Cinnamon Sugar Palmiers

Servings: 36

Cinnamon Sugar Palmiers are a traditional French pastry made from a rich, buttery, and flaky dough. Traditionally, the recipe is time consuming and labor intensive, but commercial puff pastry makes an almost identical substitute. These quick and easy pastries make a lovely wonderful dessert treat to serve with a pudding or ice cream, or as a great snack with caf au lait. The Palmiers can be made two days in advance and refrigerated in a tightly sealed container. They should be warmed to room temperature or reheated in a 300 degree F oven before serving.

1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 (17 1/4 ounce) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease two baking sheets.

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Unfold one of the puff pastry sheets on a clean surface. Sprinkle evenly with a quarter of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Gently press the cinnamon sugar into the pastry. Flip the pastry over and repeat. Roll up each long side of the puff pastry jellyroll fashion to meet in the middle, forming the V-shaped Palmiers. Tightly wrap and place in the freezer. Repeat with the other sheet of dough.

Remove the first sheet from the freezer and slice the log into 18 1/2-inch thick slices. Place each slice two inches apart on one of the cookie sheets. Repeat with the other log. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Flip each of the pastries over and continue to bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until crisp and pale golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.