Classic Quiche Lorraine

A classic recipe for Quiche Lorraine, with a flaky homemade pastry crust, and a creamy egg custard filling with bacon, onions and cheese. This delicious homemade quiche is perfect for brunch with crispy hash browns, or for dinner with a light salad.

Looking for more breakfast recipes? You’ll love these flaky homemade cherry pop tarts, banana bread coffee cake, and baked prosciutto egg cups.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Versatile. While a classic Quiche Lorraine is made with lardons (similar to bacon) and traditionally didn’t contain any cheese, there’s no reason you can’t make yours with what you like. Instead of the bacon, add cubed ham or sausage crumbles. I love the blend of cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, but Swiss or Gruyère is more traditional. You can even add spinach, sauteed mushrooms or bell peppers.

Easy to Make Ahead. There are a few steps involved in making quiche, from the homemade pastry dough, to cooking the bacon and onions, before it’s time to assemble and bake the quiche. But each element can easily be prepped the day before, then you can just pop it in the oven in the morning.

Great Leftover. The reheated leftovers are still really good, since the crust never gets soggy. It won’t be quite as crisp as it is freshly baked, but still delicious.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Crust

• Pie Dough. You’ll need 1 single crust of pie dough or pastry dough for your quiche. See this post for my recipe for all-butter flaky pie dough. It’s tender, buttery and flaky, and just delicious with the bacon, onions and egg custard.

Filling

• Bacon. While a traditional quiche Lorraine uses lardons, crispy bacon makes a good substitution. I prefer to use thick-cut bacon.
• Onion. Lightly sauteed diced onion adds a nice bite to the quiche.
• Dry Bread Crumbs. A handful of dry bread crumbs on the bottom of the crust helps to absorb the custard and prevent the crust from getting soggy. Instead of bread crumbs, I crumbled up some day-old cornbread.
• Cheese. You can use Swiss or Gruyère, which is more traditional, or just use what you have on hand. I used a blend of cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan.
• Eggs. Use large eggs. If your eggs are on the small size, add 1 or 2 more.
• Milk + Cream. Whole milk and heavy whipping cream makes a rich, creamy custard in this quiche.
• Salt and Pepper. Flavor.
• Nutmeg. Nutmeg is a traditional spice in quiche Lorraine. Feel free to omit it if you don’t like it, but you really can’t taste it in the baked quiche.

Instructions

Make the pastry dough.

• Preheat the oven to 400 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
• Prepare 1/2 recipe (for 1 single crust) All-Butter Flaky Pie Dough. You can also use store-bought pie dough, if you prefer.
• Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick and fit it into your tart pan or deep-dish pie pan, with about an inch of dough hanging over the edges. Fold the dough under to create a thicker edge, and crimp the dough all around.
• Lightly prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork. This is called “docking” the dough, and helps to prevent it from puffing up. Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.

Pre-bake the crust.

• Set the tart pan on a baking sheet. Fit a circle of parchment paper into the frozen dough, and fill the paper with dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 10 minutes, gently remove the beans/weights and the paper, and bake for 5 minutes more. The crust will be just partially cooked at this point, and will still be very pale.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 375 F.

TIP: For a step-by-step photo tutorial for making homemade pie dough, be sure to read my comprehensive pie dough post.

Cook the bacon and onions.

• Cook the chopped bacon in a saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and transfer it to a plate lined with a paper towel, to soak up excess grease.
• Remove all but 1 1/2 tablespoons bacon fat from the saucepan (you can save the extra bacon grease for cooking some crispy hash browns to serve with the quiche).
• Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook for about 4-5 minutes until soft and lightly browned. Remove from the heat.

Assemble and bake the quiche.

• After pre-baking the crust, reduce the oven temperature to 375 F.
• Scatter half of the crumbled cornbread/bread crumbs over the bottom of the crust, followed by half the cheese, half the onions and half the bacon. Repeat with the rest of the cornbread, cheese, onions and bacon.
• In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour the custard into the crust.
• Carefully set the quiche in the oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes, until the quiche is puffed and the filling is set.
• Let cool for 10-15 minutes, then serve warm.

Make Ahead Suggestions

• Crust. Make the dough and pre-bake the crust one day in advance. Keep it covered and refrigerated until the next morning.
• Filling. Cook the bacon and onion up to 3 days in advance, keeping them refrigerated until needed.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use store-bought pie dough?

Yes, of course. The pre-baking instructions will be the same.

Why does the crust need to be pre-baked?

If you add all of your filling to the dough while it’s raw, the bake time is not enough to cook the dough through, and you would end up with a flabby raw crust. Pre-baking it for just a few minutes ensures that it will be flaky and crisp.

Will this recipe work for a crust-less quiche?

Absolutely. For a crust-less quiche, you don’t want to use a tart pan with a removable bottom, since the custard will leak through the pan. Instead, use a deep-dish pie pan, quiche pan or a 9-inch baking dish. Without the crust, you might want to bulk up the filling with a little more bacon, eggs and milk.

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