• Gather the ingredients.
  

Pâte brisée (pie crust)

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
• Prepare the pie crust for blind baking. After you have chilled the pie crust in the fridge or freezer, put a layer of parchment paper over the pâte brisée. Fill with pie weights or 1 lb./500 g of dried beans or rice to weigh down the pie dough. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
  
• This step is optional for avoiding a soggy quiche crust: Once the pâte brisée has formed a solid crust, about 15 minutes of baking, remove from the oven. Separate the egg white from 1 egg. Brush the egg white over the bottom of the pie crust. If you see any cracks in the crust, fill in the cracks with excess pie dough. Be sure to evenly coat the nooks and crannies of the pie crust with the egg white to seal the crust. Put the pie crust back into the oven and bake for another 10 minutes. Watch the pie crust carefully as it is baking to avoid burning the crust.
  
• After removing from the oven, the pie crust should look fully baked. Any excess egg white should have cooked through and become white. Set aside this crust while you prepare the egg and crème fraîche filling.
  

Lardons

• While the pie crust is blind baking, you can cook the lardons (or bacon if substituting) on a frying pan over medium heat, about 3 minutes. Cook until the lardons are no longer pink but avoid overcooking. You don't want the lardons to be crispy or hard.
  

Prepare the egg-cream mixture

• Add the remaining eggs and additional egg yolk into a mixing bowl. If you have excess egg white leftover from brushing the pie crust, add the leftover egg white to the other eggs. Beat to combine the egg whites and yolks until the eggs become foamy.
  
• Add the crème fraîche (or the whole milk and cream if substituting) to the foamy eggs and continue whisking until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Pour the egg-cream filling into the blind-baked pie crust. Add the lardons in an even distribution into the filling. The foamy eggs should help to keep the lardons from all sinking to the bottom of the pie.
  

Bake the quiche

• Put the quiche into the pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
  
• At the 15 minute mark, check on the quiche. You should notice that the edges of the crust are golden brown but the center of the filling has not set. Remove the pie pan from the oven and cover with strips of aluminium foil to shield the crust from burning. Return the pie to the oven and continue baking for 10 minutes.
  
• Check on the quiche at the 10 minute mark to make sure the quiche is not overcooked. The eggs will continue cooking once you remove the quiche from the oven. You can tell that the quiche is done when it is golden brown on top but the filling still wobbles when you move the pie pan.

  When you insert a small, thin knife, it should come out mostly clean with moist flecks of egg stuck to the knife. If the tester comes out with coated with liquidy egg, bake the quiche for another 10 minutes or until the filling is wobbly but the tester comes out with a few flecks of egg. Cool the quiche lorraine for 20 minutes and it is ready to serve.
  
• Enjoy your quiche lorraine!