Another day, another pastry. Whether you call these palmiers, angel wings, or elephant ears, one thing is certain: you can’t go wrong with flaky, buttery pastry and cinnamon sugar.
When I go to my favorite French bakery, I always order a palmier the size of a salad plate. In my mind, there is no better pairing with a cup of coffee and a magazine on a lazy Sunday morning.

The beauty of this palmier recipe is that you can either make the entire thing from scratch (recommended), or you can take a short cut (recommended if you’re really hungry). Making your own puff pastry dough is actually a really fun process and not terribly difficult, but if you’re pressed for time you can easily make these with prepared frozen puff pastry.

Here’s a quick photo illustration of how you can make your own puff pastry — you basically work a big slab of butter into the dough by repeatedly folding and rolling out the dough again. This incorporates the butter while creating the flaky layers that will later appear in your cooked pastry. Check out the beautiful layers in the dough once it’s been properly rolled!

The way I prepared this particular batch was to divide my dough in half, thus making smaller cookies. If you like your palmiers a little bigger, you can just roll out all of the dough for larger cookies.

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Cinnamon Sugar Palmiers

Ingredients

Homemade Puff Pastry

• 2 c flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 c water
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 sticks (1 c) butter, very cold

Palmiers

• 1 recipe puff pastry (above) or 1 lb frozen puff pastry at room temp
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Homemade Puff Pastry

(If you plan to use pre-made dough, skip to Palmiers section)

Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl. Dissolve the salt in the water. Create a well in the flour and add the salted water and melted butter. Mix with your hands until all ingredients are incorporated and a rough dough forms (don’t overwork the dough).

Turn the dough out on to a workspace and gently work it into a square shape (about 5×5 inches). Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about 1 hour.

While the dough chills, place the 2 sticks of butter under a piece of parchment paper and pound them down with a rolling pin. Mush them into one piece and form the butter “dough” into a square as you did with the first dough. If the butter gets too soft, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until both the butter and dough are about the same consistency.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out thin to about 10×10 inches. Place the butter square in the center of the dough and fold the edges of the dough down around the butter, encasing it completely. Working quickly, roll out the dough and butter into a rectangle about 20 inches long. Starting on a short end, fold the dough in thirds, as you would fold a letter. Roll the dough out into a long rectangle again, fold in thirds, wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

You will repeat this {roll out – fold – roll out – fold – refrigerate} process twice more, chilling the dough for 2 hours each time in between rolling. Once the process is done, split the dough in half for small palmiers, or keep whole for larger palmiers.

Palmier Instructions

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle a bit of the cinnamon sugar on your workspace to prevent the dough from sticking.

Roll out your dough into a long rectangle (for 1/2 dough this will be about 12×6 inches, for the full dough about twice that).

Cover the dough completely with cinnamon sugar, wiping off any excess. Now we’re ready to fold! There are three folds:

First, fold each long side of the rectangle in to meet in the center. Next, fold the same sides in to meet in the center again. Finally, lift the left side of the dough and fold it over the right side like a book. Press down gently along the length of the dough log with a rolling pin. Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Unwrap dough and slice into 1/4 inch cookies. Arrange cut side down on the baking sheet (they won’t spread too much, so you only need to leave about 1/2 inch in between them).

Bake for 7-8 minutes until puffed. At this point you can push the cookies back together with your fingers if they have unraveled a bit. With a spatula, flip the palmiers over and bake for an additional 3-4 minutes until sugar is golden and caramelized. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee!