January 3, 2011

Quiche Lorraine


I was reminded of how much I love quiche when I was  invited to Henning and Anne-Marie's flat for brunch last November.  Anne-Marie made the most delicious quiche lorraine that was the perfect entree.   The recipe she used had crème fraîche, sort of like a French sour cream, which you can find at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.  Unfortunately I didn't have any lying around my house and my craving for quiche was too impatient to withstand a trip to the supermarket.

So I turned to my cooking and baking bible, Cook's Illustrated, for a recipe.  For this quiche I used two slightly different recipes, one for the crust and one for the filling.  

       
The crust is a real time saver since it's pressed in to the tart tin, no rolling pin required.  The filling comes together super quickly.   About 30 minutes in the oven and you have a delectable tart that rivals any you'd find in France.

Quiche Lorraine (from Cook's Illustrated)
Makes one 9-inch tart

Crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbl sugar
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbl unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into 8 pieces
2-3 tbl ice cold water

Filling
8 slices of bacon, cut in to small pieces
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese

For the Crust: Spray 9-inch tart pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in food processor with four 1-second pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse sand, about fifteen 1-second pulses. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and process until large clumps form and no powdery bits remain, about 5 seconds, adding up to 1 tablespoon more water if dough will not form clumps. Transfer dough to greased tart pan. Pat dough into prepared tart pan and smooth out any bumps or shallow areas. Place tart shell on plate and transfer to freezer for 30 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Place frozen tart shell on baking sheet; lightly spray one side of 18-inch square extra-wide heavy-duty aluminum foil with nonstick cooking spray. Press foil greased side down inside tart shell, folding excess foil over edge of pan. Fill with pie weights and bake until top edge just starts to color and surface of dough under foil no longer looks wet, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. Return baking sheet with tart shell to oven and bake until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Set baking sheet with tart shell on wire rack. Do not turn off oven.

For the Filling: Fry bacon in skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towel-lined plate. Meanwhile, whisk all remaining ingredients except cheese in medium bowl.

Spread cheese and bacon evenly over bottom of warm pie shell and set shell on oven rack. Pour in custard mixture to 1/2-inch below crust rim. Bake until lightly golden brown and a knife blade inserted about one inch from the edge comes out clean, and center feels set but soft like gelatin, 32 to 35 minutes. Transfer quiche to rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

3 comments:

  1. Cool. I only have little time for preparing food, but now I can eat this for brunch! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just made this, it was delicious! Great recipe. I added a few bunches of chopped scallions and it turned out great. I also used a glass pie pan rather than a tart pan and had to bake it for about 15mins longer. Definitely going in my recipe book!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7/19/2013

    Used swiss cheese still very good. Thank you it is a keeper.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...