Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking
to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various
items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal
stories. Today's recipe is the French Palmier.
Curly Cooks: Palmiers
Palmiers are a simple French biscuit made of puff pastry, and, like most
French sweets, they are delicious. They were something I ate fairly
frequently living in Paris, as they were one of the pre-made packaged
goodies that were provided where I worked. Recently I was reminiscing about
my time abroad and I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making some of
the treats that I miss eating, just like these tasty little
cookies.
Not only are they simple in taste, but they are also super simple to make. If
you use pre-made puff pastry like me, there are only two ingredients needed:
the pastry, and brown sugar. Personally I don't know how to do it, but if you
want to make your own puff pastry then I won't judge, I just can't help!
If you want to shake it up a bit, you can vary the filling (i.e. the sugar)
depending on your personal taste. While the sugar is amazing, you could
substitute in some parmesan cheese to make them savoury (although I'd
recommend frozen cheese so it's easy to scatter and roll in), or cinnamon
sugar for a slightly different sweet flavour. These instructions are for the
original brown sugar palmiers, so let's get started.
The first step will be rolling out the pastry. Scatter brown sugar on your
work surface and then place the pastry on it, so that it doesn't stick to the
table and the sugar gets pressed into the pastry. Roll it out into a rectangular shape that’s around 1cm thick, or as thin as you can make it with the sugar:
Next, scatter
the top with more sugar, and then fold in the vertical edges, like so: 
Repeat this step, scattering the sugar, and then fold in the edges to the
middle: 
And repeat it one more time, folding it completely in half this time so you
have a long sausage-looking roll of dough:
Roll the length of pastry in the
excess sugar to coat it, and then transfer it to a tray to cool in the fridge
for 15-30 minutes, or until it's firm enough to cut. At this point I'd suggest
turning on the oven so it preheats to 180 C.
Grab a sharp knife and cut and discard the rough edges. The roll inside should
look like a tight, narrow heart shape. Cut the pastry into half cm slices and
place them flat on a prepared baking sheet. 
Sprinkle the top with more sugar
and press it in, and then place in the preheated oven for about 7 minutes.
They will expand a fair amount very quickly, so make sure you don't put them
too close together.
At this point, you should take them out and flip them, then return them to the
oven for a further 7 minutes. Take them out when the biscuits are golden brown
and crispy on the edges, and leave them on the baking sheet to cool. 
When they're cooled they should be thin, crispy, crunchy, perfect little heart
shaped biscuits.
It's a super easy recipe and I hope you try it and love it as much as I do.
It
takes me back to my time in Paris and I want you to have a similar experience
when eating them, so I'd suggest consuming them accompanied by a strong coffee.
Ingredients:
Pre-made puff pastry (I used 250g but you can use the whole 500g block for
bigger/more biscuits)
Brown sugar (As much as you'd deem necessary, I'd say 2 cups is a good
starting point)
Steps:
1. Prepare a tray with a baking sheet (you may need two depending on how much
pastry you're using).
2. Scatter brown sugar on baking surface.
3. Roll out the puff pastry to 1cm thickness.
4. Sprinkle the pastry with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and roll it into the dough.
5. Fold in the very edges (about an inch) and sprinkle on more sugar.
6. Fold in the edges again so that the outside edges meet in the middle of the
pastry sheet.
7. Sprinkle on more sugar so the top is coated and roll it out again.
8. Fold the roll of dough in half where the previous roll meets in the
middle.
9. Roll out one more time and work in leftover brown sugar to the pastry roll.
10. Chill for 15-30 mins, or until firm enough to cut.
11. Preheat oven to 180 C.
12. Take the pastry roll out of the fridge and cut it into 1cm wide slices.
13. Place the slices flat on the baking sheet and sprinkle a pinch of sugar
onto each.
14. Place in the oven for 7 minutes.
15. Remove the palmiers and flip them over, then return to the oven for a
further 7 minutes.
16. When done they should be golden brown on the edges.
17. Enjoy with a cup of coffee
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