Quiche Lorraine

For someone who doesn’t really like eggs that much, I really love a good quiche.  Especially Quiche Lorraine, an open pie filled with eggs, cream custard, bacon, and Gruyere cheese (in this case, though according to Wikipedia, the addition of cheese makes it a different kind of quiche).  I’ve been craving quiche since our Easter Brunch.  The Picky Apple (who DOES love eggs) isn’t a big quiche lover.  You know, because Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche.  I’m not sure if that’s the reason or not, but he’s not crazy about it.  Anyway, I decided to bake one last week while my Real Man was out of town, using a recipe from Cooks Country Magazine.  I adore Cooks Country and Cook’s Illustrated magazines for all of the research and testing they put in to each recipe.  They may not have big beautiful color photos, but the recipes are always solid and reliable.  This recipe for Quiche Lorraine is certainly one I’ll be using again and again.

Quiche Lorraine

from Cooks Country April/May 2009

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 ounces cream cheese, softened

Custard and Topping Ingredients:

• 5 slices bacon, chopped fine
• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 cup finely shredded Gruyere cheese

Make Dough: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk flour, Parmesan and salt in bowl.  With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.  Reduce speed to low, add flour mixture, and mix until dough forms large clumps, about 1 minute.  Reserve 3 tablespoons dough.  Flatten remaining dough into 6-inch disk and transfer to center of 9-inch pie plate.

Blind Bake: Press dough evenly into bottom and sides of pie plate and use reserved dough to form crimped rim.  Refrigerate dough for 20 minutes, then transfer to freezer until firm, about 10 minutes.  Spray two 12 inch square pieces of foil lightly with cooking spray and arrange greased-side down in chilled pie shell.  Top with pie weights (Picky Apple note: I didn’t use pie weights, and mine turned out just fine) and fold excess foil over edges of dough Bake until surface of dough no longer looks wet, 15 to 20 minutes.  Carefully remove foil and weights and continue to bake until crust begins to brown, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to wire rack and cool until just warm, about 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Mix Custard: While crust cools, cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes; transfer to paper towel-lined plate.  Whisk half-and-half, sour cream, eggs, yolk, salt, pepper, nutmeg, Gruyere, and 3/4 of bacon in a large bowl.

Bake: Pour custard mixture into warm pie shell and bake until crust is golden and custard is set around edges, about 25 minutes.  Sprinkle remaining bacon over surface of quiche and continue to bake until center of quiche is barely set, 5 to 10 minutes.  Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes.  Serve.  (Quiche can be refrigerated in airtight container or wrapped in plastic for 3 days.)