Palmiers

Makes: 2 to 3 dozen cookies

Time: About 1 hour, largely unattended

One of my favorites, and quite easy once you’ve made the pastry, these are crisp, buttery, and distinctively shaped. The sugar filling couldn’t be simpler and gets nicely caramelized as it bakes. See the list on page 468 for many other sweet and savory filling ideas.

• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 pound puff pastry dough, homemade or store-bought, chilled

1. Combine the sugar and salt, then sprinkle half the mixture evenly over a work surface. Put the dough on top of the sugar and roll it into a rectangle about 14 inches long and less than ¼ inch thick so that all the sugar gets pressed into the dough. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar evenly over the top of the dough and lightly roll it with the pin so that the sugar sticks.

7 Pastries to Make with Vegan Crust

Good pie crust, like Puff Pastry, is tender, flaky, and golden, so vegan pie crust makes a terrific substitute in many recipes that call for puff pastry. Follow the assembly directions for any of these pastries, swapping in your favorite vegan filling:

• Cinnamon-Sugar Twists (this page)
• Palmiers (this page)
• Apple Turnovers
• Lemon Turnovers
• Strawberry Toaster Pastries
• Eccles Cakes
• Almond Rolls

15 More Fillings for Puff Pastry Twists or Palmiers

Puff pastry really lets you play around, as you’ll see. These measurements are for a pound of dough, but you can easily scale them up or down and, as long as the filling isn’t too coarse (which can tear the delicate pastry), you have free rein. For palmiers, you can replace all the sugar in the original recipe with any of these sweet fillings or decrease the sugar to ½ cup, sprinkle it only under the dough, and add these options with it. If you are using a savory filling, omit the sugar entirely.

SWEET FILLINGS

• Brown sugar or turbinado sugar, ½ cup
• Up to ¾ teaspoon ginger, cinnamon, and/or cardamom
• Honey, ½ cup
• Jam: ½ cup Fruit Jam or Orange Marmalade, heated gently if necessary to loosen it up for spreading
• Chocolate Ganache, ½ cup
• Caramel Sauce or Dulce de Leche, ½ cup, sprinkled with ¾ teaspoon coarse salt if you like
• Balsamic Syrup, ⅓ cup
• Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread, ½ cup
• Frangipane, ½ cup
• Grated citrus zest, 1 tablespoon, with 1 cup sugar
• Toasted nuts or dried fruit, finely chopped, ¾ cup

SAVORY FILLINGS

• Pesto or olives, ½ cup
• ½ cup finely grated cheese like Gruyère, cheddar, or Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons good-quality olive oil and 1 teaspoon sea salt

2. Starting on one of the long sides, roll the dough inward in a tight spiral like you would a carpet and stop halfway, then repeat on the other side so that the two spirals meet in the middle (see illustrations, page 469). Gently fold the dough in half along the center fold and press to seal, then wrap the log in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes. At this point you can freeze it for up to a month, then slice and bake the cookies directly from the freezer.

3. Heat the oven to 400°F. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into ¼- to ½-inch-thick slices and arrange them an inch or two apart on baking sheets. (If you don’t have multiple baking sheets, keep the rest of the dough chilled and cut it just before baking.) Bake the cookies, flipping them after 7 minutes or so, until they’re golden and crisp on both sides, 12 to 15 minutes total. Transfer to a rack to cool completely and eat within a day or two, before they lose their crispness; store in an airtight container.