These buttery crisp cinnamon & spice palmiers come together with pastry dough, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and orange zest. Shaping them is surprisingly easy and I walk you through each step in today’s thorough tutorial. If you’re short on time, you can absolutely use store-bought puff pastry, but if you can spare a couple hours for the dough to chill in the refrigerator, I urge you to try a simple homemade variation using rough puff pastry.
Have you ever had palmiers before? They’re a delightful French pastry made from puff pastry dough and sugar. Variations can be made with cinnamon, spices, chocolate, or even savory herbs and other fillings. Palmier means palm tree in French and these fancy looking cookies can also be known as elephant ears, palm trees, shoe soles, palm hearts, or palm leaves. (Not to be confused with elephant ears made from fried dough—these are baked.) And it’s a treat with many names throughout different regions of the world!
Palmiers are typically enjoyed for breakfast, snack, or dessert. To make them at home, roll dough out with sugar or other toppings, and then roll or fold the two sides into the center to meet in the middle. Chill the shaped logs and then slice and bake. Flip over during bake time so the sugary coating can caramelize on both sides. You can make palmiers from scratch with real puff pastry or for a shortcut, you can reach for store-bought puff pastry. I like using this rough puff pastry because it’s not quite as laborious as authentic puff pastry, but it still has a homemade flavor and indulgence to it. It’s what I use when making homemade berry turnovers.
Rough puff makes a buttery and tasty base for cinnamon & spice palmiers!
Rough puff pastry has become a popular method for making homemade dough because it produces bakery-style puff pastry with lots of flaky layers without the same time commitment that laminating dough (such as for croissants) requires. The trick is to work large pieces of cold butter into dry ingredients and then hydrate it all with ice cold water. Sometimes bakers grate butter into the mix or use a food processor. There’s many ways to make this dough.
More About This Shortcut Pastry Dough
This is the rough puff pastry dough:
Let me show you how they come together so you have a better understanding before you begin. For this palmiers recipe, start with about 1 lb of pastry dough which is the full recipe of this rough puff pastry or 1 standard box (with 2 sheets) of store-bought puff pastry. Divide the rough puff pastry in half and roll out each half in a sugar and spice mixture.
Quick Success Tip: Yes, instead of flour, you’ll roll the dough out with sugar. That’s the secret to their caramelized edges—sugar worked directly in the exterior of the dough!
Working with 1 half at a time, roll dough out in the sugar & spice mixture into a 10-inch square:
Below, left: Mix more sugar & spices together and combine with orange zest. Below, right: Top with sugar/spice/zest mixture.
Roll each side inward towards the center. Some palmier cookie recipes fold the sides inward instead of rolling.
Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. Below, left: Wrap each “log” up and chill for 30 minutes. Without time in the refrigerator, the logs will be impossible to slice and the cookies will lose shape in the oven. Below, right: After refrigerating, slice into 3/8 inch thick slices which is just under 1/2 inch size.
Arrange on lined baking sheet:
Bake in a hot oven for 8 minutes, then flip over:
The remaining bake time depends on your oven and the dough of your cookies, but another 10-12 minutes is usually standard for this particular recipe using rough puff pastry. Good rule of thumb: simply bake until they’re golden brown.
Do you have a favorite recipe for palmiers? I also love this chocolate and orange palmiers recipe from Clotilde.
These light & crisp pastry cookies come together with puff pastry dough, sugar, spices, and a hint of orange zest. For a quick and easy variation, use store-bought puff pastry or try homemade rough puff pastry dough.
