Palmiers

I made these French cookies which resemble tiny elephant ears to bring in this morning for my colleagues. The cookies are much more like pastries, their edges crunchy from caramelizing; the insides flaky and rich.

Palmiers
2 sheets of puff pastry
2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of crushed cardamom

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Grind cardamom pods in a mortar pestle until you've a fine dust. Mix the sugar, salt and cardamom dust well. On a large cutting board or counter, spread about a cup of the sugary mixture. Lay a defrosted sheet of puff pastry out. Sprinkle the pastry evenly with the sugar. Roll out the pastry to somewhere around 13x13 inches. Take one edge and roll up to the center. Do the same with the other side, you should have sort of a pretzel shape. Slice 1/2 slices and arrange on a light-coloured cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies for 6 minutes until caramelized and lightly browned on the bottom, then turn with a spatula and bake another 3 minutes, until caramelized on the other side. Transfer to a baking rack to cool. Wrap in wax paper to keep fresh.

Judging from one colleagues intake of 10 alone, I'd say they liked them.