25 minutes and 4 ingredients is all you need to feast on these delightfully flaky, buttery cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmiers. Easy and quick to make, they are so out-of-this-world delicious, you will want to make them again and again!
A-and, we’re right back to the sweet stuff. Didn’t take long, did it? Today brings to you the second instalment of the puff pastry saga (I hope you didn’t miss the first part, those prosciutto puff pastry twists sure were delicious). Today’s recipe: cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmiers. Wikipedia (such a reliable source of information, don’t you think?) tells us that the word “palmier” is French for ‘palm tree’ (Where? I cant see it. I suppose if you squint really hard… in a dark room…), and that these sweet, buttery, flaky pastries can also be called ‘pig’s ears’ or ‘elephant ears’. Nope, again, don’t see it.
Regardless of how you refer to them (double twirls? double rolls? kind-of-hearts? those-cute-curly-thingies?), let me tell you one thing – you so definitely want to make them. Trust me. Close your eyes and imagine this: you realise that you have a craving for something sweet, but not overly sickly sweet, and it should preferably also be buttery and oh-so-decadent. And you want it now. So you take out that emergency pack of puff pastry from your fridge (What? Doesn’t everyone have one of those?) and you remember this easy, quick and yummy recipe for cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmiers you’ve seen on The Loopy Whisk…
Mere 25 minutes and 4 ingredients later, you take a bite of a flaky, buttery, sweet, cinnamon-y piece of heaven. It’s still warm (because you couldn’t possibly wait for it to cool completely) and you can feel the flake of the pastry, feel how it almost melts in your mouth, and feel how it envelopes your senses in a cloud of cinnamon sweetness.
Family and friends may shyly peak into the kitchen, drawn in by the tantalising smells from the oven, and hesitatingly enquire, while you happily munch away, whether they can have some as well. It may very well happen that you will confidently inform them that ‘so sorry, but this is a single-serving recipe’. If this does happen, I will happily back you up if I get any outraged e-mails from the aforementioned family and friends (because we cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmier-munchers must stick together). Of course, you may also be feeling generous, in which case beware – you’ll be asked to make them again. Promise.
And, if I wasn’t sufficiently clear before, they aren’t difficult to make. At all. Again, we’ll be using a pre-rolled puff pastry sheet (you can make your own, of course, in which case: I bow down to you). We’ll brush one side lightly with melted butter and sprinkle on a generous (very, very generous) amount of cinnamon sugar – which is precisely what it says it is: caster sugar mixed with cinnamon. Yum. To ensure all the sprinkled goodness stays where it’s supposed to (that is, on the puff pastry sheet rather than all over the kitchen… although the latter is kind of inevitable in this endeavour), roll over it with a rolling pin once or twice.
Because these aren’t your run-of-the-mill cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmiers, we’ll turn the puff pastry sheet around (a bit of a messy affair, but oh-so-worth it) and repeat the same process on the other side, as well. The now-yummy-on-both-sides puff pastry sheet is then rolled up along the longer edge, starting on both sides and meeting in the middle. The end rolled-up result should look like this (well, a bit more tightly rolled together, but it was shy in front of the camera and unrolled slightly…):
Finally, the double roll is cut into about 1.5 cm (or about 2/3” if you’re so inclined) thick slices…
… which are then squashed a bit (using the palm of your hand or a small plate – anything, really, so long as you flatten them slightly)…
… and baked. Some people swear by thinner and crispier palmiers, in which case they will need less time in the oven. You decide. No rules, just guidelines. The cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmiers will come out of the oven golden and mouth-watering and… I’ll stop talking (writing?) now and leave you to happy munching. A final thought: just how easy was that?!
CINNAMON SUGAR PUFF PASTRY PALMIERS
Ingredients
- 340 g puff pastry, rolled out into a 9" x 14.5" rectangle roughly 1 mm thick (Note 1)
- 25 g unsalted butter, melted
- 40 g caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 430 ºF (220 ºC) and line a baking tray with greaseproof/baking paper.
- Mix caster sugar and cinnamon together in a separate bowl.
- Brush one side of the puff pastry sheet lightly with melted butter and sprinkle on 1/2 of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Roll over the sprinkled puff pastry sheet with a rolling pin once of twice (to stick the cinnamon and sugar more strongly to the pastry).
- Turn the puff pastry sheet around so that the sprinkled side faces down. Repeat the steps 3 and 4.
- Roll up the puff pastry sheet along the longer edge, starting on both sides and meeting in the middle. (See post for pictures.)
- Cut the rolled-up puff pastry into about 1.5 cm (or about 2/3”) thick slices. Flatten them slightly (with the palm of your hand, a small plate, or whatever is handy).
- Place the slices onto the lined baking tray, leaving at least 1/2" (about 1.5 cm) between them, and bake them at 430 ºF (220 ºC) for 10 minutes, or until puffed up and golden brown.
- Leave to cool and enjoy!
- The cinnamon sugar puff pastry palmiers keep well in a cool dry place for about a week (only if you hide them really really well – both from family/friends and yourself).
Notes
In search of more puff pastry deliciousness? Why not try these prosciutto puff pastry twists?
