French Pastry–Palmiers (法国蝴蝶酥）

INTRODUCTION

I remembered two years ago when I started blogging, one Facebook friend asked for the recipe of Palmiers… Hmmm, when I confirmed with her that day, obviously she can’t remember it… Well, that is how I get to know this French Pastry..

Then, I did not take up the challenge as I have no clue as to how puff pastry should be done. It appeared to be difficult. However, after preparing croissants and Danish pastry, I have much more confidence doing some homemade puff pastry..

Come on, homemade puff pastry using pastry margarine are not difficult or messy, but homemade puff pastry using butter is, especially in this hot weather. I have decided to try out this recipe because I have some pastry margarine left in the fridge after prepared some croissants and Danish pastry weeks ago, I have to find a way to gradually get rid of this block of pastry margarine and I have selected this simple recipe.

Yes, the recipe is simple, it is much simpler than croissant as you need not to proof. Don’t worry that you cannot do it. If you have no confidence, you can use ready made pastry purchased from the stores. In fact, I have a hard time to locate a recipe to prepare Palmiers from scratch, possibly more than 80% of the recipes are using ready made puff pastry..

“A palm tree (French: palmier or cœur de France) or elephant ear is a French pastry in a palm shape or a butterfly shape, sometimes called palm leaves, elephant ears, French hearts, shoe-soles, Pakistani jalebi or glasses.. Palmiers are made from puff pastry, a laminated dough similar to the dough used for croissant, but without the yeast. Puff pastry is made with alternating layers of dough and butter, rolled and folded over to create possibly hundreds of flaky layers. The puff pastry is rolled out, coated with sugar, and then the two sides are rolled up together so that they meet in the middle, making a roll that is then cut into about 1/4″ slices and baked. Usually it is rolled in sugar before baking. In the Puerto Rican version, it is topped with honey. In Mexico they are known as Orejas (ears).” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmier)

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: Homemade Puff Pastry and Palmiers | Baking Bites

Servings: About 20-25 palmiers

250 grams of plain flour
80 grams of cake flour
280 grams of cold butter or pastry margarine
1 teaspoon of salt
230 ml or grams of water

For Dusting

1/2 cup of castor sugar
1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon powder (optional)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Put the flour, salt and water in a mixing bowl. Use the dough hook to knead the dough until smooth which took about 10-15 minutes. If the dough are too wet, add flour tablespoon by tablespoon. If too dry, add water tablespoon by tablespoon.

Transfer the dough to lightly floured surface and let it rest for 10 minutes before proceed to the next step.

In a lightly floured surface, use a roller pin to roll the dough in a rectangular shape .

Spread the butter or pastry margarine on half of the rolled dough. Cover the other half on top of the half where the margarine were spread. Seal the edges and roll it as thin as possible. Fold the dough into 1/3 of the size overlapping each other. Roll thin using a rolling pin. Repeat the same procedure 3 times. The final shape shall be a square of at least 12 inches by 12 inches

Dust the cinnamon powder and sugar on top of the puff pastry as evenly as possible. Use a rolling pin to roll once or twice such that the sugar stick to the dough. Roll up the left vertical sides toward and centre seam and perform the same for the left side. Use a knife to cut the puff pastry to about 1/2 cm – 1 cm thick. Transfer to the baking tin. Prior to the baking, use palm to likely pressed down the dough. Bake in the pre-heated oven of 210 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. You may need to turn the side of the puff at the 10 minutes juncture such that the baking of both sides are even. Cool completely before store in an air tight container.

CONCLUSION

If you never try this before, you should give it a try. The recipes look so complicated, but if you used store bought puff pastry, it will be as easy as ABC.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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