I’m from a little town.
Our town is so small…the mice are hunchback.
Wait, is that right?
Our town is so small…you go for a walk to exercise and 3 people stop to see if you need a ride.
There we go.
We don’t have stoplights. I’m totally not kidding.
We have a weekly paper.
1 restaurant. 1 funeral home. 1 grocery store. 1 post office. 1 hardware store/florist.
We are a one-horse town for real.
I love my little town, but there are things I miss about living in a large city.
Like walking to the corner for a cup of coffee. Real coffee.
And grabbing a palmier to take home for a snack later.
And eating the palmier while walking home and having to go back for another.
I first fell in love with palmiers in Washington DC – at Union Station.
My friend and I had stopped to sight-see and found a little open-air bakery that had baskets of palmiers for sale. We grabbed one each for breakfast the next morning. Mine didn’t make it to the car. And then I ate hers while she was asleep and somehow managed to convince her that she never bought one.
I made these a few weeks ago for a breakfast meeting, and have had them on my mind ever since.
They’re easy.
You can totally go buy a frozen puff pastry and skip most of this…but what’s the fun in that?
This is called a Rough Pastry - Puff pastry in about 1 1/2 hours.
1 stick plus 5 tbsp butter, 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 tsp salt.
Mix the salt into the flour. Make sure your butter is cold (I throw it in the freezer for about 10 minutes), then get out your grater and grate the butter into the flour and salt.
There has never been a time in my life where I wanted to just eat a big handful of butter. Until now.
Lightly stir to coat the butter shreds…
then add the water. It’s really humid here, so I’ll start with 1/4 cup. You can add more or less, depending on your dough.
Incorporate the water, then squeeze a handful of dough…
If it sticks together like this, you’re good. If it still crumbles, add a bit more water.
Gather the dough into a ball…
Wrap it in plastic then refrigerate until firm…like 30 minutes should be good.
Remove from the fridge and roll out onto a floured board.
Now fold the side-edges to the center…
Then the top-and-bottom-edges to the center.
Then fold the whole thing in half.
Back to the fridge for another 30 minutes.
Now, if you went out and bought a frozen puff pastry, you should join in here.
I’m not judging. I’m just sayin’.
Dust your board with sugar instead of flour…
then take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out on the sugar. 
You’re looking for a shape that sort-of resembles a rectangle.
Now sprinkle the dough with sugar. Be generous here…I used almost a 1/2 cup.
Take the rolling pin and roll over the sugar, pressing it into the dough.
Roll the edges of the pastry towards the middle…like a scroll.
Now slice the scroll into 1/2″ or so slices…
And place on a cookie sheet. 
And sprinkle with what? MORE sugar!
Bake at 425 for 12 minutes…
…then flip and bake for 5 minutes more.
And look how gorgeous.
Yup. I seriously just made those.
Look at the layers…
You want one now, don’t you?
Well, go make some!
Palmiers
Adapted from epicurious.com and allrecipes.com
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick plus 5 tbsp butter
4 – 6 tbsp cold water
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for dusting
Mix flour and salt, grate in cold butter. Add water, a little at a time, until the mixture sticks together when squeezed in your hand. Gather into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and roll the pastry onto a board dusted with flour. Fold the side edges into the middle of the dough, then the top and bottom edges into the middle of the dough. Fold the entire slab of dough in half, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Dust the board with sugar, then remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out onto the sugar. Roll into a rectangle, then sprinkle with 1/2 cup of sugar. Using the rolling pin, press the sugar into the dough. Roll the edges of the pastry into the middle, like a scroll. With a knife, slice the dough into 1/2″ slices. Place onto a cookie sheet, and sprinkle with more sugar. Bake at 425 for 12 minutes, then flip the cookies and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until lightly browned.
And eat them. And eat them. And eat them.
Feel free to not share. I won’t tell anyone.
