Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I’m not usually excited for Valentine’s Day, always kind of seemed silly, but it’s a sweet little holiday, isn’t it? Hubby and I don’t celebrate this one, but I caved and gave him a card and chocolates anyway. I felt like I couldn’t ignore Valentine’s Day! This week also marks 8 years since we started dating so it’s nice to give that a little head nod.
I wanted to share these Palmiers – French elephant ears – on V-day since they bake into little hearts! Aren’t they adorable? They’re also incredibly easy, so run over to the grocery store and pick up some puff pastry to make these tonight!
French Palmiers are typically just cinnamon sugar in the middle, so if you don’t want to make these with the Rugelach filling you can just combine some sugar and cinnamon and then bake them up. They are still so good with just a simple filling!
I love a Rugelach cookie so I wanted to try these with a little bit of something more substantial than cinnamon and sugar. Rugelach filling is usually a combination of walnuts, raisins, sugar and cinnamon. I went to the store, grabbed the puff pastry, and thought I had walnuts and raisins at home…I had pecans and cranberries and sometimes you just have to improvise. And it worked!
You know how much I love a you-do-you-boo recipe, and this is 100% one of those. You can put any filling you like inside a palmier – you can put any spice, like nutmeg or allspice, in the sugar mix; you could opt for a savory palmier and go with a simple pesto and pignoli nut filling. Sky is the limit!
The most challenging part of these is the folding, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite easy! You fold the left and right sides to meet in the middle, then fold the left over the right. You slice them up, put them on a parchment lined baking sheet, and they miraculously come out as hearts! The Kitchn (one of my all time favs) has a great video that will help you with the folding. Don’t let it scare you away!
Rugelach Palmiers Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- .5 tsp nutmeg, optional
- 3/4 c dried cranberries or raisins
- 1 c pecans or walnuts
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
- In a food processor or blender, combine sugar, cinnamon, cranberries and pecans. Pulse until the filling is well chopped but not too fine. (You want some larger pieces of nuts and cranberries.)
- Unfold the puff pastry sheets and divide filling between both sheets.
- Fold the left and right sides to meet in the middle of the puff pastry.
- Fold the left over the right completely.
- Place the folded pastry logs on the baking sheet and chill at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425.
- Remove puff pastry from the refrigerator and slice 1" thick slices.
- Place the pastry slices on the sheets, filling side up.
- Bake for 20 minutes, flipping pastries half way through.
- Bake until pastry is golden brown and filling has caramelized.
Notes
