Sonia's Quiche Lorraine Recipe

Sonia is my French sister-in-law and she cooks like a dream, at the same time works full-time, so she is an unachievable inspiration for me. When she has guests, she has a few go-to recipes that everybody loves and she gave me the details of her quiche lorraine that I have adapted somewhat and posted here. It's simple and tasty. This dish is perfect with a mixed green salad, topped off with her delicious dressing. Today, I just made the quiche and thought I should share it here.

Shortcrust
500g flour
1 tsp salt
250g soft butter/alternative margarine
8 tbsp water
2 Eggs

Topping
8 eggs
500ml milk
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
250-400g bacon or ham bits (fry them in a pan to let out the fat, let fat drain on kitchen roll. Sonia's original recipe called for 400g, I prefer using only 250g)
250-300g Emmental cheese, grated (Sonia's recipe called for 200g, but I wanted a tad more.)

Preparing the pans with the crust. Frying the bacon bits.

1. Prepare the crust in a medium-sized bowl mix all the ingredients with a spoon until the dough holds together. Eventually, with cold hands knead the dough slightly. Portion the dough in a buttered baking pan AND another buttered small pan or, if available, in a quiche form. Spread the dough lightly with your fingers throughout the pans so that no holes are present. You don’t have to press them up the sides. Stab all over with a fork.
2. In a separate bowl mix the eggs and milk for the topping. Season with a little salt (careful, because the bacon bits are a little salty, too), pepper and Cayenne Pepper.

Spices in now or when the mixture is spread over the pans.

3. Spread the fried/drained bacon bits, and the emmental cheese on the dough of the two pans. Pour the egg-milk-mixture over the two pans.
4. Bake both pans in a pre-heated convection oven at 200°C for 30 minutes (If you want to bake at a conventional setting, then approx. 40 minutes, but the pans can only be baked one-by-one, so who wants that? Sonia always bakes with the convection setting). 

First the bits, then the cheese, then the egg-milk-mixture.

The strawberries jumped in for the missing green salad.

With a green salad this is enough for a family of four - six depending on the hunger level. Also, quiche is great as part of a buffet.

 Bon Appetit. SaveSave