An old brunch fave, Quiche Lorraine (AKA Bacon Quiche) is most always a welcome sight second or third thing on a Sunday morning (after coffee and checking the news feeds, of course).
How handy that it can be made ahead and reheated in a low oven! I actually made our quiche at home, then we brought it down to Rich’s mom’s house along with the watermelon gazpacho and berries with lemon curd yogurt sauce for a family weekend visit.
INGREDIENTS
Pâte À Foncer:*
•3 sticks butter at room temperature
•1-1/2 tsp salt
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 tsp black pepper
•1 egg yolk
•1/4 cup + 2-1/2 tbsp milk
•3-1/2 cups flour
Quiche Filling:
•1/2 lb cooked bacon**
•1/4 lb (1 cup) grated Swiss cheese
•4 eggs
•1 tbsp flour
•1-1/4 cup half and half
•1/2 tsp salt
•1/2 tsp pepper
•1/4 tsp dry mustard
•1 tbsp melted butter
*This will make more than enough pastry for one quiche. If you’re planning for a crowd, simply double the filling amounts, or switch things up a bit and make a ham or mebbe a veggie quiche (blanched asparagus with Boursin cheese sounds good to me).
**I normally make my maple roasted bacon with uncured applewood smoked bacon from Trader Joe’s.
First, make the crust.
Note: even though it has a fancy French name, this savory shortcrust is dead simple to toss together with a stand mixer, and it is really, really good, so do give it a try.
Sift the flour together with the salt and the peppers (a wire whisk works nicely).
Soften the butter with the paddle attachment (mix even if it’s already room temp).
Mix in the salt, sugar, yolk,and milk, then add the flour just until incorporated. Try to get everything mixed in, but stop as soon as everything is gathered into the dough.
Pat the dough into a round, wrap in plastic wrap, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours (overnight will not be a problem).
When ready to put the quiche together, remove the dough from the fridge to allow it to soften a bit while you prepare the bacon and the rest of the filling.
Heat your oven to 375º.
Cook, drain, and crumble the bacon, then set aside while you prepare the dough.
Divide the dough in half, then roll the each out on a lightly floured board, or (my preferred method) between two sheets of waxed paper, into a circle large enough to fit a nine inch quiche pan or two. Fit the dough into the pan and set aside.
Whisk the eggs together with the flour, half and half, salt, pepper, and dry mustard.
Scatter the crumbled cooked bacon and the grated Swiss cheese over the bottom of the crust, then pour the egg and half and half mixture over all.
Drizzle with the melted butter and pop into the oven until the crust is golden brown and the filling puffed up a bit and a a bee-YOO-tiful golden color.
Note: my sister and I have both had issues recently with making quiche. We have both had old and trusted recipes that called for baking for 30 minutes, but our latest actual cooking times were more like 45 to 5o minutes, so, I would recommend setting your timer for a half hour, and then checking the oven every five or ten minutes or so until you get something like this:
Trust me, 30 minutes or 55, it’s worth the wait. If you’re serving the quiche right away, let rest for fifteen minutes before cutting.
If you’ve baked ahead, bring the cooked quiche out of the fridge to rest on the counter for 30 minutes before popping into a 300º for another 30 minutes to warm through.
Either way, enjoy!