Quiche Lorraine

A custard tart with no cheese in it, baked blind first and sealed with egg so the base stays crisp.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lardons, which are pork.

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 250 g plain flour
• 125 g cold butter, diced
• 1 egg yolk
• a pinch of salt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons ice-cold water

For the filling

• 250 g smoked lardons
• 4 eggs
• 300 ml double cream
• 100 ml whole milk
• a grating of nutmeg
• white pepper
• 1 egg white, for sealing

Method

1. THERE IS NO CHEESE IN THIS. Eggs, cream and bacon, and nothing else -- a cheese quiche is a perfectly good thing and is a different one. Said plainly because almost every version sold under the name has gruyère in it.
2. THE CASE IS BAKED BLIND AND THEN SEALED WITH EGG WHITE. Five minutes back in the oven after brushing, so the white sets into a waterproof film. A wet custard poured into an unsealed case soaks straight through and the base is pale and soft -- which is the usual fault and is invisible until it is cut.
3. THE CUSTARD IS BAKED LOW AND PULLED OUT WOBBLING. 160C, and out when the centre still moves as a whole when the tin is nudged. It sets on the way to the table. Baked until firm in the oven it is firm and slightly grainy by the time it is eaten.
4. Pastry: flour, salt and cold butter rubbed to coarse crumbs. Yolk and just enough ice water to bring it together. Wrapped and chilled 1 hour.
5. Rolled out and lined into a 24 cm tin, pressed well into the corners, with the edges left overhanging.
6. Chilled a further 30 minutes. Cold pastry shrinks less.
7. Lined with paper and beans and baked blind at 190C for 20 minutes, then the paper out and 8 minutes more until the base is dry and pale gold.
8. Brushed all over the inside with lightly beaten egg white and returned to the oven 5 MINUTES to set it.
9. The overhanging pastry trimmed off with a knife NOW rather than before -- it shrinks during blind baking and trimming early leaves a short case.
10. Lardons fried until the fat runs and they are just colouring. Drained and scattered over the base.
11. Eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg and pepper whisked smooth. NO SALT -- the bacon carries it.
12. Poured in, with the tin already on the oven shelf so it is not carried full.
13. Baked at 160C for 30 to 35 minutes until set at the edges and still wobbling in the middle. Rested 20 minutes and eaten warm rather than hot.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes