Quiche Lorraine

I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. But after making this quiche I couldn't help but want to share it with the world. It's from the book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Childs. You know most quiches that I have eaten are like scrambled eggs in a flavorless pie crust. But not this quiche, this quiche has a rich buttery flaky crust with a more custardy type filling. I absolutely LOVE it. I never thought that you could use the word "divine" to describe something like quiche, but this one definitely deserves the word.

Pate Brisee (OR Pie Crust for those of you who don't know what that is)

1 C flour

6 T butter

2T butter flavor shortening

3 to 4 T ice water

1/8 t sugar (to be honest I left the sugar out, it said it was optional for color)

Measure the flour and salt into a bowl, add the butter and shortening and cut in with a pastry blender until the crumbs are about pea size. Add the ice water to the bowl and mix it with a fork. Grab the dough and knead it a couple times to form a ball. 

Now, this is generally where I roll out the pie crust, but Julia Childs had more wisdom to impart that I was excited about. What you do next is "fraisage" the dough. It is a fancy french technique in which you take the HEEL of your hand, place it on the dough and smear it across and away from you about six inches. Repeat until all of the dough has been smeared. As I was doing this I was thinking to myself that this reminded me of something that I would catch my toddler doing, and I would probably be embarrassed if anyone walked into the room just now. Fraisage is supposed to blend your butter into the dough better. I smeared my dough until I could see that no butter clumps were left.

Gather the dough into a ball again, knead a couple times if needed. Cover the dough in an airtight container, or put in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator for an hour until firm.

Roll out the dough and put it in a pie tin or quiche pan. Prick with fork, line with parchment and put weights or beans in to hold down the crust.

Partially prebake the crust at 375* for 10 mins. You may want to wrap the sides with foil to prevent them from overbrowning. I always keep an eye on it during this stage because my oven is tricky. Make sure bottom of the crust is cooked.

Filling

3 to 4 oz bacon sliced to medium thickness or I used cubed ham

3 eggs or 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

1 1/2 to 2 cups whipped cream or half and half

1/2 t salt

pinch of pepper

pinch of nutmeg

1 to 2 T butter cut into pea sized dots

Mix all ingredients except the butter together and dump into pie crust. Sprinkle the butter over the top and cook for 25 to 30 mins or until the top is browning and puffs up. (I had to cook mine ten minutes longer because it looked like a puddle at 30 mins.)