Yes — quiche freezes very well, which makes it one of the most useful things to have up your sleeve for busy weeks, picnics and packed lunches. You can freeze it baked or unbaked, whole or in slices, for up to about three months. Wrap it well, defrost it in the fridge and reheat it until piping hot all the way through. The custard sets very slightly less silky than freshly baked, and a few watery fillings are best avoided — both covered below.
A good quiche is quietly heroic. It is lunch at a picnic, supper with a sharp green salad, and the thing that saves a chaotic Tuesday when it appears, ready, from the freezer. Because it freezes so obligingly, the sensible move is to make two while the oven is on: one for now, one for the freezer and the week after next. Here is how to do it so the pastry stays good and the custard stays set.
How well does quiche freeze?
Very well. Both halves of a quiche — the egg-and-cream custard and the pastry case — take to the freezer happily. A baked quiche loses only a touch of its silkiness, and pastry that softens a little on thawing crisps straight back up in a hot oven. The results are good enough that batch-baking quiche to freeze is one of the best-value hours you can spend in the kitchen.
Bake two quiches, eat one and freeze one — a Sunday hour that quietly feeds a fortnight of lunchboxes.
How to freeze a baked quiche
- Cool it quickly. Never freeze a warm quiche — the trapped steam turns to ice and to sog. Cool it promptly rather than leaving it standing, and get it chilled within an hour or two.
- Whole or in slices. Freeze it whole, or cut it into portions, which thaw and reheat faster and let you take out just what you need.
- Open-freeze slices. Sit slices apart on a lined tray and freeze until firm, then pack them together so they do not fuse into a block.
- Double-wrap. Wrap well in cling film and then foil, or seal in an airtight container, to keep the air and freezer smells out.
- Label, date and freeze.
Can you freeze quiche before baking?
Yes, and many bakers prefer it, as an unbaked quiche baked fresh keeps its just-made texture best. Assemble the quiche in its tin, then freeze the whole tin until solid before wrapping it well. Bake it straight from frozen — there is no need to thaw — at around 180°C fan, allowing 50 to 100 per cent longer than the usual baking time, until the centre is set with no wobble, the top is golden and it is piping hot through. If freezer space is tight, blind-bake the pastry case and freeze it separately from the filling.
Which fillings don’t freeze well?
Most do; a few do not. The culprits are watery ingredients that release their liquid on thawing and leave the custard weepy: fresh tomato, courgette and asparagus are the usual offenders, as is raw spinach that has not been wilted and squeezed dry. Skimmed and low-fat milk can split, so build the custard on whole milk, cream or a mixture. Everything you most want in a quiche — cooked bacon and ham, cheese, softened leek, caramelised onion, cooked and well-drained spinach — freezes beautifully.
- Freeze: baked or unbaked, whole or in slices
- First: cool completely, then double-wrap or seal airtight
- Best within: about 3 months
- Unbaked: bake from frozen, adding 50–100% to the time
- Baked: reheat until piping hot; in the fridge, eat within 2 days
- Skip: watery fillings (tomato, courgette) and low-fat milk
How to defrost and reheat quiche
Thaw a baked quiche overnight in the fridge, or reheat slices straight from frozen when you are pressed. To reheat, warm it in a moderate oven, around 160–180°C, until it is hot all the way through and the pastry has re-crisped; a microwave is quicker but leaves the pastry soft. Reheat it only once, and make sure it is piping hot before serving. Fully thawed, it is also very good cold — which is rather the point of a quiche at a picnic.
Storing quiche safely
Quiche is an egg-and-dairy dish, so it is worth treating with the same care as other cooked leftovers. The Food Standards Agency advises cooling cooked food quickly and getting it into the fridge within one to two hours; keep your fridge between 0 and 5°C. Eat a baked quiche within two days, or freeze it for longer.
Do not leave quiche standing out at room temperature — get it chilled within an hour or two and keep it refrigerated until you reheat it. When you reheat it, whether from chilled or frozen, heat it until it is piping hot and steaming all the way through — the FSA benchmark is 70°C for two minutes in the centre — and reheat it only once. Freezing keeps quiche safe well beyond the two-day fridge window; it is quality, not safety, that sets the roughly three-month limit.
Can you freeze shop-bought quiche?
Usually, yes — provided it is within its use-by date and has not already been frozen. Check the label: some chilled supermarket quiches were frozen during production and should not be refrozen. A homemade quiche will always give the better result, but a spare from a multipack is a perfectly sensible thing to tuck away.
More family-friendly cookery
- Can you freeze cheese? Which cheeses freeze best
- Can you freeze scones?
- Can you freeze clotted cream?
- Can you freeze Victoria sponge?
- All our family recipes
Sources & further reading
- Food Standards Agency — How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely.
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