Save This Recipe
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
These crisp, flaky palmiers are buttery, caramelized, and tucked with cinnamon sugar in every layer. You only need frozen puff pastry, sugar, cinnamon, and salt—no mixer or special equipment required. They look like a bakery treat but come together with simple rolling, folding, slicing, and baking.
They’re lovely with coffee in the afternoon and dangerous in that way where you think, “I’ll just have one,” and then three are gone. Maybe four. Who’s counting.
Why You’ll Love It
- Just four ingredients — frozen puff pastry, sugar, cinnamon, and salt are all you need.
- Bakery-style without the fuss — puff pastry does most of the work.
- Warm cinnamon flavor — cinnamon sugar caramelizes into every flaky layer.
- Crisp and candy-like — browned sugar creates crisp edges and a flaky center.
- Makes about 32 palmiers — plenty for sharing or keeping in a container for the week.
Ingredient Notes
Use regular granulated sugar here. It melts and caramelizes nicely without changing the texture of the pastry. Brown sugar can be tasty, but messier and a little more prone to scorching around the edges. Not bad—just not the clean, crisp palmier texture this recipe is after.
For cinnamon, whatever ground cinnamon you have is fine. Fresh-ish cinnamon makes a difference. If the jar has been sitting behind the paprika for a while, give it a sniff before committing.
The puff pastry should be thawed enough to unfold without cracking, but still cold. Cold dough behaves. Warm dough gets sticky and tears. Work with one sheet at a time if your kitchen runs warm.
The salt is not optional, even though it is only 1/4 teaspoon. It gives the sugar some backbone.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 package frozen puff pastry, 2 sheets, thawed but kept cold
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400°F and set the rack in the center position. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Do use parchment—caramelized sugar has no loyalty whatsoever and will glue itself to an unlined pan like it pays rent there.
In a small bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Give it a good mix so the salt is evenly distributed.
Sprinkle a clean, smooth work surface with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Unfold one sheet of thawed puff pastry over the sugar. With a rolling pin, gently roll it into a 9-by-12-inch rectangle. You are not trying to flatten it into a tortilla, just smooth it out and stretch it a little.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the pastry. Roll gently over the top with your rolling pin so the sugar presses into the dough. Gentle is the key word here. Puff pastry has all those lovely layers, and we’d like to keep at least some of them intact.
Starting at one of the shorter sides, roll the pastry inward toward the center. Then roll the opposite short side inward until the two rolls meet in the middle. It should look like two scrolls snuggled together—sort of a heart, sort of a pair of fancy eyebrows. Press the two sides together lightly to make a log.
Repeat with the second puff pastry sheet and the remaining cinnamon sugar. The second one goes faster, but don’t rush. There is no prize for finishing palmiers in record time.
Put the two rolled logs on a plate or baking sheet and chill them in the Refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes. This is a small step, but it makes slicing much easier. Skip it, and the dough squishes under the knife and your neat little hearts become abstract pastry blobs. Still edible, obviously. But we have standards. Loose standards, perhaps, but standards.
Take the logs out of the refrigerator and use a sharp knife to slice them into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. Arrange the slices cut-side up on the parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them. They spread quite a bit. Crowding them onto one sheet can bake them into one large cinnamon-pastry continent.
Bake for 12 minutes, until the bottoms are golden and caramelized. Carefully flip each palmier over—yes, every single one—and bake for another 5 minutes, until both sides are golden brown and crisp. Keep an eye on them near the end. Sugar can go from beautifully caramelized to “well, that smells expensive” in a minute flat.
Let the palmiers rest on the baking sheets for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely. They firm up as they cool.
Variations
Add a little orange zest to the cinnamon sugar for a flavor that makes the whole kitchen smell bright and citrusy. Lemon zest works too, especially if you want something a little brighter.
You can also add finely chopped almonds before rolling the pastry, though keep them chopped quite small so the rolls don’t get lumpy. Larger pecan pieces can make the dough split around them. Delicious, yes. Attractive? Not remotely. They can look like they’d survived a minor accident.
For a different flavor, replace the cinnamon with ground cardamom or a chai spice blend. Cardamom palmiers are particularly nice with tea.
Storage & Reheating
Once completely cool, store the palmiers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. They are at their crispiest the first day, naturally, but they hold up surprisingly well. If your kitchen is humid, they may soften a little after a couple of days. A few minutes in a low oven can perk them up.
You can freeze the sliced, unbaked palmiers too. Arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet until frozen solid, then move them to a freezer-safe bag. Bake straight from frozen and add 2 to 3 minutes to the baking time. That little stash is handy for unexpected occasions.
Final Notes
These palmiers give a little more than they ask for—four ingredients, a bit of rolling, and suddenly there is a plate of something that looks like it took a lot of effort.
Make these when you want something sweet without turning your whole day upside down. Keep the best-looking ones for yourself.
Palmiers
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 package frozen puff pastry 2 sheets, thawed but kept cold
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F and set the rack in the center position, then line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, and salt until evenly combined.
- Sprinkle a clean, smooth work surface with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the cinnamon-sugar mixture, unfold one sheet of thawed puff pastry over the sugar, and gently roll it into a 9-by-12-inch rectangle.
- Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the pastry and roll gently over the top with a rolling pin to press the sugar into the dough.
- Starting at one of the shorter sides, roll the pastry inward toward the center, then roll the opposite short side inward until the two rolls meet in the middle, pressing the two sides together lightly to form a log.
- Repeat the rolling, sugaring, and shaping process with the second puff pastry sheet and the remaining cinnamon sugar.
- Place the two rolled logs on a plate or baking sheet and chill them in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to make slicing easier.
- Use a sharp knife to slice the chilled logs into 1/2-inch-thick pieces, then arrange the slices cut-side up on the parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them.
- Bake for 12 minutes, until the bottoms are golden and caramelized, then carefully flip each palmier over and bake for another 5 minutes, until both sides are golden brown and crisp.
- Let the palmiers rest on the baking sheets for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely so they firm up as they cool.