CITRUS AND CINNAMON PALMIERS - ELEPHANT EARS OR FRENCH HEARTS

 

Remember those little hearts?

 

 

Palmiers or Elephant Ears are little french cookies or biscuits made from ready to roll puff pastries. These little heart shaped beauties are also know as French hearts. Kids love them. Mine are very fond of these golden cookies.

 

 

 

Palmiers are so simple to make and are great tea time snacks.

You can add any flavour or twist to these deliciously crisp and golden pastries. Let's say you can fill them with jam, nutella, melted chocolate or you can even make some savoury ones. The choices are endless.

 

 

I decided to infuse my Palmiers with a twist of Cinnamon and Orange zest. A beautiful marriage of two incredible flavours.

 

 

Follow the step by step picture demonstration and you will realise how easy it can get. I have used a double layer of puff pastry as you see in the picture below, however you may use just a single layer.

 

To make 12 Palmiers or French hearts you will need :

 

1 sheet of ready to roll puff pastry thawed

zest of 1 orange grated, you may also use lime or lemon zest.

2-3 tbsp cinnamon powder/ground cinnamon

4-5 tb spoon granulated sugar/caster sugar

2-3 tbsp butter melted 

Icing sugar/cinnamon sugar for dusting

 

METHOD:

 

Start by Preheating your oven at 200 degrees Centigrade/180 Fahrenheit.

 

 

Step 1: Sprinkle half of the sugar and cinnamon powder and half the amount of zest on a wooden board or work surface.

 

Step 2: Place your puff pastry on the sprinkled mixture to coat your pastry generously.

 

Step 3: Sprinkle the rest of the sugar, cinnamon powder and zest on the pastry and spread all over to coat the pastry with the mixture. 

 

Step 4: Now put another layer of pastry on top. If you decide to use a single layer than skip this step and go to step 5

 

Step 5: With the help of a rolling pin roll out the top end and the bottom of the pastry and all over to press down the sugar, cinnamon and zest. 

 

Step 6: Now start rolling your pastry firmly or tightly (to ensure better shape) from the top as shown in the picture halfway into the centre/middle. Similarly roll the bottom upward until it reaches the other end and both layers join in the middle.(see picture 7)  

Step 8:Put butter in between two joints and gently press.

Step 9: Now slice the log into thin portions as shown in the picture above (pic 10 above)

Here it is how they look after slicing.

Step 10: Brush all over with melted butter.

 

At this stage refrigerate for half an hour or at least 20 mins before popping into the oven. You can do all the above steps way ahead and freeze your palmiers covered with cling films and pop them into the oven just when it's tea time or before your guests arrive.  

 

Step 11: Line  a baking tray with baking paper preferably or foil and place your cookie slices a few cms apart as they will expand while baking. 

Step 12:Now bake them in the oven until crisp and golden. It should take around 15 mins with a single layer and 20 -25 mins with double layer. If the top of your pastry turns brown before time you may reduce temperature of your oven to 180 degrees.



STEP 13: Carefully remove from oven and dust them with some icing sugar or cinnamon sugar. Enjoy warm or cold with your favourite cuppa! You may also store these in an airtight container for weeks.

 

 

Enjoy !!

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