Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Lavender Palmier Pastry Cookies

I just returned home from a fabulous trip from the east coast. I had won a trip last year with the Duncan Hines company and they decided to invite me back for another trip just days ago.  It was amazing. (You'll hear about the whole trip, the Duncan Hines Test Kitchen and the extended New England trip in my future blog.)  After a nice night of sleep, my hubby and I arose in the wee hours of the morning since we were still on East coast time. I decided I wanted to make something a little special for my family since they had survived 9 full days without me.  Palmiers are one of my favorite cookies. I had found a recipe at one time using Pepperidge farm puff pastry dough and it was only going to take minutes to make. So I decided to make some before the kiddos awoke but I wanted to make these cookies with a little twist...Lavender, since on my trip we passed gorgeous lavender plants everywhere we went.



Lavender Palmiers
Two simple ingredients:
Puff Pastry
Lavender sugar
Optional- Dried or fresh Lavender
*hint- to make lavender Sugar, add some fresh chopped lavender, about 2 tbs, to two cups of sugar over night in an airtight container. The next day, food process the lavender leaves with the sugar until blended.

 
On a flat surface, cover with a generous amount of sugar.  Take your unfolded puff pastry, place on sugared surface and sugar the top with a generous amount of sugar also.  Make sure to even the sugar out with your hands. Roll with a rolling pin to incorporate a lot of the sugar into the dough, flattening the dough out a bit more.

 
Take both sides and fold into the middle.

 
Take both of those sides and roll into the middle again.

 
Flip the dough together and you'll see the shape of your palmier.
 

 

 
Cut off the ends. Slice the dough into 1/2 inch- 1 inch pieces and lay flat on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Do Not use Wax Paper.   Your Pastries will resemble hearts. Bake for 6-7 minutes at 450 degrees. Cookies should look like the sugar is melted and slightly caramel like. Remove from oven, flip cookies and bake for about 3-4 minutes until golden brown. When you remove the cookies from the oven, if you really like a punch of lavender, sprinkle a pinch of fresh or dried lavender that's been super finely chopped, quickly over the hot cookies. Let cool and eat.


 
 
 
 
Enjoy!  Happy Making, Baking, Eating and Celebrating!