Crispy, delicate, buttery layers of puff pastry are dusted with French Four Spice, sliced, and then baked to caramelized perfection. These Quatre Épices Palmiers are intoxicating, bold, and a jazzed up take on one of my favorite classic French pastries.
Now while I love a giant cookie, I like my palmiers to be delicate. Ever since childhood, I have been a French pastry fanatic. I remember eating Palmiers for the first time when we took a family trip through Europe. I was young and I don’t remember a lot about that trip. But I remember the food! Especially the pastry! And let me tell you, the sound when I took my very first bite of a palmier was as mesmerizing as the treat. That sharp crunch stayed with me forever. I think I made these a hundred times until I got that sound right! What I learned is that rolling the dough tightly and cutting it thinly is the secret to that coveted, caramelized crunch. Also, you need to dust these babies with a lot of sugar and spice!
A fun side note, I’ll be on Tamron Hall Show Friday, so check your local station and time here! Im feeling humbled and very grateful to be part of a show that I love so much. Tamron Hall is such a strong storyteller who exudes grace, brilliance, and prowess. And to be included in an episode that features bakers I admire so much, like Christina Tosi… well don’t ever wake me up from this dream! Being on the show was truly the highlight of my baking adventures.
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Quatre Epices Palmiers
Palmier Cookies, known also as elephant ears or palm leaves, are uniquely shaped French cookies. These airy cookies are made of layers and layers of thin puff pastry rolled up and sliced. They bake up crispy and thin with a flaky bite. The process involves brushing on melted butter and sprinkling sugar all over the pastry as you work. As the cookies bake they puff up and show off all those layers, while the outside caramelizes from the sugar.
This recipe combines the sugar with homemade Quatre Epices (French Four Spice) for a spicy kick. The homemade spice blend combines white pepper, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves. While this aromatic spice blend is often used in savory dishes, it adds earthiness and gentle heat to these palmier cookies.
These pastries do take some time. First, you need to make a batch of puff pastry. Then there is resting, brushing, sprinkling, rolling, and chilling involved. So book off a lazy weekend morning and get ready for some fun!
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For more pastry recipes, check out:
Chocolate Hazelnut Dacquoise With Smoked Butterscotch Pastry Cream
Pain Aux Raisin With Rum Glaze
French Four Spice Palmiers
Crispy, delicate, buttery layers of puff pastry are dusted with French Four Spice, sliced, and then baked to caramelized perfection. These Quatre Épices Palmiers are intoxicating, bold, and a jazzed up take on one of my favorite classic French pastries.
Ingredients
Puff Pastry
- 110 ml water
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 50 grams butter melted
- 200 grams AP flour
- 150 grams dry butter 84% Butterfat
French Four Spice (Quatres Espices)
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground white pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
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First, make puff pastry. Melt butter and set aside.
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In a large mixing bowl, add the cold water and salt. Then mix in melted butter.
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Add flour and mix with a dough scraper.
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Lightly flour a surface and place detrempe down. Knead it a few times gently until smooth. Then flatten it into a rectangular disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
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Take the dry butter and use a rolling pin to tap and flatten it into a square. Trim excess as needed and put the pieces back into the butter block, keeping it a square.
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Then take the pastry dough and roll it into a rectangle. Place butter block in the middle and fold the dough over it. Bring top down over and then the bottom.
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Roll out the dough to a rectangle. Take bottom third and fold over middle. Then fold top third over the middle. Rotate the dough 90 degrees. Roll it into another rectangle and repeat the folding process. Mark the dough with 2 fingers. Chill 30 minutes.
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Then repeat the process two more times. (You will do 2 turns twice each time). Chill 30 minutes in between each process. Then chill the dough for 30 minutes.
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Make spiced sugar by whisking together the sugar and ground spices.
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Lay out a piece of parchment paper and Sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar onto surface. Then put pastry on top of the sugar and roll it into a square of 1/8 inch thickness.
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Then sprinkle on 1/4 cup of spiced sugar, pressing it into dough gently by rolling the pin over the sugar. Flip puff pastry and repeat.
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Fold in long sides of pastry on both left and right sides of dough so they meet in the middle. Then fold on top of each other so it's like a log.
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Chill for 30 minutes.
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Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
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Slice the dough log into 3/4 inch thick slices.
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Put on a silpat (or high heat resistant parchment) lined baking sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with remaining spiced sugar.
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Bake for 4-5 minutes. Then flip and bake an additional 4-5 minutes.
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Cool on wire rack.
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