Palmiers are stupid easy to make and maybe the best thing from puff pastry

Palmiers are crispy simple pastries made from puff pastry rolled into sugar and folded into little heart shapes. They bake up into super crispy buttery pastries with caramelized edges. They are the simplest and maybe the best thing you can make with puff pastry.

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In my home town there’s a Lithuanian bakery that has always sold elephant ears, which are giant palmiers. Elephant ears are my Mom’s and my aunt’s favorite pastry of all time. And there’s good reason for that. As the palmiers bake, the sugar melts and caramelizes while the butter is melting and crisping up the pastry. It is a pure texture experience to eat a palmier.

They’re not the sweetest pastry around, so you won’t get that donut slog feeling after you eat one. Also, if you’ve made your puff pastry with salted butter, you’ll add a little bit of a savory edge to your homemade palmiers. Did I mention that you can get them in the oven in about 15 minutes?

Pretty much, there’s nothing to hate about these simple little pastries, and they’re a good way for your to practice working with puff pastry.

Grab your rolling pin, because you’ll love these little guys beyond reason.

Palmiers (Puff Pastry Hearts)

Why you’ll heart these pastry hearts

1. So so crispy: There is nothing better than good puff pastry, and palmiers in their simplicity celebrate the best things about this pastry. Airy and crispy with so much butter taste and just the right amount of sweetness.
2. Fast!: Once your puff pastry is ready to go, it will take you no more than 15 minutes to get these little treasures in the oven.
3. Serve them anytime: put them out with coffee, make a savory version for a charcuterie board, or eat them as a little teatime treat with your feet up on a cushion.
4. Versatile: While the classic filling for palmiers is plain sugar, you can mix it up with added spices, jam, savory fillings. Palmiers are really an IDEA rather than a specific recipe. Your creativity is all that’s needed, and that’s my kind of favorite recipe.
5. Amazing homemade gift: A couple of these in a package with a ribbon and you’ll have zero enemies in life.

Equipment you need for palmiers

1. Rolling pin: use a solid one that’s comfortable in your hands. The French will tell you that the ones with tapered ends give you the best results, but that’s nonsense. Use what feels good for you. A tool is only as good as the person using it.
2. Parchment: There’s likely enough butter in these to keep them from sticking to the pan. Still, lining your sheet tray with a piece of parchment will give you peace of mind.
3. Sheet pan: for baking.
4. Sharp knife: I use my chef’s knife.

Playing with flavors in your palmiers

Plain sugar is the classic palmier flavor, but really you can spread a thin layer of many many things in place of the sugar. Here are some ideas:

1. Nutella: a spread of homemade nutella will be so so good.
2. Raspberry Jam
3. Cranberry Curd
4. Blueberry Jam
5. Savory: the garlic butter from Potato Garlic Knots with a little bit of parmesan would be absolutely incredible here.
6. Spices: In your sugar mix, add in some vanilla sugar, lemon sugar, pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, or chai spice blend.
7. Olive paste: Jarred olive paste like this delicious kalamata paste from Divina would be about the tastiest appetizer ever.
8. Cheese: Do the rolling out over good finely grated parmesan.

Pro tips for making the best palmiers

• Keep your pastry square: keep rolling your sheet of puff pastry until it’s about 1/4″ thick. To avoid getting scraggly edges, keep rotating it while you roll.
• Don’t skimp on the sugar: It may seem weird to roll ON TOP of sugar, but in doing so, you’re working the sugar into the dough. Sugar in the dough makes for crispy caramelized edges. At every point in the rolling out and forming of your palmiers, you can add more sugar, and you should.
• Mark out your cuts: Cutting through the pastry is probably the hardest step. Make it easier by 1) using a sharp knife and 2) making little notches with your knife along the log of dough so that you’ll get evenly cut pastries.
• Reroll the palmiers once they’re cut: It’s likely that you’ll squash the pattern of the palmier when you cut them. No worries; just reroll the ends back towards the center to make the prettiest little heart shapes.
• Dip the cut hearts in sugar: Do add more sugar to the top and bottom of the hearts once you’ve formed them. Cut edges need sugar too!
• Watch them in the oven: It’s highly likely that some of the palmiers will bake faster than others. Usually the ones at the outer rim of the baking sheet will brown up faster than the inside of the pan. I usually start checking them at about the 15 minute mark and move off any that are done to a wire rack. Keep baking the rest for a couple more minutes before you check again.

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