A palmier or elephant ear is a French pastry in a heart shape or a palm leaf shape.

I tasted palmier first time during refreshment in our church.The sweet flaky taste of cookies immediately captured my taste bud. So I wanted to make it in home.The secret behind the palmier is the perfect puff pastry.

I am in the process of making good pastries, so i want to give it a try with homemade pastry instead of store brought puff pastry. Here the recipes are for both sweet and savory flavor palmier.

Step 1: Ingredients

Pastry Dough

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, frozen
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Savory palmier

1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
Olive oil or oil spray
1/4 teaspoon black pepper & salt
Puff pastry, thawed
Cheddar Cheese , shredded (optional)

Sweet palmier

1 cup of strawberry jam or jam of your choice
2 -3 tablespoons sugar
Puff pastry, thawed

Step 2: Making Pastry Dough

1. Sift flour and salt together into a chilled large metal bowl.

2. Coarsely grate frozen butter and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

3. Mix the butter into flour, gently lifting flour and tossing to coat butter.

4. Drizzle ice water evenly over flour mixture and gently mix it.

5. When it has proper texture, it will hold together without crumbling apart. If necessary, add another tablespoon water and mix.

After trying so many times, i am finally able to make good puff pastry with this method. Keep in mind don't overwork the mixture or add too much water, otherwise pastry will be tough.

Step 3: Shaping Dough

Gather mixture together in the work surface and form a 5-inch square. The dough will be lumpy. Wrap it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

1. Roll out dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a rectangle.

2. Fold dough to center from both sides and fold them again to form 4 layers.

3. Rewrap dough and chill until firm, about 20 minutes.

4. Repeat the rolling out, folding and chilling 3 more times.

5. Cut equally into 2 pieces. Now the puff pastry is ready to use.

Step 4: Savory Basil Palmier

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree F.

2. Grind together the basil, garlic, salt and oil into fine textured paste.

3. Take 1 puff pastry , roll the dough into a large rectangle.

4. Spread the basil paste evenly over the dough. Add some ground black pepper and cheese over the dough.

5. Starting at the long ends of the rectangle, loosely roll each side inward until they meet in the middle.

6. Slice the pastry into 1-inch palmier and arrange them on baking sheet.

7. Bake them for 20 minutes, until they puff and turn golden brown.

Savory basil palmier is ready to serve.

Step 5: Sweet Strawberry Palmier

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree F.

2. Sprinkle some sugar on work surface and place the remaining puff pastry onto it.

3. Roll the puff pastry into rectangle.

4. Spread the strawberry jam evenly over the pastry sheet.Spread thick consistency jam, otherwise the pastry will become saggy and longer time to cook.

5. Starting at the long ends of the rectangle, loosely roll each side inward until they meet in the middle.

6. Pinch top together and sprinkle with some sugar and orange zest.

7. Slice the dough into 1-inch palmier and arrange on the baking sheet.

8. Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden.Allow to cool.

Enjoy the crunchy Strawberry Palmier as a snack.

You can do variation with cardamon, cinnamon, cheese and mint flavors. If you like my post vote me. Thank you.