Sun-dried Tomato & Chilli Palmiers
This savoury twist on a delicious french classic is sure to impress. Their quirky but elegant shape which gives them the name palmier (meaning elephant's ear) will stand out when you serve these - oh and did I mention they taste delicious too?!
My recipe uses rough puff pastry which some might call a cheat's puff pastry - in my opinion it has the same effect and works very nicely for this particular bake!
Don't worry if you can't be bothered to rustle up your own pastry- it can be a long, time consuming process and the shop bought stuff will be just as effective!
INGREDIENTS
For the Puff Pastry
- 220g Stong white bread flour
- 220g Cold butter (cubed)
- 115ml Water (ice cold)
For the filling
- 3tbsp Sun-dried tomato pesto
- 1tsp Chilli powder
- 1 Egg (beaten)
METHOD
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (fan) and grease and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Prepare your pastry first by placing the flour and butter in a bowl.
- Rub together, squashing the butter into the flour, ensuring that large bits of butter are still visible.
- Slowly pour in the water and use a knife to stir the mixture together - don't be tempted to use your hands for this part!
- Once it has all come together, shape into a rectangle before wrapping in cling film and refrigerating for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the fridge and roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface into a larger rectangle before folding the bottom third of the pastry up to the middle and the top third of the pastry down, over the folded bottom third.
- Rotate the rectangle of pastry 90 degrees before repeating the folding process again.
- After the second fold, re-wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for a further 20 minutes (this ensures the butter does not melt).
- Repeat the rolling and folding process three more times, refrigerating between each fold, before allowing to rest in the fridge until ready to use.
- To construct you palmiers roll out your block of pastry into a large rectangle the thickness of a £1 coin.
- Using the back of a metal spoon, spread the sun-dried tomato pesto over the rectangle ensuring all of the pastry is covered in an even layer.
- Sprinkle the chilli powder all over the sun-dried tomato pesto before rolling.
- To roll into the traditional palmier shape you simply, with the shortest end facing you, roll until you reach the midpoint of the rectangle before changing sides and rolling from the opposite side - resulting in two rolls of pastry connected by what was the midpoint of your rectangle.
- Slice the roll into palmiers about 1cm thick and place on your baking trays.
- Brush lightly with egg wash before baking for around 15 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.
