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Learn how to make this French Palmier Recipe with Puff Pastry and Cinnamon-Sugar Filling! Flaky, crunchy, and sweet little treats!
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Palmiers, Pig’s ears, Elephant ears, or also called Palm Tree, is a heart-shaped sweet French pastry made of puff pastry layers that can be served for breakfast or dessert. Usually, they come with a sweet sugar or cinnamon-sugar filling, but there are also savory versions of this French pastry available.
Admittedly, the name Pig’s ears is a bit misleading. But don’t worry, they were named so because of their appearance, as they resemble pig’s ears with a lot of imagination. Also, no animal products are involved in this recipe.
Cinnamon Palmier Cookies are very airy, flaky, crunchy, crispy, buttery, and sweet at the same time. These little treats taste excellent served with some coffee or tea.
You can buy them at every supermarket. However, making this French palmier recipe at home is so easy.
For this, a rolled-out puff pastry dough is sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and then both sides are folded into the middle. This process is repeated once to get the typical and beautiful pattern. After that, they are thinly sliced and then baked. The baking process causes the sugar to caramelize, resulting in its iconic crunchy exterior while the puff pastry is baked into flaky cookies.
To make it easier for you, I created a step-by-step guide with very detailed images below on how to make palmiers.
If you follow it along while making these classic French cookies, nothing should go wrong! 😉
These puff pastry palmiers are filled with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. If you dislike cinnamon, feel free to omit the cinnamon and sprinkle the puff pastry sheet only with white sugar. Instead, you can dip the baked French palmiers into melted chocolate.
Ingredients
See recipe card for quantities.
- Puff Pastry → The easiest and quickest way is to use a store-bought puff pastry that has already been rolled out into a rectangle. I chose a vegan puff pastry as I prefer vegan palmier cookies. You can even make your own following this homemade puff pastry recipe.
- Sugar → I recommend white sugar, but it will also work with brown sugar.
- Cinnamon → The cinnamon flavor makes French palmier cookies even better!
Step-by-Step Instructions
This visual step-by-step instruction will help you along the way – definitely recommended if you’re a baking beginner!
- Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Place the rolled-out puff pastry sheet on parchment paper and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar. Fold in both sides towards the middle. → If you don’t use a store-bought rolled-out puff pastry sheet, roll it out into a rectangle on a lightly floured work surface using a rolling pin.
- Sprinkle exposed puff pastry with cinnamon sugar.
- Fold in both sides towards the middle once again and sprinkle exposed puff pastry with cinnamon sugar.
- Fold in one side over the other and sprinkle all around with remaining cinnamon sugar.
- Wrap the puff pastry log in the parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes. → The puff pastry log is much easier to slice into thin cookies when solid.
- Preheat the oven to 430°C (220°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cut the cold puff pastry log into approx ¼-inch (5mm) thick slices with a sharp knife.
- Place sliced cookies about 2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through until golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely or enjoy slightly warm.
Make-Ahead & Storage Instructions
Prepare it ahead of time: You can store the sugar-coated puff pastry log (after step 6) for up to a few days in the freezer, but make sure to wrap it entirely in plastic wrap. Allow the frozen puff pastry log to thaw briefly at room temperature until it is easy to cut. Then, continue with step 7.
Store cinnamon palmier cookies in a cookie tin or airtight container at room temperature. They keep fresh for a good week.
More Recipes You’ll Love
- Strawberry Puff Pastry Tart
- Nectarine & Peach Puff Pastry Tart
- French Croissants
- French Crepes
- French Brioche Bread
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📖 Recipe
French Palmier Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 sheet (320 g) puff pastry rolled out into a rectangle
- ½ cup (100 g) white sugar
- ½ tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Place the rolled-out puff pastry sheet on parchment paper and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar. Fold in both sides towards the middle.
- Sprinkle exposed puff pastry halves with cinnamon sugar.
- Fold in both sides towards the middle once again and sprinkle exposed puff pastry with cinnamon sugar.
- Fold in one side over the other and sprinkle all around with remaining cinnamon sugar.
- Wrap the puff pastry log in the parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes. → The puff pastry log is much easier to slice into thin cookies when solid.
- Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Cut the cold puff pastry log into approx ¼-inch (5mm) thick slices with a sharp knife. Place sliced cookies about 2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through until golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely or enjoy slightly warm.
Mari El says
Hi! I love palmiers but didn’t buy any for a long time. Now I’m going to bake some myself for Easter. I’d like to know the approximate size of the puff pastry sheet you used. I want my palmiers to be about the same size as the store-bought ones. Yours look like that.
Aline Cueni says
That’s great! It’s a regular puff pastry sheet from the supermarket, approx. 42×26 cm | 16.5×10 inches.