Sounds fancy, doesn’t it?

The other day, was my friend’s birthday. And what she wanted for her birthday was to go to a local winery and have a potluck picnic with some of her girlfriends. I wondered what I should bring, but then it hit me.

Enter the palmier.

That sounds like an elaborate made-up foreign boyfriend who drives a Porsche and only drinks champagne as he serenades you with a poem that he just wrote about the way you two first met… Which incidentally, you lied about, too.

But Palmier doesn’t need to know that.

Ahem.

Getting back on track.

Palmiers might sound complicated, but you can use all store bought ingredients and whip up a beautiful little boyfriend appetizer that nobody would ever guess took you less than fifteen minutes to create. The palmiers are flaky and melt in your mouth as they burst with different flavors.

We are making two different types of palmiers here. One is Ina Garten’s Recipe using pesto, feta, and sundried tomatoes. The other palmier is one that I created. It is more of a pizza roll using cream cheese, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. When I make these I freeze half and then I have an appetizer or spare dinner when I need it. Each log makes about twenty to twenty five palmiers depending upon how thin you slice them.

Ingredients For Pesto Palmiers:

1 package frozen puff pastry
1/4-1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
1/2 cup of crumbled feta
1/2 cup store bought pesto
1/2 cup flour

Ingredients for Pizza Palmiers:

1 package frozen puff pastry
2 cups mozzarella shredded cheese
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/4-1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
1/2 cup flour

Optional:

Chopped pepperoni

Directions:

Let frozen pastry defrost on counter for twenty-thirty minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Lightly flour your counter and place one pastry sheet on floured surface. Lightly flour pastry surface and roll with a rolling pin into a 9 X 11 inch rectangle.

For the pesto palmiers, layer 1/2 of the ingredients per pastry sheet: first the pesto, then sun-dried tomatoes, then feta.

For the pizza palmiers, layer 1/2 the ingredients per pastry sheet: first the cream cheese, then pizza sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella. You could also cut up some pepperoni and place that in, too. I happen to not like pepperoni, so I do not add it.

When all of the ingredients are layered, take half of the long length of the palmier and fold it in half towards the center. Repeat with the other side until they are touching. Then fold again until the pastry dough is halfway to the center. Repeat with other side so that the two sides meet in the middle again. Whew.

Does your roll look like this?

Or this? Yesterday I made these for my daughter, because she got her braces off and this is what she requested for dinner (these are one of her favorite things I make). The appetizer makes a great fun dinner option served family style in the middle of the table alongside a separate bowl of salad. I accidentally folded mine horizontally yesterday. So, if your roll looks like the ones above, that is okay. You just will not have as many palmiers at the end, but you will have bigger ones. If you want bigger palmiers, fold the pastry sheet width wise. If you want a larger quantity of small appetizers, fold length wise.

Wrap in plastic wrap. If you have made both types of palmiers, you will have four rolls. Refrigerate until needed. You can make these the day before a party and have them on hand. Freeze for thirty minutes before cutting to make cutting easier. Freeze remaining logs (I only use one log of each type of palmier for each event) and just defrost them the next time you need a quick appetizer.

After taking palmier logs out of the freezer, cut palmiers into 1/4 inch slices and place on a parchment lined baking sheet (the parchment is important. I have tried making these without the parchment paper and just cooking spray and the palmiers stick) two inches a part. I do not have a picture of that. I do, however, have a picture of my back. Isn’t that vain helpful?

Bake sliced palmiers for 17-19 minutes. Mine are never as pretty as Ina’s, but they taste good.

Transfer the hot palmiers to a paper towel lined plate and allow to cool before placing on a platter to serve.

Now celebrate your hard work with some champagne alongside Palmier before he takes you for a ride in that Porsche. If he tries to serenade you with another one of his cheesy poems, just shove one of these babies in his mouth. Your ears and your mouth will thank you.

*I could not help sneaking some pictures of my new dress into this post. Blame the champagne Palmier. He told me to do it. Dress is from Anthropologie here.