A buttery shortcrust filled with smoky bacon and a soft custard of eggs and cream. The original from Lorraine has no cheese and doesn't need any: just good bacon, a crisp base and a filling that barely sets.
I make quiche lorraine at home, not at the bakery. It's easy, and it's one of my favourite meal-prep dishes: I bake one at the start of the week and take a cold slice for lunch, or warm one up with a green salad for dinner.
The Canadian version needs a couple of small adjustments. I use thick-cut smoked bacon instead of lardons, and 35% whipping cream, which has the same fat as the crème fraîche in many French recipes, so the custard sets just as silky. And I always make my own pastry, because the ready-made crusts here are almost never all butter and you taste it.
Quiche lorraine is the bakery quiche in France, sold by the slice at lunchtime. Made at home, it's a butter crust and a filling of only three things: eggs, cream and smoked pork, seasoned with pepper and nutmeg.
Which bacon tastes like lardons fumés?
Lardons fumés are thick batons of smoked pork belly. Packaged lardons are sold at Metro in Quebec but are rare elsewhere, so buy thick-cut, naturally smoked bacon and cut it into 1 cm strips.
What about store-bought pastry?
French supermarkets sell rolled butter pâte brisée in the fridge aisle. Nothing like it is sold here, so the butter pastry below is worth the 10 minutes.
When to take it out
Take it out when the edges are set and puffed but the centre still trembles when you nudge the pan. Cooled for 15 minutes, a slice should hold its shape and feel silky, not spongy. Small holes or a watery layer on the plate mean it baked too long.
Making it in Canada
The 3 French ingredients, and what to buy for them in Canada.
Lardons are thick batons of smoked pork belly. Regular thin bacon shrinks to crisp shards; thick-cut, cut into 1 cm strips, stays meaty in the custard. Schneiders Double Smoked works but tastes smokier than French lardons.
🛒 PC Dry-Cured Thick Cut Naturally Smoked (375 g, Loblaws and Superstore), Great Value Thick Sliced Naturally Smoked (375 g, Walmart) or Compliments Thick Cut Naturally Smoked (Sobeys). Skip PC Old-Fashioned Extra-Thick, which is maplewood-smoked. In Quebec, Metro sells Plaisirs Gastronomiques smoked lardons (200 g), also listed on Voilà by Sobeys.
French quiche recipes often use thick crème fraîche, at 30–40% fat. Canadian 35% whipping cream has the same fat, so the custard sets just as rich and smooth; it only lacks the tang. For a slight tang, use 100 mL crème fraîche in place of 100 mL of the cream.
🛒 Any 35% whipping cream: Lactantia (Sobeys) or Sealtest (Walmart). Liberté 40% crème fraîche, 250 mL, if you see it: with the sour cream at Metro, IGA and Super C in Quebec, and on Voilà by Sobeys elsewhere. Stock is patchy.
A French pâte brisée is made with butter. Tenderflake frozen pie shells, the brand in most freezers, are made with lard or with vegetable shortening depending on the box, and they're deep pie shells, not a flat tart case. They bake flakier and taste of neither butter nor France. The butter pastry below takes 10 minutes plus 30 minutes in the fridge.
🛒 Tenderflake shells are in the frozen bakery section at Metro, Walmart and Real Canadian Superstore; read the ingredient list if you buy them.
Good to know: No tart pan? A 23 cm (9 in) deep glass pie plate works: add 5 minutes to the blind-bake, since glass heats more slowly. The 28 cm Wilton tart pan at Canadian Tire is too big for this amount of filling.
Ready to cook?
Quiche Lorraine
A buttery shortcrust filled with smoky bacon and a soft custard of eggs and cream. The original from Lorraine has no cheese and doesn't need any: just good bacon, a crisp base and a filling that barely sets.
Prep time
40 min
Cook time
1 hr
Resting time
1 hr
Total time
2 hr 40 min
Servings
6
Chill the pastry 30 minutes and the lined pan 15, then cool the baked quiche at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Ingredients
Original recipe: 6 servings.
Instructions
Make the pastry. Mix the flour and salt. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it looks like coarse crumbs with a few pea-sized bits left. Add the yolk and 3 tbsp ice water and press together with a fork, adding the last spoon of water only if it's too dry to hold. Flatten into a disc, wrap and chill 30 minutes.
Line the pan. Roll the pastry 3 mm thick on a floured counter and line a 23–24 cm (9 in) tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing it into the edges. Trim the overhang, prick the base with a fork and chill 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
Blind-bake. Line the pastry with parchment and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake 15 minutes, remove the paper and weights, and bake 8–10 minutes more until the base looks dry and lightly golden. Lower the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Cook the bacon. While the pastry bakes, cook the bacon in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 6–8 minutes, until browned but not crisp. Drain on paper towel.
Mix the custard. Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg, pepper and a pinch of salt just until smooth. Don't whip it frothy.
Fill and bake. Set the tart pan on a baking sheet on the lowest rack. Scatter the bacon over the base and pour in the custard. Bake 30–35 minutes, until golden in places and set at the edges, with a slight wobble in the centre.
Rest. Let it cool at least 15 minutes before slicing. It's best warm or at room temperature.
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Notes
Make the pastry up to 2 days ahead, or freeze the lined tart pan for up to a month and blind-bake from frozen.
Very salty bacon? Blanch the strips 2 minutes in boiling water, drain and pat dry before frying, and leave the salt out of the custard.
For meal prep, bake it, cool it completely, then cut it into slices and keep them covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. It slices more neatly cold. Reheat slices at 160°C (325°F) for 10–12 minutes; the microwave makes the pastry soft.
If the edges brown too fast, cover them with strips of foil.
Course: Mains · Cuisine: French · Adapted for Canadian kitchens
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