Palmiers

if you want to make something that makes people go BS, THERE'S NO WAY YOU MADE THOSE, then palmiers, aka french butterfly cookies aka elephant ears, are perfect. you need 2 ingredients and 20 minutes, then you're set to wow everyone. it's the kind of thing that calls for guidelines rather than a whole recipe, and i'll leave you with ina (we're on a first name basis, didn't you know?)'s palmier advice. the only thing i'd change i'd make to her recipe is cut down on the sugar when you roll out the puff pastry. you're probably not going to get 2 cups of sugar to stick, and you end up wasting a ton of sugar. just sprinkle sugar on as necessary, and when the dough's surface seems to be saturated with sugar crystals, stop adding it. easy peasy.

if you notice that they're getting a little soft and not as crispy (bring back what once was mine), toast them in a toaster oven. don't walk away, since they burn very easily!

now, palmiers are delicious alone, but they're also good with ice cream (duh). below is a very easy sundae with toasted almond ice cream and hot fudge sauce from fenton's (highly recommend if you're in the bay area), topped with a cookie (though i'm sure no one would complain if there were multiple palmiers on top). the palmiers are so neutral that they'd pair well with any sundae: vanilla ice cream and salted caramel, a banana split (unless you claim that adding a palmier would be sacrilege), lychee coconut sorbet with raspberry sauce. i could go on, but i'll leave you now, and hope that you are suitably convinced of the merit of making and devouring a batch of palmiers.

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