What appeals most to me in a recipe is the potential – the versatility of substituting one or two ingredients and giving the dish an entirely new flavor. That’s the beauty of this recipe. It has only two essential ingredients: puff pastry and a filling.

It’s fast and easy: Grab frozen puff pastry and a jar of pre-made (or homemade!) pesto, sundried tomato jam, or bacon jam.

Or it can be complicated: Make your own puff pastry.

Sweet or savory, you decide what you want on the inside. Today, I wanted pesto.

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Pesto Palmiers

A quick and elegant appetizer.

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
• 1/2-3/4 cup pesto*
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Roll out the puff pastry on a piece of parchment into a 12x12 inch square.
3. Spread the pesto within 1/2 inch of each side of the pastry (you might use more or less than 1/2 cup). Using your spatula, make three indentions on the top edge of the dough at 3 inches, 6 inches, 9 inches to divide the sheet into quarters.
4. Fold the left and right edges of the puff pastry halfway to the center of the dough (to the closest quarter-mark indention). Fold the sides to the middle again until they're almost touching. Fold the two halves together like a book. It looks a lot like this:
I've stopped here and frozen the palmiers for later use. Just let the logs thaw a bit and then proceed.
5. Cut into 1/2 inch slices and place onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
6. Whisk egg and water together and brush over the palmiers. Bake for 8 minutes, flip, and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes. Palmiers are best the day of baking.
*I used a traditional basil pesto recipe for this batch. Cilantro-pecan pesto, olive tapenade, sun-dried tomato pesto, and marinara also work wonderfully in this recipe.

Notes

Yields: ~24 Palmiers

Confections of a Foodie Bride

Estimated time: 20 minutes