French Almond Palmier cookies or Elephant Ears are a delicious little cookie filled with almonds and perfect for the holidays! Quick and easy to make too!

French Almond Palmier Cookies are amazing! They're so delicious and flexible with flavors. 

For this recipe, I've used ground almonds which gives a wonderful texture and flavor.

We have another plain French Palmier recipe, simply coated with sugar and cinnamon. Those are equally delicious! Plus we have a delicious Sesame Seed and Brown Sugar Palmier recipe. Once you start eating these you won't be able to stop!

French Palmiers are sometimes called Elephant Ears. You can see why when you look at the shape of these cookies. You may be wondering how to get the classic shape you see here which is kind of swirly and has layers of flaky puff pastry.

Below, I show you a short video on how to make the classic Palmier cookie shape, how you need to roll, (it's very simple, just your hands are needed!), and the trick is to refrigerate for a short while before slicing them as the pastry can get a little warm and soft which makes it hard to slice whilst keeping the shape. 

These French Almond Palmier Cookies are great at Christmas time. The kids can have fun helping you roll, and eat of course!

You could make them fancy by dipping them in some melted chocolate, then adding some festive colored sprinkles to them to give them a Christmas feel.

However, just eating them as they are is perfect too!. 

In the recipe below, I have stated you can use melted butter to brush the tops before baking. You don't really need to do this, but for a nice golden color, it does make a difference.

As you know, puff pastry does contain butter already, so if you're counting calories, feel free to omit the brushing of butter on them. For me, it doesn't make much difference to the taste, I've made some with and some without the butter. 

For this recipe, I used ready rolled puff pastry. however, we have a lovely quick and easy recipe to make your own homemade pastry dough if you prefer. 

So let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make these lovely French Almond Palmier Cookies. Please enjoy!

Instructions

1. Take the puff pastry from the freezer and allow to fully defrost IN the packaging.

2. Preheat oven to 400 F or 200 C.

3. Unroll the pastry and flatten it on the paper wrapper. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

4. In a small bowl, add the ground almonds, sugar and almond extract if using. Combine with a spoon.

Sprinkle almond sugar mixture evenly all over the pastry

and use a long flat-bladed knife if you have one to spread the mixture evenly on the surface.

Place a sheet of parchment over the top and use a rolling pin to LIGHTLY roll over the mixture so as to press it gently into the pastry.

Be careful not to roll hard so you keep the shape of the pastry. Discard parchment paper. 

5. Take one LONG side and tightly roll the pastry toward the middle. Stop when you get to the middle. Then take the other side of the pastry and roll toward the middle.

Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up. Watch the video below on how to roll.

6. Take the pastry from the fridge and cut the ends off to make it tidy.

Then cut into ¼ inch thick slices.

Place flat on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You may need to gently push the cookies down if they are too thick.

If you want to make a more defined shape, point the curved parts to make them like rabbit ears.

This will help when baking to get the classic palmier shape.

7. Brush the tops lightly with the melted butter and another light sprinkling of sugar.

Turn over and brush with butter and sprinkle sugar on the other side too.

8. Bake for approximately 15 - 20 minutes or until the cookies puff up and turn golden brown.

Keep an eye on them because they will burn very easily!

Halfway through, turn the cookies over so they brown evenly.

9. When done, use a fish slice or similar and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

They will get crispy once cooled.

These will store, once cooled, in an airtight container for a few days.

They are delicious eaten as they are, or as I do, with a scoop of ice cream!

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our French Almond Palmiers recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

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