Little Hearts

Valentine's day is still a couple of months away but why wait till then? Christmas is almost here. Enjoy the festive season with these Little Hearts.

I am no baker, in fact I know nothing about baking. I can not even count how many times I have failed in baking a cake or even brownies. But this, my friends, I must say is the easiest baking. And if I can get it right, anyone can.


Palmiers are pastry that have the shape of a butterfly but I like to think of them as the shape of a heart.

It was quite by accident that I bought this pastry some years ago and got hooked on to them ever since. They are sweet, buttery and crispy goodies and surprisingly simple to make!

Palmiers are made of puff pastry. You can make puff pastry from scratch if you want but why take the pain when you can get such nice puff pastry right in the freezer section of your grocery store. I made cinnamon palmiers.

Ingredients:

1 puff pastry sheet [I used pepperidge farm]

½ cup granulated sugar

½ tbsp ground cinnamon

1 egg

1 tbsp water

Method:

Thaw the puff pastry following the instructions on the package.

Heat the oven to 400°.

Roll it out with a a rolling pin to approximately 16 in  by 10 in in size. [For easy clean up, tape a sheet of parchment paper on my kitchen table/ whatever work space you chose 2.5 feet in length. Put half of the sugar on the workspace, put the pastry on it and then roll the pastry. This will prevent it from sticking, and also there will be sugar on the outer surface.]

Mix the cinnamon powder with the rest of the sugar and spread uniformly on the pastry sheet.

Since I made little hearts (half in size compared to palmiers), I cut the pastry in half length wise and worked separately with each half.

Now fold long side of the rectangle such the the edge meets halfway till the middle. DO it on both sides and then fold again such that they meet in the middle. Look at the pic below to help you. It will look like a log.

Add 1 tbsp of water to the egg in a bowl and whisk it with a fork. Brush both sides of the log with the egg wash [This will give a nice golden brown color on baking].

Then cut the long roll in pieces ~half an inch in width. I made ~60 hearts from 1 puff pastry sheet.

The key to a nice heart shape is that you fan out the ends of the pieces when you lay them cut side up on a parchment paper lined baking tray.

Place them on the lower rack in your oven.

Bake them for 10 min on one side. Then turn them over and bake the other side for another 5-6 min till golden brown in color. 

Cool them down on a rack. Enjoy!

These looked golden brown and so tempting out of the oven!

Enjoy them anytime of the day. You can store the extras away in an air-tight container to relish for the next few days. But they hardly ever stay that long, at least for me!!

Next time will be simple sugar palmiers dipped in chocolate! I already can't wait to finish these and make another batch.