Nothing goes to waste in my kitchen. Spices get used up
until I'm scraping the bag clean. Veggie trimmings are saved for stock.
Leftovers become soup. It is a natural cycle that I keep up because hey I'm not
rich and hey who likes to throw things away? So when a few days ago I posted a
recipe on the blog for Tarte Tatin (baked upside down caramel apple tart,
recipe link here) and I didn't actually need all of the puff pastry I had
bought, I knew I needed to come up with a good use for it. I kept this little
nubbin of flaky goodness in my fridge for a few days drumming through the
possibilities. Puff pastry is extremely versatile. You can top pies both savory
and sweet with it, you can wrap meats with it or even turn it into the simple
French cookie known as a palmier as I did here.
I've been making palmiers a long time but they are usually
of the savory variety. I love rolling the dough out, sprinkling them with
cheese and pesto and rolling them up in their trade mark shape and baking them
into super flavorful little party appetizers. It has always been that dish in
my repertoire that looks complicated and can be thrown together in twenty
minutes. Always gets the ooohs and awwws if you know what I mean.
This recipe is a simple sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter
cookie, that uses the puff pastry for a super flaky crunch. It goes very well
with a nice cup of coffee in the morning and because it can be thrown easily
together with little effort it is a great thing to pop in the oven when you
have guests stopping by.
Sweet Palmiers
Ingredients: (I have left out specific measurements as it
all depends on your taste, see method below)
Puff Pastry, thawed if it was frozen
White sugar
Brown sugar
Butter
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Method:
- Start by taking your puff pastry out of the fridge for 10 minutes to soften up and preheating your oven to 350⁰
- On a large cutting board or your counter top, sprinkle a light mix of white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Put the puff pastry onto the seasoned board and roll it out without flipping it over until it is quite thin.
- Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a small bowl and sprinkle in some brown sugar (about 2 to 1, butter to sugar) and stir well so the sugar dissolves. Using a spoon or a pastry brush, spread a small amount of butter over the pastry. Don’t overdo it. You don’t want soggy cookies.
- This is where your personal taste comes into play. Sprinkle white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg onto the buttered side of the pastry. If you like your cookies a little more neutral ease up on the sugar. If you want something a bit sweeter, adjust the sugar. Your call. Not going to lie, I get a different cookie every time. I kind of like it.
- Now comes the fun part. Starting from one side, roll the dough tightly into the middle and then stop. From the other side, roll to meet the other side in the middle. You are looking for a long thin bundle that looks like a scroll. See the pictures if you don’t understand the shape we’re aiming for.
- Flip it over. Brush it down with a little more butter on the outside and slice into 1 cm disks. Place onto a non stick sheet pan (use baking paper if you have it. I didn’t so I used tin foil). Bake in the preheated oven for around 8 mins.
- Let rest for a few minutes on the pan and then remove to a cooling rack. Eat within a day or seal them up tight and finish them off the next day.
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