Quiche LorraineQuiche Lorraine
A plain short-dough shell, browned lardons at the bottom, and an egg-and-cream custard baked until the edges are set and the centre still moves when the pan is shaken. The original quiche — no vegetable, no cheese — and the dish that defines how a baked custard is cooked: by its jiggle, not by its setting.
Technique notes
A quiche is a short-dough shell carrying a baked custard, and it is really about those two, each with its own logic. The shell is a short dough — cold butter cut into the flour, as little handling as possible, and a rest so the flour takes the water and the butter stops spreading — and it is par-baked with weight so it keeps its shape and does not slump when the wet custard goes in. The custard is the baked-custard family: egg and cream tempered into a single liquid, poured in, and set by the oven. The lardon is the flavour layer, and it is browned without added fat — the fat renders out of the pork, and that brown, rendered layer at the bottom is what a plain quiche is for. The finish is the jiggle: the quiche is pulled out of the oven while the centre is still moving, loose, and the edges just set, because the residual heat in the pan finishes the centre after it comes out. The whole dish is the tension between the dry, crumbly short dough and the wet, soft custard, and the only move that matters is pulling it out of the oven at the moment that tension is at its peak.
Equipment
- A 23cm (9-inch) round quiche tin with a removable base, or a deep pie tin — the removable base is what lets you lift the finished quiche out onto a plate to serve
- Parchment paper and a handful of oven-weight stones, or dried beans, for the blind bake
- A small, heavy pan for browning the lardon, no added fat
- A flat-sided whisk for the custard, to work it to a smooth, single liquid rather than a lumpy one
Ingredients
- 120 g (1 cup) plain flour (all-purpose), plus a little for the rolling
- 80 g (5½ tbsp) cold butter, cut into small dice, the colder the better — the butter is what makes the dough "short," and it must hold its shape as a solid piece, not melt into a smear, for the crumb
- 1 tsp (4 g) fine salt, for the dough
- 4–5 tbsp (60–75 ml) ice water, added a little at a time until the dough just holds together — not more, or the dough goes from short to pasty
- 100 g (3½ oz) pancetta, cut into 5 mm (¼-inch) dice — the "lardon" of the original, the flavour layer at the bottom of the quiche
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 200 ml (¾ cup) single cream (light cream) — the custard is an egg-and-cream, and the cream is what keeps it soft and pourable
- 200 ml (¾ cup) whole milk, to loosen the custard and keep it from being too dense — the ratio of egg to dairy is what sets it, and the milk is the lighter half
- ⅛ tsp (a pinch) freshly grated nutmeg, optional but traditional in the Lorraine quiche
- ½ tsp (2 g) fine salt, plus more to taste
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
Method
- Make the short dough. Into a bowl, tip the flour and the salt, and mix through. Scatter the cold diced butter over the flour, and work the butter into the flour — rubbing it between your fingertips, or pulsing it in a food processor — until the mixture is a coarse, uneven crumble, with little pea-sized pieces of butter still visible through the flour. That is the short-dough point: the butter must hold its shape as a solid piece, and you are not making a smooth, uniform dough, you are making a dough full of little pockets of butter that will melt in the oven and leave the air pockets that give the short dough its crumb. Then add the ice water a 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork or your hand, until the dough just holds together and forms a rough ball — add just enough water for it to cling, and no more. Do not over-mix it, and do not work it into a smooth, soft, even mass, because that is the point of the "short": you want the butter pockets, and too much mixing and too much warm-hand smearing are the two things that smear those pockets flat. Wrap the dough in film, and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hr — the rest is what lets the flour take the water and the butter stop spreading, and a rested dough is noticeably easier to roll out thin and even.
- Roll it out, and line the tin. On a lightly floured board, roll the rested dough out to a disc about 3 mm thick and large enough to cover the base and sides of the tin with a little overhang. Gently lift it into the 23cm quiche tin, and press it down along the base and up the sides, keeping the butter in the dough in place — do not stretch the dough to fit, press it, because stretching the short dough tears the butter pockets and the dough will spring back and leave thin, holey spots. Trim the overhang to about 1 cm above the rim, and prick the base all over with a fork. Put the lined tin back in the fridge for 15–20 min, to relax and set again before the bake.
- Blind-bake the shell. Line the chilled, dough-lined tin with parchment paper, and fill it with the oven-weight stones or the dried beans, pressing them to the bottom and up the sides. In a 190°C / 375°F (moderate) oven, bake the shell on the middle shelf for about 15 min, until it is 2/3 of the way cooked and the edges are just starting to set. Then take off the parchment and the weights, and bake the bare shell for a further 10–15 min, until it is pale 2/3 golden and the whole shell, base and sides, is dry and firm. The point of the blind bake is to set the dough before the wet custard goes in, so that the custard cannot soak a raw dough and the base turns soggy — it is the step that keeps the shell a shell and not a paste. Take it out and let it cool for a minute or two on a rack.
- Brown the lardon, no added fat. Into the small, heavy pan over a medium heat, put the diced pancetta, no added oil or butter — the pancetta is 100 g of fat and flavour, and it renders its own. Cook it, stirring now and then, for about 4–5 min, until the fat has rendered out of the pork and the dice are ⅔ browned at the edges and crisp — you want them browned and caramelized at the edge, not pale and soft, and the browned, rendered layer at the bottom of the pan is what a plain quiche is for. It is the flavour layer, the "Lorraine" of the quiche, and it is cooked without added fat because the pork is its own fat, and the rendered, browned layer is what the custard is going to soak as it sets.
- Mix the custard, and pour. Into a bowl, beat the eggs, the cream, the milk, the salt, the pepper, and the grated nutmeg together, until it is a smooth, single, pale liquid, and there are no streaks of un-beaten egg. That is the custard, the tempered single liquid, and it is the one that is going to set into the quiche. Pour it into the blind-baked shell, and scatter the browned lardon over the base of the custard, so the lardon is under the custard, not on top of it — the lardon is the flavour layer, and it is at the bottom of the quiche, not the top. The custard will be a little looser than you want it, and that is the point: it will set in the oven and firm up as it cools.
- Bake to the jiggle. Bake the quiche, in the same 190°C / 375°F oven, on the middle shelf, for about 35–45 min. In the last 10 min, watch the quiche: it will puff up, the edges will set and turn 2/3 golden, and the centre will be moving, loose, and still a little wet when you shake the tin gently. That is the jiggle, and it is the point — the quiche is pulled out of the oven while the centre is still moving, because the residual heat in the pan and the custard finishes the centre after it comes out, and a quiche that is pulled out with a fully set, firm, no-jiggle centre is overbaked and will set into a dry, crumbly, cakey disc. The jiggle is not a failure, it is the target: take the quiche out at the moment the centre is still a little loose, and let it finish in its own heat.
- Cool to the set, and slice. Set the quiche on a rack, and let it cool for about 20 min, until the centre has firmed up to a soft, dense, just-set state — the quiche is at its best when it is cool enough to cut into, but still a little warm, and the custard has finished setting in its own heat. Cut it into 6 slices, and serve it warm or at room temperature. A quiche keeps, and it is just as good the next day, reheated or cold, because the custard is a set dish, not a hot dish, and it holds its shape and its flavour from one day to the next.
Common failures
- The quiche centre is runny and won't set. It is either underbaked (step 6), and the custard did not reach the set, or the ratio of egg to dairy is too low (not enough egg, too much liquid), and the custard does not have enough binding to set. The jiggle is the point, but a quiche that is still loose after it comes out of the oven is not the jiggle, it is the runny — check the bake time, and if it is still loose, a little more time in the oven, until the centre is a soft, dense set rather than a runny liquid.
- The quiche centre is a hard, cakey, dry disc. It was pulled out of the oven with the centre already fully set, and the residual heat overcooked the custard into a firm, dense, dry block. The jiggle is the target, and the discipline is pulling it out while the centre is still a little loose, because the custard finishes setting in its own heat, and a quiche that is pulled too firm overcooks into the dry, crumbly centre that is the classic quiche failure.
- The short dough is soggy, limp, and has lost its crumb. It was not blind-baked for long enough (step 3), and the wet custard soaked a raw dough — the dough was not set and dry before the liquid went in, and it took the custard's moisture and turned from a crisp, crumbly shell into a soft, pasty base. A longer blind bake, until the shell is dry and firm at the base, is the fix.
- The short dough is a pale, soft, paste and has spread. The dough was over-handled, or it was not rested, and the butter smeared into the flour instead of holding its shape (step 1). A rested dough, handled as little as possible, and kept cold, holds the butter pockets that give the short dough its crumb, and a dough that is handled warm and smooth is a dough that has lost the shortness it is named for.
- The lardon is pale and soft and is not giving the quiche any flavour. It was not browned properly (step 4), and the pork went from raw to cooked without the edges taking any colour, so it is a soft, pale, faded layer. The browning is the flavour of a plain quiche, and a lardon that is browned and caramelized at the edge is the one that gives the quiche its Lorraine.
Variations & substitutions
- A quiche aux légumes, with a vegetable. Sauté a little of a soft vegetable — spinach, leek, mushroom — and fold it into the custard, or scatter it over the lardon before you pour. The quiche is a custard, and the vegetable is the variable, so a quiche with a vegetable in it is still a quiche — it is the custard and the shell, and the filling is the one you move.
- A quiche aux fromages, with a cheese. Grate a little of a hard, sharp cheese — a Gruyère or a Comté — into the custard, and the quiche is richer and a little drier at the set. The lardon is the original, and the cheese is the home-kitchen answer to the same question: a plain custard that wants a little more going on before it sets.
- A vegetarian quiche. Hold the lardon, and rely on the custard and the vegetable for the flavour. The quiche is still a quiche — it is the custard and the shell, and the meat is the layer you can drop. A quiche with no lardon and no cheese is a flanc, and a flanc with nothing is just a custard in a pastry shell.
What to serve with it
A quiche is a whole meal in itself, and it wants a simple, clean green salad — salade verte, with a light lemon vinaigrette — because the quiche is rich and dairy, and the salad is the cool, clean, acid note that cuts it. The quiche and the salad is the classic lunch: one rich, one light, one slow, one instant.