3-Ingredient Palmier Cookies are sweet, buttery, flaky, and crispy. All you need is some store-bought puff pastry, sugar, and ground cinnamon.
Palmier Cookies are a French pastry made from puff pastry and sugar. They are great at breakfast with coffee, as a sweet snack, or of course for dessert. There are lots of variations with both sweet and savory fillings. I love to serve these with other holiday recipes like these Chocolate Almond Clusters or even on a Dessert Charcuterie Board.
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⭐Why I love them
- Easy Ingredients - You can find the ingredients at almost any grocery store!
- Make Ahead - You can prep the palmier and chill in the fridge for 2 days or freeze for a month!
- Super Quick - You only need about 10 minutes of active prep time
- 3 Ingredients - You only need store-bought puff pastry, white granulated sugar, and ground cinnamon
🎄Great Make Ahead Holiday Recipe
These palmier cookies are a great make ahead cookie option for the holidays! After rolling up the puff pastry and wrapping in plastic wrap, you can refrigerate the logs for up to 2 days or you can freeze for up to 1 month.
If you freeze, you'll need to thaw the palmier logs in the fridge before slicing and baking. The freezing/thawing process does cause the sugar coating to become a little wet. You can give the log a roll in a little extra cinnamon sugar to help soak up the moisture before baking.
🥘Ingredients
- Puff Pastry - you can find this in the freezer section of most grocery stores. One box contains two sheets which is what this recipe uses. But you could easily halve or even double to make more or less cookies. Also try making this Puff Pastry Xmas Tree or Puff Pastry Bites with Brie!
- White Granulated Sugar
- Ground Cinnamon
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
📖Variations:
- Brown Sugar - Instead of white sugar, try using brown sugar (with or without cinnamon)
- Nuts - You can add very finely chopped nuts to the filling. Make sure the nuts are chopped finely or it will be difficult to slice cleanly.
- Orange Zest - Try adding some orange zest to the sugar mixture
- Nutella - Skip the cinnamon sugar and spread Nutella on the puff pastry instead.
- Pesto - For a savory spin, spread a layer of pesto. Also try these pesto phyllo cups!
🔪Step By Step Instructions
It is so easy to make puff pastry palmier cookies - it takes only minutes of active prep time!
Photo 1 - You'll need to thaw the puff pastry before you can work with it. Sprinkle a layer of the cinnamon sugar on a work surface and place a puff pastry sheet on top. Sprinkle the top of the sheet of puff pastry evenly with more cinnamon sugar.
Photo 2 - Use your rolling pin to gently press the sugar into the puff pastry and smooth out any creases. Roll each side of the pastry to the middle, tightly.
Photo 3 - Wrap the palmier log tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Repeat with other sheet of puff pastry to make two logs.
Photo 4 - Remove the plastic wrap and slice the chilled log into ½ inch cookies.
Photo 5 - Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart.
Photo 6 - You will need to bake in batches. Bake until golden brown. The cookies can be served warm or at room temperature.
💭Recipe Tips
- Chill - It's important to chill the puff pastry palmier logs before slicing. Chilling makes it much easier to slice the cookies.
- Slice Evenly - The key for evenly baked cookies is to slice each cookie into an even thickness.
- Use a Serrated Knife - You'll want to use a sharp knife to slice the cookies and a sharp serrated knife is best so you can gently saw through the logs without squishing them.
🍽Leftovers and Storage
Baked palmier cookies can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight container, for up to 1 week.
👩🍳Recipe FAQs
Palmiers are made of puff pastry and sugar - that's it! You can buy puff pastry at most grocery stores or you can make it yourself.
Palmier cookies originate from France. The word palmier is short for feuille de palmier which means 'palm tree leaf', because it is in the shape of a palm leaf.
While both croissants and palmers are made from a laminated dough (alternating layers of dough and butter to make a flaky pastry), but palmers are made without yeast.
Other names for palmier cookies are elephant ears, shoe-soles, palm trees and palm leaves.
🍪Related Dessert Recipes
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PrintRecipe
3-Ingredient Palmier Cookies
3-Ingredient Palmier Cookies are sweet, buttery, flaky, and crispy. All you need is some store-bought puff pastry, sugar, and ground cinnamon.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 40 cookies
- Category: Dessert, Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 package (2 sheets) puff pastry
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Thaw Puff Pastry - You'll need to thaw the puff pastry before you can work with it. I prefer to thaw in the fridge according to the package directions. If you thaw at room temperature, make sure you only let it sit until it is just thawed - you don't want the dough to be warm or room temperature.
- Roll - Sprinkle a layer of the cinnamon sugar (about ¼ cup) on a work surface and place a puff pastry sheet on top. Sprinkle the top of the sheet of puff pastry evenly with another ¼ cup of cinnamon sugar. Use your rolling pin to gently press the sugar into the puff pastry and smooth out any creases. You can roll it out slightly to make the edges even - you're not trying to make it very thing, but just an even rectangle. Tightly roll each long side of the pastry to the middle.
- Chill - Wrap the palmier log tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Repeat with other sheet of puff pastry to make two chilled logs.
- Slice - Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the plastic wrap and slice the chilled log into ½ inch cookies. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart. You will need to bake in batches.
- Bake - Bake until golden brown - about 11-14 minutes. I like to let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.The cookies can be served warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 88
- Sugar: 5.1 g
- Sodium: 31.1 mg
- Fat: 4.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 10.8 g
- Fiber: 0.3 g
- Protein: 0.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Katie says
Love that these are only 3 ingredients!