My Mom used to crawl in the bed at night, after a long day of being a mail carrier, a wife and mother and exclaim “Best part of the day!” just before she drifted off to sleep.  To her,  it seemed like there was no greater reward that peaceful rest at the end of the day.

As a kid, I had a hard time relating to my Mom’s Ode to Bedtime.  I was sure that I could have, at the very least, squeezed one more episode of The Cosby Show into my night.  Nope.  Bedtime was bedtime, not because there were overly strict bedtime rules, but because my Mom was just dog tired.

Nowadays I feel like I have a better understanding of my Mom’s nighttime sentiments.  My head hits the pillow after a long day and I’m asleep before I can even turn the bedside lamp off… and I don’t even have little kids yet!

You were right Momma.  Sometimes crawling under the covers is the best part of the day.

Other times, quiche is the best part of the day.  True.

In exciting, not sleepy or quiche related news:  my Mom, after over 30 years of delivering mail, retires from the Post Office… today!  Holy heck Mom!  Way to go!  Thanks for working hard for the family all those years.   I couldn’t be happier for you.  I hope you find a new “best part of the day”.  For reals, I love you Mom!

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.  Moms are important.  I have a good one.

Speaking of good.  Um… I should warn you about this quiche.  It’s not good.  It’s so crazy great you might hurt yourself!  Truly.  Between the puff pastry, bacon, creme fraiche and Gruyere, this quiche just about made me cry.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Creme Fraiche Quiche

The Gourmet Cookbook

Print this recipe!

3/4 pound bacon (12 slices) cut crosswise into 3/4-inch wide pieces

1 sheet frozen puff pastry ( from a 17 1/4-ounce package), thawed (I love Dufour puff pastry)

6 large eggs

2 (10-ounce) containers creme fraiche (2 1/4 cups)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup coursely grated Gruyere (about 4 ounces)

Put a baking sheet on a middle rack and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 10 minutes.

With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain.

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 13-inch square.  Because pastry sheets are in a squares, it is easier to roll it into a larger square and then trim it into a round.  Fit pastry into pie pan and trim the pastry so that just about 1/4-inch of puff pastry hangs over the sides.

Whisk eggs in a medium bowl until well combined, then whisk in creme fraiche, salt and nutmeg until just smooth.  Pour filling through a fine-mesh strainer into pastry shell.  Sprinkle bacon evenly over filling and top with Gruyere.

Bake quiche on heated baking sheet until center is set (it should not jiggle when shaken), 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Quiche will puff up while in he oven and sink a bit once it’s out and cooled.  Transfer to rack to cool to warm or room temperature.

I’ve now typed about seven different introductions to this post, only to completely delete them all.  

I’m trying my best to avoid words like unemployment, recession, war and ceasefire.  Ugh…  the world seems to be in the thick of it right now, and here we are just trying to work it out for ourselves everyday.  

I don’t have epic solutions to offer you, but I do have a band-aid:  lots of love and loads of sugar.  

How will that do you?

Let’s make Palmiers.  Let’s make Elephant Ears.  And you know what?  Let’s use store bought puff pastry, because we’re going to need these cookies toot sweet!

There’s a trick to buying store bought puff pastry.  You have to search for the quality stuff.  Most grocery stores carry a frozen puff pastry that is loaded with all sorts of mystery fat.  Look at the ingredients list before you buy.

 Dufour is a puff pastry made with only butter.  It’s the good stuff.  It’s the only way to go with store bought puff pastry.  No… they didn’t pay me to say that, although I sorta wish they would.  Don’t know where to find Dufour?  You could have it shipped to you!

Palmiers are unbelievably easy once you’ve got your hands on some good puff pastry.  All you’ll need is:

lots of granulated sugar ( I started with about a cup of granulated sugar)

one package of all butter puff pastry.  

a pan lined with parchment paper, a silicone mat, or greased and floured. 

Here’s a step by step extravaganza.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Measure out one cup of granulated sugar (it doesn’t have to be exact) and sprinkle about half of the sugar onto a clean work surface.  Unfold the thawed puff pastry onto the sugared surface and sprinkle the top of the pastry with the remaining sugar.

The Dufour Puff Pastry unfolds out of the package just about the length and width you’re looking for.  You’ll just need to roll it to thin it a bit, extending it about 1/2 to 1-inch on all sides.

What’s that?  You have a little rip on the seam of your puff pastry!? Me too.  Maybe just try to patch that up a bit.  But really?  It’s not that big a deal.  Don’t sweat it!

Your puff pastry should be roughly 8(to10)x12-inches in size.  Now start rolling.  Roll up the left vertical side towards the center seam.  Roll the right vertical side towards the center too.

Gently press together, like so.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour, or until cold and firm.  

Remove dough from the fridge and slice in 1/2-inch slices.  Place on lined baking sheet.  Bake in 400 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes of until golden brown.  You may want to rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking.  Keep a close eye on the cookies after about 11 minutes.  They might burn quickly.

If using just a greased and floured baking pan instead of a parchment or silicone lined pan, remove the cookies from the pan immediately after they come out of the oven.  If you’ve lined you baking sheet, you’re fine to let the cookies cool on the sheet.