Facts About Palmier
A palmier, pig's ear, palm heart, or elephant ear is a French pastry in a palm leaf shape or a butterfly shape, sometimes called palm leaves, cœur de France, French hearts, shoe-soles, or glasses that invented in the beginning of the 20th century.
Preparation
Palmiers are made from puff pastry, a laminated dough similar to the dough used for croissant, but without yeast. Puff pastry is made with alternating layers of dough and butter, rolled and folded over to create possibly hundreds of flaky layers. The puff pastry is rolled out, coated with sugar, and then the two sides are rolled up together so that they meet in the middle, making a roll that is then cut into about 1⁄4 in (6 mm) slices and baked. Usually it is rolled in sugar before baking.
Varieties
In the Puerto Rican version, it is topped with honey. In Mexico and other Latin American countries they are known as orejas (ears). In Chinese, they are known as butterfly pastries. In Greek they are usually known as little glasses (γυαλάκια). Germans call them pig's ears (Schweineohren) while the Swiss call them Prussiens or "coeur de France". In Catalonia and Valencia they are called ulleres (eyeglasses) or palmeras. In Spain they are called palmeras (palm trees), and they can be topped with coconut or chocolate. In Japan since 1965, available as a popular snack, have been known as Genji Pie.
An arlette is a cinnamon-flavoured palmier biscuit.