Making Palmier (Elephant Ear) Cookies

A platter of Palmiers or Elephant Ear Cookies.

I was visiting Dave and Mary recently, and I was telling Dave about the vast array of pastries that I salivated over when I was in New York at Ferraras the other week. Dave who is a wonderful baker told me about the Palmiers or Elephant Ear Cookies he had made recently.  He convinced me they were easy to make.  I made some, and he's right they are easy to make. 

Ingredients: 

A sheet of frozen Puff Pastry thawed

Sugar, 1 cup

Cinnamon (optional) to taste

Orange zest (optional) to taste

1.   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2.   Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and orange zest. 

3.   Sprinkle your work area (I used my pastry cloth) with 1/2 cup of sugar mixture. 

4.   Place the thawed sheet of pastry on the sugar and sprinkle the other 1/2 cup sugar on the top.  Roll pastry out while pressing the sugar into the dough until you have a 12 inch rectangle. 

5.   Fold the short ends over beginning with about an inch fold and continue until the folds meet and then fold over each other until you have a log of multiple layers.  

6.   Slice into one inch sections.  Place the cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  

7.   Bake for about 8 minutes then turn the pastries over and cook for another 8 or 10 minutes.  Watch carefully at the end because they can burn easily. 

8.   Place on a wire rack to cool.

Tips:  When thawing the pastry sheets, thaw them just enough so the sheet will spread out easily.  The cookies should be stored in an airtight container so they will remain crisp.  

I will serve these as dessert or as a snack with a cup of tea.  Next time I am going to try making savory ones perhaps using pesto in place of the sugar mixture.