I first had palmiers at Bloomington’s farmers’ market, where a local bakery was selling packs of them. Of course, I was intrigued by these intricate-looking little cookies and had to buy some. Once I tried them, there was no going back. Bye bye chocolate chip cookies, palmiers are where it’s at.
For a while, I didn’t even think about trying to make them myself. With their flaky, sugary layers, they look like they’d be extremely difficult to make. When I finally did decide to look up a recipe for them, I was pleasantly surprised. They’re actually super easy to make.
Now, whenever I bake treats for my friends, I always make palmiers. They’re impressive and look like they took forever to make. If you’re trying to wow your friends, make palmiers for them. Your friends will love you forever (even though they probably should anyway).
Palmiers
Ingredients
Instructions
In a bowl, combine one cup of sugar with a pinch of salt.
Spread half of your sugar mixture on a flat surface (a wooden cutting board is perfect).
Preheat oven to 425ºF, then unfold puff pastry on sugary surface.
Spread the other half of the sugar mixture on top of the puff pastry. You want it as evenly covered as possible. If your puff pastry is hard to spot beneath all the sugar, you’re doing it right.
Use a rolling pin (or, if you’re like me and don’t have one, use a glass) to roll the pastry until it’s roughly ⅛ to ¼ inch thick and the sugar is crushed into the pastry.
Now, the fun part, fold one side of the pastry toward the center, like so.
Fold the other side into the center.
Fold each side into the center again.
Next, fold each side in again, like you’re closing a book. You’ll now have a lumpy-looking log of dough.
Slice the log into roughly ⅜-inch slices. They might not look perfect, but don’t worry. Once your sugary little dough slices are done baking, they will look like it took long, sweaty hours to make them.
Grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then place those bad boys on there with at least one or two inches between each cookie.
Bake for six minutes, until the sugar has caramelized and is brown on the bottom.
Flip each cookie with a spatula and bake those bad boys for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until caramelized on the other side.
Be careful – these can burn easily if you’re distracted. You don’t want a hot, sugary mess on your hands.
Remove cookies from the baking sheet. Once they have cooled, enjoy!