Great Basic Quiche Lorraine (and Crust Recipe)

I had not baked quiche in years. Our food/fellowship committee at church asked if I could make one for a luncheon and I was happy to oblige.

Quiche recipes, of course, abound all over online. I found one that had you baking the pie crust first, then adding the filling, and baking some more. That didn’t sound right to me, too much chance of overbaking your crust, I thought. (Anyone else think so too?)

I wanted a good basic recipe so I went to my faithful Betty Crocker Cookbook. And then of course adapted from there.

I made sure to use up the pastry remains in a small tart so I could test the quiche before sharing it. It was everything I wanted: light and fluffy, punctuated with pleasant (but not loaded or overpowering) flavors of bacon, spinach and onion. Perfect, in my book. Still, the heavy cream bothered my calorie-counting tendencies. Next time I’ll try just half and half. I doubt there’s much difference in outcome.

If pie crusts are easy for you, then this recipe is a no-brainer and only a little more time consuming than making scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. If you’d rather have a mammogram than make pie crust from scratch, then pick up a pie crust (boxed dough or shell) in the grocery.

The Lorraine part of the name is for a region of France and usually refers to a quiche with bacon.

Quiche Lorraine

Pastry for 9-inch one-crust pie*

6 slices bacon crisply fried (in my case baked) and crumbled
8-10 thin slices smoked deli turkey
1 cup chopped spinach, lightly sautéed
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (or similar)
½ cup minced onion (I did not sauté)
4 eggs
2 cups heavy whipping cream or lighter cream
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon sugar
5 drops Hot Pete sauce or ⅛ teaspoon cayenne red pepper

To bake bacon, just use parchment paper and 385 degree or so oven. So easy! No need to turn.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare pastry. Sprinkle fried bacon, shredded cheese and chopped onion evenly in pastry-lined pie pan. Beat eggs slightly; beat in remaining ingredients. Pour cream mixture into pie pan. Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake 30 minutes longer or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Serve in wedges. Makes 6-8 wedges.

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*I also decided to use Betty Crocker’s basic pie crust recipe. My daughter and I recently discovered the recipe I’d be using and sharing for many years, was quite off in certain quantities that I had always compensated for by adding more water or flour until my consistency was right. The recipe below, straight out of Betty without fudging, was perfect: flaky, rich without being over rich, easy to roll out.

Standard Pastry – 8- or 9-inch one-crust pie

1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening, OR 1/3 cup lard
2-3 tablespoons cold water

Measure flour and salt into bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender thoroughly. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl.

Gather dough into ball; shape into flattened round. Lightly flour the round and place on lightly floured board or counter. Lightly flour rolling pin, and roll dough into round 2 inches larger than your pie pan, adding small amounts of flour if needed to keep dough from sticking. Turn over 2 or 3 times as you roll out to keep from sticking to surface.

Place rolled out dough in ungreased pie pan. Cut off extra edges of dough. Form top edge of pie crust by your favorite method, pinching or twisting dough.

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Please let me know your go-to favorite basic cookbook, or a link for a great quiche recipe you like. Here’s one of my favorite blogger’s take, by Jennifer Murch & Simply in Season.

If you haven’t seen the NEW expanded edition of Simply in Season yet (2015 edition) with new gorgeous food photography, check it out!

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This link has good info too, and I liked what they had to say about ratio of eggs to milk/cream, and why: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-fool-proof-quiche-168459

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I’ve changed up my normal photo style/mode here. Do you like it? Or do you like my standard straight down the middle posting mode? Or no preference or opinion?