By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- 5(739)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This mashup of Julia Child recipes, combining elements of her quiche Lorraine and quiche au fromage, then pouring them into a lard-and-butter based pie crust, results in a serious breakfast feast. You could make the whole thing the night before serving it, and consume it at room temperature in the morning. But just making the dough for the crust in advance will save loads of time -- and the pleasure of the bubbling hot dish on a breakfast table is impossible to deny.
Featured in: For Year’s End, Decadent Quiche
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Ingredients
Yield:6 servings
- 1¼cups all-purpose flour
- ¼teaspoon salt
- 5tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cut into ½-inch pieces
- 5tablespoons lard, chilled, cut into ½-inch pieces
- 1large egg white, lightly beaten
- ¼cup grated extra-sharp Cheddar
- 6strips bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces
- 3large eggs
- 1½cups heavy cream
- ¾teaspoon chopped sage
- ¼teaspoon pepper
- ¼teaspoon grated nutmeg
- ⅛teaspoon kosher salt
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed
For the Crust
For the Filling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
682 calories; 60 grams fat; 31 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 21 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 13 grams protein; 409 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
To make the crust, briefly pulse together the flour and salt in a food processor. Add butter and lard and pulse until mixture forms pieces the size of lima beans, about 3 to 5 one-second pulses. Adding 2 to 5 tablespoons of ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulse mixture until it is just moist enough to hold together. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Step
2
Heat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ⅜-inch thick and press it into a 9-inch quiche or pie pan. Line with foil and fill with pie weights, rice or dried beans. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and foil and bake for 5 to 7 minutes more, until lightly golden.
Step
3
Brush the crust with egg white, then sprinkle the cheese evenly over the bottom of the pie crust. Bake for another 10 minutes, until the cheese is just melted. Remove from the oven.
Step
4
Meanwhile, in a large pan over medium heat, cook the bacon for 7 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned but not yet crisp. Drain on paper towels.
Step
5
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, sage, pepper, nutmeg and salt. Sprinkle the bacon over the quiche crust, then carefully pour in the egg mixture. Dot with the butter pieces and return to the oven. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the top is puffed and golden and the middle is almost set. Let it cool for 15 minutes before serving.
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739
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Cooking Notes
Bob pepple
The rising egg and cream are the hallmarks of a successful quiche, I add the bacon and more cheese after cooking the egg mixture for 15 minutes as the thickening that occurs supports the floating bacon and cheese, a triumph!!
Skip the butter pieces as well, interferes with the golden top created by the egg and cream......
Chieko
My revisions:
I use a frozen crust that I bake beforehand, without the cheese. I sprinkle grated Gruyere cheese (1/4 c) on the bottom of the baked crust, then add a mixture of crispy bacon (3-4 strips) and a small-medium onion (chopped and cooked) over it. Add the cream-egg mixture. For spices I use the herbes de Provence and salt. Skip the butter.
Mark
I make quiche all the time, and the ingredients in this one are very similar to ones that I've made. The all cream filling is the trick. Every single quiche recipe will be elevated by making this replacement (and caloric content will be elevated as well). However, IMHO, I much prefer a Swiss type cheese over cheddar. Gruyere, Fontina, emmentaler swiss (in that order) are my favorites.
Jlkm
I was taught by the best man in the egg business! His ratio for quiche is 5 whole eggs, maybe an extra one, 1&1/4 cups of cream, Half & half or milk in that order of preference, seasonings of choice! 1 cup of grated cheese (1 T reserved for the last few mi utes to garnish top) and one cup of your filling choices total. I gave each of our kids a quiche set for a holiday gift a couple years ago! They each were always calling for the recipe and technique assistance before then.
Melissa Clark
Fresh! Or use another herb such as rosemary.
DD
For a silky quiche, you want the temp to be 325. You've experienced what happens at 375: a curdled, grainy quiche. Julia does call for a temp of 375, and I suspect that, as she doesn't pre-bake her crust, she wants to make sure the crust is done: but in so doing, she sacrifices the filling. Thomas Keller pre-bakes the crust and lowers the temp for the custard. That's key: quiche is a custard, not a soufflé, and "ballooned" custard, no matter how impressive to see, is not impressive to eat.
Patty
I made this as a crustless quiche. Still fabulous, but then, bacon, eggs, cream......you'd have to burn it to go wrong.
Sylvia
I cook my quiches in all sorts and sizes of pans. To make sure they're done, I just cook them to center temp of 190F (which allows for some top browning). Eggs only need to be cooked to 160F to be safe (foodsafety.gov). I see in my notes, for my mushroom quiche, I cook to 170F.
Rob-in-Philly
With Julia as the foundation this classic is hard to mess up. I find rosemary just overwhelms the custard and works better with a goat cheese than a cheddar or swiss. Herbs de Province put this dish into the heart of the Azure coast...a side of mixed greens, vinaigrette with a scattering of the Herbs mixed in and the meal is complete.
Heidi
Very tasty but not enough filling for amount of pastry. Quiche did puff up during last 15 minutes of baking but the shell looks like it should be accommodating more filling. Could be easily solved I guess with more egg/cream?
Laurie
This is probably a perfect old fashioned traditional quiche It is very buttery and eggy. Filling is like custard. Very good but I prefer more cheese and less egg type of quiche
Sara
This was very tasty. I used thyme instead of sage because that's what I had in the house and skipped the butter on top. Next time I would cut the heavy cream with a little milk or greek yogurt just for the cholesterol (I know, what a bummer, but my cholesterol is high!).
meg
Crust recipe is good but just use store bought pre made unbaked pie crusts. Use up to 10 eggs with everything else the same
meg
I made this is non dairy heavy cream and non dairy cheese and it came out well. I tripled the egg count and it was awesome. The bake time was the higher number suggested and it was cooked through perfectly. The crust was good but next time I will try purchasing a ready bake crust to save time Storage and reheat: Cut into 8 pieces. Keep 2 on deck in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Microwave for 45 seconds. Then bake at 400 for 10 min.
cat
I usually love Melissa’s recipes but this is a pass for me after making it once according to the directions. It turned out great; however, I just don’t like this quiche. It’s too much. Too much fat, overpowering bacon (cut back a bit) and I didn’t enjoy how it looked. Fortunately, she’s given us many other beautiful dishes.
Lemon juice
Just use pillsbury pie crust
Bellaverdi
Hands down, the best quiche I’ve ever made (and I’ve made a few!). Rich and flaky.For the filling I followed the recipe, though added the spare egg yolk. Simple components which sing.I cheated with the crust- thank you Trader Joe’s. However, I followed carefully the rather complicated (but necessary) blind bake. Glad I did.Needed a full 40 minutes final bake.
Annie
Added the leftover egg white and yoke from the crust to the filling.
Sarah
This is INCREDIBLE. Used Melissa's All Butter Crust because I didn't have lard, and everything turned out perfectly. The texture is gorgeous and the flavor is rich yet balanced. A huge hit at Easter Brunch!
Dan D
This was my second quiche ever (my wife/partner is the quiche pro in our house). Only had half and half on hand; in the future I'll be sure to have some heavy cream, although my result was quite good. Used a frozen pie crust from Trader Joe's and used chives instead of sage. The result was wonderful, even though I forgot to add the bacon until after I'd poured the custard. I loved the trick of melting the cheese into the pie crust.
epmolander
This was very flavorful, but I found the cooking time to be far too short. I cooked the quiche for 45_50 minutes. The custard was still a bit watery.
Barb
Great recipe. Don’t change a thing!
Lauren
I ended up making this as a crustless quiche due to a mishap with the crust and it was still wonderfully decadent. Used thyme instead of sage and added an extra egg. I might try a different cheese next time, but the cheddar was still very tasty.
Becky
This turned out great! I took it to work and not a slice was left to bring home. Instead of sage, I added about a cup of scallions to the egg/cream mixture. I also reserved some scallion and cheddar to add to the top at the end of baking. I made the crust exactly as written, and it was perfect. Everything held up well at room temperature, and it reheated well too. Make this if you're looking for a reliable quiche recipe!
Ekan
Bliss. This is the first quiche I have ever had that was done right.Turned the oven down to 325, as suggested to get a silky texture.
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