Palmiers
Apr 29, 2015, Updated May 07, 2023
Flaky, buttery Palmiers are perfect little treats to enjoy with your coffee!
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When life throws you some puff pastry, you obviously make palmiers! Yay! Well at least that is what I did after I made this puff pastry dough. The fact is that I wanted to use my homemade puff pastry as soon as possible and didn’t want to slog in the kitchen for hours. You know as much as I love my time in the kitchen, there are days when I want to create something quick. And so when I made this puff pastry, the first thing I could think of was these little beautiful treats called palmiers.
I often saw these at french bakeries and thought these would be so difficult to make. I mean how do we get that butterfly/heart shape. Yeah palmiers are also known as butterfly/elephant ears/french hearts because of their shape. But looks can be so deceiving because these treats are so super simple to make. I learnt to make them at the French Pastry Class at Sur La Table and I was amazed by how quickly it all came together, like literally in minutes especially when you already have puff pastry ready on hand.
These little hearts are all butter and caramel, so perfect with a cup of coffee. In fact you can serve them with ice cream, mousse or any other dessert. But if you ask me, I ate a lot of them just like that. 1-2-3 gone! They are little hard to resist. I think the best part about this french pastry is that you only need 2 ingredients to make this – puff pastry and some sugar.
Talking of sugar I used regular granulated white sugar here, but I think superfine caster sugar will work even better. In India, the sugar we use at home has such huge crystals so that is not going to work in this recipe. Try to get your hands on some super fine sugar before you make these and I bet the result will be even better.
Oh I also think cinnamon would be so good here. Can you believe it I ran out of ground cinnamon when I made these? Me, the cinnamon addict ran out of cinnamon! I swear I know I had a huge bottle of cinnamon powder in my pantry but it has magically disappeared. However I am not surprised looking at the state of my baking cabinet. It is seriously a mess with 76539028172 things inside 2 tiny cabinets! Anyway what I wanted to say is that you can add cinnamon here because you can honestly never go wrong with it. Just mix it with sugar before sprinkling on the puff pastry and now on to the palmiers recipe!
Method
Thaw your puff pastry sheet. I used my homemade puff pastry sheet which was in the refrigerator so I just kept it at the counter for around 15-20 minutes or till it could be rolled easily. Roll the sheet into a square. Trim the edges to make it even from all the sides.
Now comes the fun part, take sugar and sprinkle generously all over the puff pastry. Be extra generous here, sugar is important so sprinkle lots.
Flip and cover the other side with sugar too. An easy way to do this is sprinkle sugar on your work surface (a little away from where your puff pastry is) and then gently lift your pastry dough and place it over that sprinkled sugar surface. You can flip the sides to see if there’s enough sugar.
Now fold the pastry to mark the center, just mark it using your finger. Start folding from one side. We will do 2 folds from each side and will leave a little space in the center between the two folds in the end because ultimately we have to fold it in a log. So do the 1st fold from one side.
And then the 2nd fold, ending slightly away from the center.
Repeat the same 2 fold process from the other end, ending slightly away from the center.
And finally roll one fold on top of the other and form a log.
Trim the edges so that you can get clean pieces. Wrap in a cling sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes or till it’s firm. It’s easier to cut this way!
Once the puff pastry is firm, take it out and cut into 1/2-1 centimeter pieces. The thinner you cut them the crispier the palmiers will be.
Once you have cut all the palmiers, start rolling each in sugar. Roll from both sides.
After you have rolled the palmiers, take each and shape them a little by pulling the two ends slightly away from each other as you can see in the picture.
Repeat the same with all the cookies and then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat.
Bake at 400 F degrees for 15-16 minutes, flipping them once at the half way mark. Please remember to flip at half time else they won’t get properly baked from both sides.
Let the palmiers cool down and then store in an airtight container. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate!
* I sprinkled more sugar on top of the palmiers after they were baked for photography purposes only. You don’t need to do that.
* The preparation time includes the time for which the dough is chilled before cutting into desired shape.
Palmiers Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 sheet puff pastry [homemade or store bought]
- ¾ cup fine granulated white sugar [superfine is better]
Instructions
- Thaw your puff pastry sheet and roll it into a square. Trim the edges to make it even from all the sides.
- Take sugar and sprinkle generously all over the puff pastry. Be extra generous here, sugar is important so sprinkle lots.
- Flip and cover the other side with sugar too. An easy way to do this is sprinkle sugar on your work surface (a little away from where your puff pastry is) and then gently lift your pastry dough and place it over that sprinkled sugar surface. You can flip the sides to see if there's enough sugar.
- Now fold the pastry to mark the center, just mark it using your finger. Start folding from one side. We will do 2 folds from each side and will leave a little space in the center between the two folds in the end because ultimately we have to fold it in a log.
- And then the 2nd fold, ending slightly away from the center.
- Repeat the same 2 fold process from the other end, ending slightly away from the center.
- And finally roll one fold on top of the other and form a log.
- Trim the edges so that you can get clean pieces. Wrap in a cling sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes or till it's firm. It's easier to cut this way!
- Once the puff pastry is firm, take it out and cut into 1/2-1 centimeter pieces. The thinner you cut them the crispier the palmiers will be.
- Preheat your oven to 400 F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Set aside.
- Once you have cut all the palmiers, start rolling each in more sugar. Roll from both sides.
- After you have rolled the palmiers, take each and shape them a little by pulling the two ends slightly away from each other. [see picture above]
- Repeat the same with all the cookies and then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat.
- Bake at 400 F degrees for 15-16 minutes, flipping them once at the half way mark. Please remember to flip at half time else they won't get properly baked from both sides.
- Let the palmiers cool down and then store in an airtight container.
- Enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Palmiers
These look very addictive manali..
They are! Thanks Sathya!
These look amazing, one of my favorite types of treats, pinned and shared!
Thank you Sara for sharing! 🙂
Wow. I am quite impressed that you made your own puff pastry. This makes these palmiers all the more special. Wishing I had a few to go along with my cup of tea.
BTW. . .Ekks on the cinnamon! As a fellow cinnamon addict I can understand the terror of running out of cinnamon.
Thanks Lynn! I know it’s a nightmare to run out of cinnamon!
You must make them soon Taruna!
Hi Manali,
You are super talented and these palmiers are PER..FE..CT (Repeating again in Madhuri Dixit style – colors (jhalak dikhhla jaa).
It reminds me my most favorite Britannia Little Hearts.
Believe me, you made it so beautiful without using any moulds. Hats off to you, dear.
You are just too kind my friend! Thank you so much 🙂
Don’t you just love palmiers!?! Nothing quite like butter and a whole lotta sugar to make you happy! Yours look beautiful!
Very true! :)Thanks Lindsey!
Wow Manali..
These remind me of “Little Hearts” biscuit that I used to happily munch on during my childhood days..
I am in awe with your photography and presentation skills.. Superb job
Thank you so much Sushma for dropping by and for your kind words! 🙂 Yes they look so much like little hearts biscuits that we used to get in India !
Thanks Danielle! I ate way too many!!
Thanks Olivia! Glad it made you smile darling!
Thanks Ash! My cabinet is a crazy space, it has millions of bottles inside it I swear! 😐
I love homemade Palmiers! Ever since I make my own for the first time, I never turn back to the store bought ones. 😀 Yours look perfectly delicious. Now, I’m craving for some. 😛
I agree, homemade is best!! Thank you 🙂
Looks so good Manali, yet so hard to make.
I’m always scared of pastry puffs.
Love the hot chocolate.
Thanks dear! It is easy to make, give it a try!
I totally have some puff pastry in the freezer too! Now I know exactly what to make with it!
I hope you give these a try, thanks for dropping by!
Love these palmiers, Manali! They look absolutely perfect! 😀
Thanks Jess!
Thanks Mir! haha I’m glad the shortage was only in my house and not in the outside world!
Thanks Shweta 🙂 yes I told my husband exactly the same thing when I made these, they look like little hearts 🙂
Haha they are dangerous to have around Stacey, I have had too many! Thank you dear!
Thank you dear, yes they will be great with cappuccino!
Thanks Cyndi! <3
So beautiful! I tried making these once and failed miserably. I’ve never actually had a real one (apart from my non-puffy failures), but I would love to try again! Thanks for bringing them to mind – I can only imagine how good they taste!
Thank you so much! They are easy, I am sure your second attempt would be successful 🙂
These look just perfect!
Thank you so much!
Palmiers are my most favoritest thing! My mom used to buy HUGE ones for me when I was little from the local bakery in Venezuela! I love that you have posted this recipe because I DEFINITELY want to make my own!!! <3
I’m so glad you like it Anna 🙂 Let me know if you try these out!
Thanks Ashley! they was probably the easiest cookies you can make 🙂
Thanks Kristi! We need to meet soon, I’ll bring you some of these! 😀
Thanks Rachelle! Yeah like I said looks can be deceiving! these are super easy to make!
Thank you Neli! 🙂 you are so sweet!
Thanks Kelly! they are addictive!
Thanks Medha!
haha food blogger problems! I swear I have that much stuff in my baking cabinets! It’s a mess! Thanks Savita!
Thanks Anu! I have been munching on them for breakfast!
Thanks Ami! hope you like it! 😀
Thanks Jen! Yeah no one can eat just one 😉
Haha yes I lost count of how many I ate, they are hard to resist! Thanks Angie!