Palmiers – 3-ingredient Puff Pastry Cookies (video)

Palmiers are crunchy puff pastry cookies that are super quick to make and require just 3 ingredients! Puff pastry is sprinkled with cinnamon and granulated sugar, which caramelizes during baking, adding an additional crunch. Cinnamon is optional but it adds great flavor! These are the easiest and also one of the most delicious cookies you can make!

Palmiers

Palmiers are a well-known French cookies. Palmier means palm tree in French, as these cookies resemble the look of palm tree leaves. Other names for them are elephant ears or pig’s ears (in German-speaking countries).

Initially, it was a way for French chefs to use up puff pastry leftovers (which is not surprising, considering how labor-intensive puff pastry is).

You can also try to use up your puff pastry leftovers this way, for example, after cutting out a round from a puff pastry sheet, like for a tart. Just sprinkle the dough with cinnamon sugar (or just sugar), roll out slightly, and bake.

Ingredients

These puff pastry cookies require just 3 ingredients! Here´s what you need:

• puff pastry – try to find all-butter puff pastry – it tastes best
• sugar – regular granulated white sugar (don´t use powdered sugar, granulated sugar sweetens the cookies and also provides a crunch)
• cinnamon – it´s optional but very recommended! authentic palmiers are actually made without cinnamon

How to make palmiers step by step

STEP 1: In a small bowl, combine the sugar with cinnamon together. Divide roughly into 3 parts: 2 very large and 1 very small.

STEP 2: Sprinkle the first large portion of cinnamon sugar on the counter or on a rolling mat (roughly in the size of your puff pastry sheet).

STEP 3: Place puff pastry sheet on top.

STEP 4: Sprinkle the puff pastry with the second large portion of cinnamon sugar. Slightly roll it out to a rectangle (to thin out the pastry and so that the cinnamon sugar can stick to the pastry).

STEP 5: Roll up the longer side of the dough in towards the middle.

STEP 6: Repeat on the other side: roll up the other side in towards the middle.

STEP 7: Use a sharp knife to cut the log into about ½-inch (1 cm) slices.

STEP 8: Dip each side of the cookie into the reserved cinnamon sugar mixture (third part).

STEP 9: Transfer the cookies to a parchment paper lined sheet pan, at least 1.5-inch (4 cm) apart to allow for the cookies to expand. Press the cookies lightly so they are of even thickness.

STEP 10: Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Put the sheet pan with the cookies in the fridge while the oven is warming up.

STEP 11: Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, then flip them over and bake for a further 5-6 minutes or until golden in color.

Towards the end of the baking time, keep an eye on the cookies, they can turn from golden brown to burnt very easily. When they´re golden, they´re done! Every oven bakes differently so baking time may vary.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Storage

You can make the cookies ahead, cover them with plastic foil, and put in the fridge. You can bake them later or even the next day (the dough can be a little more grey-ish the next day but the flavor will be the same).

Store the baked cookies in a tightly closed container. They taste best on the day of baking them but are also very good the next day! (but less crunchy).

General rules for working with puff pastry

• Puff pastry dough likes cold temperatures. If you leave it out of the fridge for too long it will become soft and sticky. Make sure to have everything ready before taking the pastry out of the fridge.
• I recommend rolling out the pastry on a piece of baking paper, or even better – silicone rolling mat – they are great for rolling out any kind of dough.
• Homemade puff pastry or all-butter puff pastry is more sticky than store-bought puff pastry made with shortening, so all those tips may be irrelevant if you’re using such pastry. I recommend searching for an all-butter puff pastry, as it tastes so much better than shortening puff pastry.
• If you’re using frozen puff pastry, you must first thaw it completely, preferably in the fridge overnight.

Other puff pastry recipes you may like

• Puff pastry strudel with vegetables and cheese
• Puff pastry cheese straws
• Asparagus in puff pastry with ham and cheese
• Cheese sun-dried tomato and olive puff pastry pinwheels
• Puff pastry onion tart with pear and blue cheese
• Puff pastry mushroom tart
• Apples in puff pastry (with chocolate nut filling)

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!