By Craig Claiborne
Updated Nov. 13, 2023
- Total Time
- 1 hour 10 minutes
- Rating
- 5(3,771)
- Notes
- Read community notes
The first quiche to come to the attention of the American public was the quiche Lorraine in the 1950s. Craig Claiborne, who started as food editor of The Times in 1957, created this classic recipe with bacon, onion and cheese to fill a pie dish. If you use a tart pan, expect to have extra custard.
Keys to This Recipe
What is quiche: In its most traditional French form, a quiche is composed of a buttery crust filled with a savory egg custard. The pastry is known as pâte brisée. Fillings can include any combination of cheese, herbs, vegetables and smoked meat or fish.
How to Make Quiche: For any type of quiche, you start with homemade pastry dough or a store-bought pie crust and fit it into a 9- or 10-inch pie, tart or quiche pan. To prevent a soggy crust, par-bake the dough by baking it alone first, lined with parchment paper or foil and filled with pie weights, such as dried beans. Once the dough is golden, it can be filled with the custard and any other ingredients, then baked again until the custard is just set.
Make-Ahead Tips for Quiche: Quiche tastes best when served after 20 to 30 minutes of cooling and within an hour of baking. It can be completely cooled, then covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days, but the crust will get soggy. It’s better to keep a fully baked quiche at room temperature for up to 6 hours and then reheat it, uncovered, in a 300-degree oven for 10 to 20 minutes. (If it has been in the refrigerator, add another 10 minutes or so.) You also can prepare the dough up to 3 days ahead and refrigerate it or par-bake the crust up to a day in advance and keep it at room temperature.
Side Dishes to Serve With Quiche: Because quiche is quite rich, it tastes best with a sharp, light salad, such as arugula salad or green salad.
Gluten-Free Options for Quiche: You can purchase a gluten-free crust or make your own by swapping a 1-to-1 flour blend for all-purpose flour. Or, you can make a crustless quiche.
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Ingredients
Yield:6 to 10 servings
- Pastry for a one-crust 9-inch pie (see pastry recipe)
- 4strips bacon
- 1onion, thinly sliced
- 1cup Gruyère or Swiss cheese, cubed
- ¼cup grated Parmesan
- 4eggs, lightly beaten
- 2cups heavy cream or 1 cup each milk and cream
- ¼teaspoon nutmeg
- ½teaspoon salt
- ¼teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- Tabasco sauce to taste
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Step
2
Line a nine-inch pie plate with the pastry. By all means build a rim with the pastry and flute it. This is essential for the amount of custard indicated in this recipe.
Step
3
Cover the bottom of the pastry with a round of parchment paper and add enough dried beans or peas to partly fill the shell. Bake 10 minutes.
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4
Reduce the oven heat to 375 degrees. Remove and discard the beans and parchment paper and set the pastry-lined pie plate aside.
Step
5
Cook the bacon until crisp and remove it from skillet. Pour off all but one tablespoon of the fat remaining in the skillet. Cook the onion in the remaining fat until the onion is transparent.
Step
6
Combine the eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle the bacon, onion and cheeses over the inside of the partly baked pastry.
Step
7
Strain the cream mixture over the onion-cheese mixture. Slide the pie onto a baking sheet.
Step
8
Bake the pie until a knife inserted one inch from the pastry edge comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Remove to a wire rack. Let stand 5 or 10 minutes before serving.
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5
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3,771
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Mike Haller
FYI I'm a real greenhorn but my experience on my second try w this:
1. Used a prefab 9" frozen crust.
2. Cut up a large onion used about 3/4 of it.
3. Cut gruyere into very small cubes.
4. Used 3 eggs and 1 3/4 cup heavy cream
5. Put extra leftover cooked onions on top of custard before baking.
6. Baked for 35 min at 400 (elec oven)
I'd love to post a pic. Wish I could.
NYT Cooking is helping me learn cooking at age 71. THANKS.
Travis Creston
Something that really helps prevent soggy bottoms: after taking any pie crust out of the oven once you blind bake it, remove the beans or pie weights & parchment, paint the bottom with egg white & place back in the oven for a good five minutes or so. The EW will crisp up & create a nice barrier to prevent a soggy bottom! Works every time.
Kristin PC
Flavors were great, but I had a few baking issues. I'd make it again with these adjustments:
ISSUE: The bottom of the finished quiche was VERY soggy. A good bit of liquid actually seeped through the crust onto the baking sheet.
FIX: After the 10 minute par-bake, remove weights and parchment. Continue to par-bake for 6-8 more minutes. Before adding ingredients and egg mix, protect the edge of the crust with foil strips.
ISSUE: Under baked.
FIX: Cook for 28-30 minutes.
Linda
Delicious! I've used bacon many times but, now prefer to dice a ham steak and add to transparent onions to heat through before adding to pie dish. I also grate the swiss cheese instead of cubes so it melts better. Cooking time was about 50 minutes at 375. I always refer to this recipe when making a quiche.
Phyllis
I made this today. To fit a grocery store pie crust (9inch deep dish) I made the following changes: used three eggs and reduced the cream to 1.5 cups. Every thing else was the same. It was PERFECT. No leftover custard with those amounts.
N.M.Nicholas
Quiche generally take a long time at a low temperature, so the eggs do not cook too quickly and ruin the texture. I set my timer for 45 minutes then I check generally it. Often it take a awhile longer, try separating the eggs, creaming the yolk, and then beating the whites until you have stiff peaks. That will give it more body and a more fluffy final product.
Ayla
A bit atypical a quiche lorraine (we use smoked lardons and we don't use parmesan in France, eg) but really good recipe nonetheless. I had to let it in the oven for a longer time (45')
Deana
I've made this several times and it's always satisfying! I double the bacon, reduce the cream to 1 1/2 cups and use a deep pie plate. I also add a dash of cayenne in place of the tabasco. Great with spinach and mushrooms, too!
Mylene
So very good - the flavors of France. I followed the recipe closely, just baked the shell st 375 for 10 minutes with the beans and another 5 without them. Used a good quality, thick-cut bacon and then layered onion, then bacon, then cheese, then onion, bacon and cheese again before pouring the egg mixture in, this kept everything well-distributed. Everything turned out delicious, truly the definitive quiche recipe.
Elizabeth
Absolutely delicious. Didn't use the parchment paper, but did use pie weights. Needed about 12 minutes longer in the oven, but had a wonderful texture. Small cubes of gruyere worked well (less than 1 cm).
Remember to chill pastry after shaping, before blind baking.
michelle
But what you’re making is nowhere near Quiche Lorraine. Vanilla? Allspice? Yuck.
Jim A
While this is a quiche/tart of some sort an likely fine, it is not a quiche loraine with those substitutions. Some classic dishes are what the are.
g33kygurl
Great recipe! Substituted half and half for heavy cream and pinch of cayenne for Tabasco. Also forgot to add parmesan. Turned out fantastic.
Required 50 min baking time @ 375.
SLR
After blind baking brush bottom of tart with egg white... put back in oven and bake another 5 minutesThis will keep the crust from getting soggy.
Pamela
I wish that people would stop presenting recipes with other ingredients than those that belong in the original recipe. Craig Claiborne should have known better. Quiche Lorraine never has cheese in it. Call it a cheese/bacon quiche but not Lorraine. This only perpetuates incorrect expectations of a certain dish.
Frank
This was good. However I blind baked my crust for an hour and still had a soggy bottom so I can’t imagine after ten minutes. Next time I would shred the cheese instead of cubing, it was still kind of cube-y in the finished product.
Stephanie
I’ve followed this as written for year, except for cutting back on both cream and eggs. Great tip, thanks!
Aquidneck
I followed the recipe as-is using homemade blind baked crust. Used two cups of heavy cream but next time will use a combination of milk and heavy cream as the quiche was very rich. A bit too rich for us.
Zach
Also shallot
mine
8 oz Gruyère instead of one cup.
Greasy lil thing!
This recipe was a miss for me. Very greasy and not pleasant.
Kate
Quiche Lorraine is one of my favourites and I've made it many times. I never blind bake the crust and never have a "soggy bottom". My all-butter pastry is flaky and crisp and never soggy. In my experience, the blind bake is not necessary.
Margarena
I didn't have any bacon so I used some pancetta instead. Really good.
Malcolm Z
I was doing okay until the filling was overflowing the shell/crust I bought frozen (and prebaked 10 min). I'll do 3 eggs and 1.5 cups of cream (I had half and half) next time. Straining was dubious: a lot of the black pepper was too big. Also, 1 cup Gruyère is ~100g; my cubes were tiny and I forgot Parmesan. Then 50 min at 375º. It still tasted good, and I'll try to get a flakier crust next time.
Courtney Thurston
Very strange recipe because this yields way more filling than can fit in a 9" pie crust/pan. A LOT more. This also appears to be a sub-optimal ratio of eggs to dairy, which is typically 4 eggs:1 cup. This calls for double the dairy, and it shows in the inability of the mixture to set. If you insist on using this recipe, I'd cut down on every single ingredient, and use 4 eggs: 1 cup dairy ratio. Others have already corrected the baking time. Sloppy recipe, wouldn't recommend.
S. Wolff
I used half and half. Turned out wonderful texture. Used 1/8 cup Parm. Less then recipe, wasn't sure, never used Parm before. EASY! Many compliments
Cheree
Mine was delicious. I added spinach. Needed to bake I little longer like 8 minutes
Jean W
HELP! Does 1cup Gruyère or Swiss cheese, cubed mean by weight (i.e. 8 ounces) or by volume (i.e. measuring cup). It's a huge difference between the two. Thanks
Malcolm Z
I bought 8 ounces Gruyère by weight and cubed it all, but as I was adding it, it looked way too much (even without parmesan, which I forgot). So, I looked up online how much one cup of Gruyère weighs (~100g), and it seems like the recipe meant by volume and I just estimated that as half of the "8 oz" (220 g) original portion of the cheese. I really wish more recipes would specify grams/milliliters because most food labels include that info.
Straining Cream Mixture
How do you strain the cream mixture? Like how coarse of a strainer? Are the eggs more than just beat together?
Cathy C
I never blind bake the crust to my quiche, and it turns out fine.
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