Palmiers or Elephant Ear Cookies

The name of these cookies is either the French (like palm tree tops) or the more delightful elephant ears, which they use in Israel. Personally, I like the ear version. This is almost ridiculously easy to prepare if you use bought puff pastry, which I do, although I’ve made my own it’s a huge amount of work and this makes it go easy peasy.

The trick with these cookies is to bake them just so. Too little and they don’t get properly crispy and too much they get a burnt taste. I will give you the amount of time I bake them for but be warned, ya gotta check up on ’em since everyone’s oven is different. The perfect cookie is a caramelized color and it’s hard and crispy. They are scarily addictive, be warned.

So take a package of puff pastry roll, using a decent brand name. Normally, I’m not so niffy naffy about brands, but with puff pastry it makes a real difference. So go with a proper brand, not a generic brand X type.

Defrost overnight in the fridge and keep refrigerated until ready to use it. Note. Every country has different types of packages, you are looking for sheets of puff pastry, not squares or the like.

Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C.

Heavily sugar a pastry mat.

Unroll the pastry and cut in half into 2 rectangles (approximately 9 x 13 each). Lay one rectangle on top of the sugar.

You may need to gently roll out the ends or press lightly with hands into rectangle, since as you see above, the end bits can get messed up – no worries, they get rolled in. Beat one egg and lightly brush over surface of the pastry.

Mix together 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon. Only use white sugar for this, brown sugar will not work properly.

Sprinkle heavily over the egg wash and lightly press down. Immediately roll the pastry from one side as tightly as you can to the middle of dough and from the other side to meet in the middle like so:

And the other side in:

Then prep a rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper and with a sharp knife, cut the pastry into approximately less than half an inch slices (not so thin they will burn, not so large they will not bake through).

Finish cutting them up and lay on their sides as above, leaving space between the cookies.

Lightly brush tops with egg wash and immediately place in hot oven. Bake 22-25 minutes or till cookies are richly golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks. Crispy, crunchy delights, perfect with a cup of coffee or perhaps some mint tea!

Palmiers or Elephant Ear Cookies

1 kilo (2.2. pounds) package of puff pastry, pre-rolled or pastry sheets, defrosted overnight in the fridge
1/2 cup (100 grams) white sugar + 1/2 cup (100 grams) for pastry mat
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 egg

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C. Line one/two rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Unroll the pastry (a note here, my pastry comes in one long sheet. I divide it into 2 approximately 9 x 13 rectangles and use 2 rimmed baking sheets) and place on heavily sugared pastry mat. Fix the edges to get a fairly neat rectangle. Beat the egg and brush lightly on top of the pastry. Mix the cinnamon with the half cup of sugar and sprinkle liberally over the egg wash. Lightly press on sugar and roll from the long end, as tightly as you can, half the puff pastry to the middle. Do the same from the long end of the other side to the middle. Using a sharp knife, cut at less than 1/2 inch intervals to make cookies, laying them down on the parchment paper and spacing them at least an inch or two apart. Lightly brush egg on top. Bake for 22-25 minutes or till cookies are richly golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks. Once cold, store in tins or well sealed containers.