The Best Way to Reheat Leftover Quiche
Of course, there’s nothing like putting a fork to a warm quiche that came out of the oven only half an hour ago. But reheated quiche can certainly be as delicious as fresh.
It’s so worth your while to bake two quiches at once or even a larger batch. Quiches are delicious, easy to make, and great to keep in the freezer for later.
Quiche fillings, typically eggs, cheese, vegetables, and sometimes a little fish or meat, are ingredients that, combined, freeze well. And reheating a quiche is easy.
Just take a few simple safety precautions, which you probably already know, and you’ll have the convenience of pulling a lovely, home-made quiche out of the fridge or freezer to serve in minutes.
There are three ways to reheat quiche: in the oven, in the microwave, and in the toaster oven.
We prefer the oven method, for reasons explained below, but reheating quiche in the microwave and toaster oven also works well.
Freezing quiche
Wrap a whole tightly quiche in plastic wrap, then cover the top with foil.
Find or make a level place for the quiche in the freezer. To prevent crushing it, don’t put anything on top of it.
If you’re planning to freeze the quiche in slices, slice the freshly-baked quiche as soon as it’s cool. Wrap each slice in foil.
Pop the slices into a freezer bag. As with a whole quiche, make sure that nothing is sitting on top of the slices in the freezer, to prevent them from getting crushed.
Cooked quiche will stay good in the freezer for 2 months. Uncooked quiche will last only 1 month safely.
It’s important that whether whole or in slices, the quiche should be tightly wrapped to prevent condensation forming on it and prevent freezer burn.
Reheating quiche in the oven
The oven provides even heat without any further complications. It’s the same to reheat a whole quiche or one slice.
We prefer reheating in the oven because the flavor remains good, the crust stays crisp and there’s less chance of the quiche drying out.
The oven allows you to reheat the whole quiche at once. You don’t have to thaw out a frozen quiche either; it can go straight from the freezer to the oven.
However, you have to preheat the oven.
Wrap the quiche in foil to prevent unnecessary browning when reheating it. If it was baked in a foil or metal pan, just cover the top tightly with foil.
Check to make sure that the quiche or slices are hot through. The internal temperature of a whole quiche, reheated, should be 165°F.
You can tell when slices are warm through simply by touching the top firmly. Be careful with unwrapping the hot foil!
When you’re ready to reheat the quiche, set the oven to 375° F. Keep the foil wrapping on the quiche.
Frozen, thawed-out whole quiche at room temperature will take 15-20 minutes to reheat. Slices will reheat faster, so check them at 10 or 12 minutes.
If you need to reheat quiche straight from the freezer, add another 5 minutes to the reheating time.
The quiche that’s been stored in the fridge will need 20-25 minutes to reheat.
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Reheating quiche in the microwave
Microwaving quiche to reheat is easy, but it won’t give you the finest results. The crust won’t come out as crisp as when reheated in the oven, and the filling might feel a bit tough.
Still, when you’re in a rush, using the microwave can save time. You have the advantage of taking some quiche from home and warming it at work.
You’ll need to thaw the quiche out ahead of time, before reheating it. Either leave it in the fridge overnight or use the thaw function on the microwave.
Slice the entire quiche into serving portions and set the slices a little apart from each other in the microwave. This helps prevent the crust from getting soggy.
Set the microwave oven to 50%.
Remove all the foil from the quiche. Be very thorough about this; all traces of foil must be removed to avoid a fire.
Put the quiche on a microwave-safe dish.
Heat it for 3 minutes. If it doesn’t seem warmed through, heat it another 30 seconds.
Once the quiche seems heated through, leave it on a dish for a minute for the heat to continue going through it evenly. Check again to make sure it’s hot through.
Repeat heating it for 30 seconds. if necessary. Keep your eye on the quiche so as not to overcook it.
The microwave will give you hot quiche in a hurry, but you risk overcooking it. Watch the process carefully.
Remove the quiche from the microwave as soon as you’re convinced it has reheated. You don’t want a rubbery, overcooked filling, or a soggy crust.
Reheating quiche in the toaster oven
The toaster oven is great for reheating one or two pieces of quiche. The crust will be crisp, as when using the oven, but you won’t need to heat the kitchen up.
The toaster oven can be a big convenience if you watch how the reheating is going. Taking it out at the right time will yield a delicious slice or two, with the filling still fluffy and the flavor intact.
On the other hand, you must keep a sharp eye on the quiche and pull it out of the toaster as soon as it’s heated through. If you get distracted for a half minute, the quiche might burn.
Note the toaster oven works best works with a firm quiche that won’t crumble.
The most efficient way to reheat quiche in the toaster oven is to have it at room temperature before putting it in to reheat. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight, or put it in the microwave set at the thaw function.
Set the toaster’s temperature to 375°F.
If you’re worried that the crust might burn, cover the edges with strips of foil.
Heat the quiche for 15-45 minutes, depending on if it’s an entire quiche or slices. If reheating an entire quiche, check for readiness every 10 minutes past the first 15.
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Storing quiche safely
Quiche left out overnight will spoil. Even if you don’t see signs of spoilage, it will happen. Bacteria love room-temperature eggs and cheese.
Make sure it has cooled down completely before going on to chill or freeze it.
Two hours is the longest quiche should be allowed to sit at room temperature.
Baked quiche will last 3-4 days in the fridge. You can still freeze chilled cooked quiche if it’s been in the fridge less than 3 days.
To store leftover quiche in the fridge, you should leave it in its baking pan and wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap or foil.
Quiche is a delicate food and will absorb refrigerator and freezer odors, so make double-sure it’s double-wrapped when you store it.
You can also place the quiche into a large, sealable freezer bag before chilling it in the refrigerator. Eat refrigerated quiche within 4 days.
Note about spoiled quiche
If you have doubts about a quiche’s freshness, inspect it carefully. The eggy custard will become hard and turn dark yellow. It may also begin to separate, or worse, to leak.
The crust will be soggy, where before it was crisp. Certainly, if you smell rotten eggs, there’s no way to save the quiche. Chuck it out.
Preparing quiche to bake later or the next day
Sometimes it’s convenient to have all the parts of a quiche ready to put together for baking later.
Make the crust and press it into the pan you intend to bake it in. Pre-bake it you want, but let it cool.
Whether raw or pre-baked, wrap the crust in plastic film and store in the refrigerator. Uncooked whole quiche, or crust and filling, shouldn’t be kept in the fridge longer than 24 hours.
Combine the filling ingredients and custard in a separate bowl. Cover the mixture with plastic film and refrigerate it.
When you’re ready to bake the quiche, simply spread the filling over the prepared crust and bake as usual.
Preheat the oven or toaster oven for 10 minutes before reheating quiche in it. A cold oven is more likely to produce a soggy crust.
Let the fresh or reheated quiche set for a couple of minutes before serving it. If it was wrapped in foil, leave the foil on until you’re ready to serve.
Caring for the freshly-baked quiche
One of the things we love about quiche is the contrast of a crisp crust with the soft, eggy filling. To make sure the crust remains crisp, take care to cover the freshly-baked quiche with something porous while it’s cooling.
A clean kitchen towel is great for covering a hot quiche while it’s cooling. Covering it with moisture-proof materials like foil or plastic wrap will cause condensation, which will make the crust soggy.
In the final analysis, the way you reheat your quiche will depend on your needs at present.
Did you bake a batch of quiches to freeze for later? See the instructions above for safely reheating frozen quiche.
Is the quiche you baked earlier going to be lunch or dinner later on? Stash it in the fridge when it’s cool and consider which of the three methods we outlined suit you best.
How about giving a quiche as a gift? No matter which way you intend to keep it until you give it away, enclose a note with correct reheating instructions for the lucky recipient.
Tips for making excellent quiche
The butter or other fat you’re using to make the crust should be cold, just as for pie.
The filling ingredients – vegetables, cheese, salmon, bacon, whatever you choose – should be chopped into dice whenever possible. This lets the people eating taste a little of everything in each bite.
Dicing the filling won’t be necessary if the quiche centers on one main ingredient: say, caramelized onions or broccoli, or sweet potatoes.
But it’s still a good idea to chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. This makes slicing the quiche and eating it, easier than when whole big pieces are hiding in the custard.
Blind-baking the crust ahead of time guarantees crispness and a fast baking session later. Wrap the baked shell in plastic wrap and refrigerate it when cool.
Later on, or the next day, spread the filling in the shell and pop the quiche into the oven.
Note: a baked shell only stays good for 24 hours before the flavor and texture start to break down.
