff pastry crust instead of a pie crust dough.
4. Nutmeg — you may skip it if you don’t have any, your quiche will still be delicious.  Eventhoug it is in the traditional recipe, we often prefer to skip it.
5. Wine selection — best enjoyed with a dry white wine.