No-Mess Quiche Lorraine Recipe

If you're looking for one decidedly impressive breakfast or brunch dish, you've found it with this one. Quiche Lorraine elevates eggs to new heights. Which is not surprising, because elevating foods is something baked right into French cooking, and this dish is quintessentially French. In fact, it was named for the Lorraine region of France, found in the northeastern region of the nation.

If you plan to serve quiche Lorraine for breakfast, just keep in mind that you may need to wake up earlier than normal. This recipe from Stephanie Rapone of Pantry to Plate Meals takes more than 2 hours to make, and that's not including rest time between steps. But don't be intimidated — or at least, not too intimidated. While this is a pretty hands-on recipe with a fair number of ingredients, if you work methodically through each step, you'll end up with one excellent French-style brunch or breakfast entree.

There are a lot of ingredients needed for this quiche Lorraine, so you'll need to plan a trip to the grocery store. All told, you'll need all-purpose flour, kosher salt, granulated sugar, unsalted butter, ice-cold water, shallots, a yellow onion, thyme sprigs, a bunch of chives, a lemon, thick-cut bacon, eggs, finely-grated Gruyère cheese, heavy cream, cayenne pepper, and finely-grated Parmesan.

First, let's make the pie crust. Cut the butter into roughly even chunks and set those aside. Add the flour, a ½ teaspoon salt, and the sugar to a food processor and pulse the blades several times — just enough to combine the dry ingredients. Then, add the butter pieces to the food processor and process everything in 5-second bursts, until pea-sized pieces form.

Continue pulsing the blades of the processor while slowly pouring in the ice water. When a dough forms and begins pulling away from the sides, you can stop processing the dough. 

Lightly dust a work surface (and your hands) with flour, then place the dough on the prepared surface and knead it 2-3 times. Roll the dough into a ball and wrap it in plastic before placing it in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. 

As the pie dough rests, you can start preparing the filling. Peel and thinly slice the shallots and the onion. Strip the leaves from 1 sprig thyme and finely chop them. Finely mince the chives and measure out 2 tablespoons, saving the rest for the garnish. Wash and zest the lemon and measure out 1 teaspoon zest.

Next, crack 1 egg and divide it, reserving the white and discarding the yolk. 

Crack the remaining 8 eggs into a separate bowl. 

Cut the bacon into ½-inch pieces and, in a 12-inch skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until the fat has rendered and the bacon is brown and crisp. This should take about 13-15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked bacon to a medium bowl.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat from the pan (you can reserve this fat for another use if you'd like), then add the shallots, remaining 2 thyme sprigs, and the onions to the pan. Cook everything until the onions have softened — about 4-5 minutes — scraping up any of the fond that has formed on the bottom of the pan. 

Transfer the softened onions to the bowl with the bacon, discarding the thyme sprigs. Let these ingredients cool completely.

While the bacon and onions cool, prepare your pie crust. Preheat your oven to 325 F, and while it's preheating, remove the prepared dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 12-inch round, then fit it into a 9 ½x2-inch deep pie pan (or a springform pan). Allow the crust to overhang the pan slightly, trimming away any large pieces as needed. And if you'd like, you can also crimp the crust edges around the pan.

Retrieve the egg white you set aside earlier and whisk it with a fork until it gets frothy. Brush the egg white over the crust bottom and up the sides. "This prevents the crust from getting soggy and eliminates the need to blind bake the crust fully with pie weights," Rapone says.

Sprinkle the bottom of the crust with ½ cup grated Gruyère, then bake it for 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool while you prepare the filling.

In your food processor, add the cream, eggs, kosher salt, lemon zest, and cayenne pepper. Process these until the mixture is smooth. Transfer this mixture to the bowl with the bacon, onion, and shallots, then add the remaining ½ cup Gruyère, the Parmesan, and 1 ½ tablespoons of the chives. Stir to combine these ingredients well.

Place the cooled crust in its pan on the center of a sheet pan and pour in the filling. Bake the quiche 60-75 minutes, until the very center of the quiche is barely jiggly. "You want it to register 175-180 F with a probe thermometer in the middle," Rapone says. Remove the quiche Lorraine from the oven and let it cool completely — at least an hour — before serving it. Garnish the quiche with additional chives before serving, and enjoy — you deserve it!