The mother of all quiches…. A homemade Quiche Lorraine is one of those things reserved for special occasions that puts store bought to shame. Surprise yourself with how easy it is to make a homemade quiche crust – or make life easy using frozen pastry or a pre prepared pie crust.
Quiche Lorraine
I can’t remember when I made my first quiche, but I can tell you for sure that it was a Quiche Lorraine. Because just as Pork Carnitas are the King of Taco Carts, Quiche Lorraine is surely the Queen of all savoury tarts.
Bacon. Surely it’s the bacon. I mean, how could a Zucchini Quiche possibly ever compete? 😉
Did you know…
This is not a REAL Quiche Lorraine. This is Quiche Lorraine as it is known outside of France. 🙂
As with many traditional dishes, once it leaves the country of origin, it tends to evolve. The filling for traditional Quiche Lorraine, very strictly speaking, is made only with bacon, eggs and cream/creme fraiche. If you add anything else to it, the French say it ain’t a Quiche Lorraine anymore! 😂
So basically, I break the rules and the French may be cursing me. But this is the Quiche Lorraine flavour that will be familiar to those who live outside of France, that I have always known and loved.
The onion adds more savoury flavour. I can’t help adding garlic to that – because when I sauté onion in butter, I add garlic like I’m on auto pilot.
As for adding cheese… I truly cannot image quiche without cheese. I have never had quiche without cheese!
Quiche crust
The pastry for quiche is a simple shortcrust pastry that is buttery and crumbly, crispy yet soft enough to cut your fork through without the needing to jack hammer it.
If you are lacking in time, use a pre-prepared pie crust or frozen shortcrust pastry.
But if you do have the time, it is truly worth making the effort to make your own pastry. Homemade quiche pastry is buttery and flaky in a way that store bought never will be.
And the thing is – it’s so darn easy using a food processor. The dough comes together in mere minutes – flour, butter, salt, water, blitz = ball of soft dough ready for baking.
Get the recipe for a easy homemade Quiche Crust.
It’s really hard to capture how buttery and flaky the homemade shortcrust pastry is in a photo, but here’s my attempt. 🙂 The pastry is crispy yet soft enough for the fork to cut through with barely any effort. Just as shortcrust pastry should be!
So here is my Quiche Lorraine recipe. There have been minor improvements since I first published it, streamlining the steps and explaining them more clearly. Most notably, the addition of a recipe video which I hope shows how simply the homemade quiche crust is to make, and how beautifully custardy the filling is!
Happy weekend everyone! A great one for a brunch? With……QUICHE?? 😉 Oh…and I believe Mother’s Day is around the corner… 🤔 – Nagi x
MORE GREAT BRUNCH RECIPES
Spanish Tortilla (egg and potato omelette)
CRUSTLESS Quiche – custardy, golden and fabulous (plus super speedy & low carb)
TRY THESE ON THE SIDE
Kale and Quinoa Salad – pictured below, keeps well for days and days!
Apple Salad with Candied Walnuts and Cranberries – make this when you’re wanting to impress
Any fresh garden salad or steamed vegetables with French Vinaigrette, Italian or Balsamic Dressing
The Quiche Extended Family
Quiche Lorraine – the French mother, with the buttery flaky crust
Salmon Quiche – the elegant aunt. Made with smoked salmon, save this one for special occasions
Italian Sausage Quiche – the cheeky Italian uncle
Hash Brown Crust Quiche Lorraine – the flashy cousin with a hash brown crust
Frittata with Bacon – the father, made the traditional way (stove then oven)
Baked Vegetable Frittata – the uncle,made the easy way (pour and bake!)
Frittata Egg Muffins – the healthy sister
Spanish Tortilla (Omelette) – the Spanish potato-loving aunt
Watch how to make it
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Quiche Lorraine
Ingredients
Quiche Crust – choose one:
- 1 homemade quiche crust (shortcrust pastry)
- 2 sheets shortcrust , thawed
- 1 prepared pie shell , fridge or frozen
Bacon Filling:
- 1 tbsp / 15g butter
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped (~1/2 cup)
- 200 g / 6.5 oz bacon, cut into small strips (1.5 x 0.5cm / 2/3″ x 1/5″)
Egg Mixture
- 4 eggs (~55- 65g / 2 oz each)
- 1 1/4 cups (300ml) heavy cream (thickened cream) (Note 1)
- Pinch of salt & pepper
Cheese:
- 1 1/4 cups (125g) grated gruyere cheese (or tasty, cheddar, monterey jack)
Garnish (optional):
- 50g / 2 oz bacon, chopped and cooked until golden
Instructions
Quiche Crust:
- Frozen shortcrust pastry or homemade quiche crust – prepare and bake the crust per Quiche Crust recipe (23cm / 9″ quiche tin).
- Prepared pie shell – bake per packet directions.
Bacon Filling:
- Preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) or 180C/350F (fan / convection).
- Melt butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic and bacon. Cook until bacon is light golden.
- Transfer to a paper towel lined bowl and leave to cool.
Egg Mixture:
- Place ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Assembling and Baking:
- Place quiche tin with cooked quiche crust on tray. Scatter cooled Bacon Filling evenly across base of cooked quiche crust.
- Scatter cheese evenly across top.
- Carefully pour Egg mixture over the top. Push some of the cheese/bacon below the surface.
- Bake for 35 – 40 minutes until the top is golden. The centre should still jiggly.
- Garnish with Extra Bacon, if using. Rest for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to cut and serve.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published August 2016, updated with new photos, slightly better filling and most importantly, a recipe video!
Life of Dozer
Giving me those “pity” eyes….no Quiche for Dozer!
The best Quiche Lorraine I have ever had. Shortcrust pastry really good.
Thank you for this recipe Nagi!! I had a quiche craving and followed the gist with what I had on hand — frozen puff pastry, and sautéed silverbeet instead of the bacon. It was so delicious! Eager to try the proper version next time. Thank you!
Finally made this! It turned out too salty for me, but that’s the bacon and cheese, not the recipe. THE CRUST! OMG! It is so good and so EASY to make. I’m searching for other quiche recipes.
Best pastry recipe and smashing filling. I’ve been making Quiche Lorraine for years but this is hands down the most successful recipe I’ve found. Thanks Nagi & Dozer
I made this quiche twice and both times the filling turned out like scrambled eggs. Never again.
I made the pastry because it is always nicer. The result was rich, salty and creamy. Perfection. It was also inexpensive, fast and easy. Anyone with a food processor (ok, and an oven) can make this. Highly recommended.
I rarely have a cooking moment so good that I feel compelled to share it with perfect strangers but I want to share this one.
I don’t like my quiche overly cheesy so I always swap out most of the grated cheese for freshly grated parmesan, which gives me the creamy, savoury taste I crave.
I thought I’d hit on perfection, but I was wrong – so very wrong.
Yesterday I made sour cream pastry for the first time ever and used it for this quiche, and – OMG – you have to try it.
Thank Nagi! Another terrific success! I substituted leftover ham for bacon, otherwise followed steps exactly … didn’t bother to blind back store bought short crust pastry – just put it on the bottom shelf of oven … it came out PERFECT!!!!!
Awesome never lasts long enough for next day
This was delicious. I don’t have a food processor so I just purchased a frozen crust. FYI for anyone else in Aus who plans on using the Pampas Frozen Crust 220g, this recipe made too much for the size of the pastry. If you scale it to about 75% then it would fit properly! I wasn’t upset to simply eat the leftover bacon mixture and I might try to use the leftover egg for scrambled eggs perhaps…
We really enjoyed this quiche. Made pastry from scratch. Didn’t blind bake as I used perforated pan. Came out perfect. Used cheddar cheese as no Gruyere and added some grated nutmeg. Absolutely delicious nagi. Thank you again!
I made your quiche yesterday, including making the pastry – well pastry and I are not soul mates, but this pastry was lovely and short and the quiche filling was delicious. Of course I added items to the filling including, spinach, caramalised onions and used goats cheese instead of gruyere. Thank you Nagi.
Oh my days!!! I made this quiche last week and because it was absolutely out of this world fluffy, light and rich, I’m now making again due to demands from the hubby lol! I’m also making one for my elderly dad who misses my mums quiche (which was amazing but no one knew her secret as she made it from scratch and from her head without a recipe!!). Mum sadly has dementia and is in long term care now so this quiche is literally NOSTALGIA for all of us.
I had to substitute bacon for ham as I realised I had no bacon when i started to make it the first time. 100g of Calabria ham slices & 100g of Sicilian ham slices and the herbs and spices just added to the yumminess!!!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe as it’s literally meant memories of mums’ cooking have flooded back. Hi to Dozer 🐾🥰
Love your recipes. Every step is explained, easy to follow.
And whichever of your recipes I used, I always ended up with great tasting, good looking product. 🙂
Made this one for the first time. Made the short crust pastry and then added the quiche filling. Just perfect! I don’t have pie weights anymore so used rice. Worked just fine.
Perfect weeknight family meal with a few steamed veg +/- salad
Straightforward and very tasty. Many thanks! And glad to hear Dozer is on the improve…
Yum, I just made this for your quiche. My first time using butter, as I was raised on the solid shortenings. Butter was far different to work with, but worth it, as it tastes better and stays crispier. Thanks so much, as usual, you are spot on and the quiche was delicious.
This is the most delicious quiche recipe. I made this using 5 eggs instead of 4 and lite cream and it came out fantastically.
WOW. Thank you Nagi!
This recipe is heaven! I made these on NYE in 5 small dishes. They were so good that I ate 2 on my own.
I made them vegetarian by cooking down some frozen spinach and mixing it with sautéed leek.
I used Careme butter puff pastry.
As I didn’t have much shredded cheddar cheese left, I improvised with half a block of Mersey Valley cheese. O.M.G! The flavour was next-level!
I even cooked these in the air fryer as our oven is busted. The tops became a bit too brown too quickly, but otherwise they were perfect!
5 star! Made it for my husband and he nearly ate the whole thing on his own
This is the best quiche lorraine recipe I’ve ever used. It’s on my regular rotation.
Today, I didn’t have cream so I substituted it for greek yoghurt and a little bit of milk (to match the consistency) and the filling separated upon baking. So just a word to the wise for anyone wanting to make it with any cream substitutes – don’t 🤣