Nutella Palmiers

So I've decided to finally give my first try of messing with puff pastry.  I will not though make my first attempt making it from scratch.  So I bought frozen puff pastry sheets and thawed just 1 to make Nutella Palmiers.  In my house, Nutella is a staple.  It was a staple growing up and oh so good.  If Nutella could be snuck into any chocolate recipe or on it's own, I will use it.  Nutella makes anything better on just about anything!  Okay maybe I don't use it with everything but if I could, I would.

So I bought Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.  It said to thaw for about 40 minutes and that's what I did.  I rolled out the dough to be a little bigger than how it came.  Of course unfold it before folding.  I carefully spread Nutella onto the dough and rolled each end up towards the middle and gave it a slight squeeze to bring the middles to each other.  I sliced them and then placed them onto parchment lined cookie sheets until lightly golden brown.

Whenever I went into bakeries and saw Palmiers, I was instantly gravitated to them.  The best ones I ever had were from a small bakery in Woodbridge, Canada which is a city in Toronto.  That's where my cousin's live.  It has a high population of Italian residents so all the goodness of Italy is jam packed in this area.  So I don't know how they did it, but the Palmier that I had was huge, crisp and just caramelized sugary goodness! It was crisp and flaky and I was in Heaven.  Like I said, when I see Palmiers, I have to have one.  I will never forget the one in Canada.  Yum!  I think Palmiers are a rare find here in Cleveland Bakeries.  I have no idea why.  So that is why I am taking my shot to them myself.  One day though I plan on making my own puff pastry dough, but not quite yet....

So here I start with the basic frozen dough and Nutella.  You can add nuts but I didn't have hazelnuts so I skipped that.  Plus my kids aren't real fans big nut chunks so I would probably put them in the food processor and finely chop them.  So here is the basic Nutella Palmier, a little different to the typical Palmier.  It's worth the try, scrumptious puff pastry and Nutella!  Do I need another reason?

PS:  I have a really dingy camera, it's a Nikon Digital but it's not superior in taking food shots and proper lighting.  One day, One day...  I will own one of those top notch cameras, I try my best with the features it has.  Sometimes it takes really professional looking photos...

Ingredients:

1 sheet of Frozen Puff Pastry Dough (freeze the second one in plastic wrap and place back in freezer)
Nutella Spread
Finely chopped hazelnuts (optional)
mini chocolate chips (optional)
Sugar for sprinkling

Method:

Preheat over to 350' F.

Roll out puff pastry and thin it out a little making a bigger rectangle.  Not much bigger than it already is.

Spread Nutella carefully to the outer edges.  This is when you want to sprinkle with the finely chopped hazelnuts or mini chocolate chips.  If using the mini chocolate chips, use the chocolate sparingly.

Roll up one side jelly roll style towards the middle, then go to the other side and roll that end towards the middle.

Cut into thin slices and take each tip and pull ends up towards each other making a tulip type look.

*I didn't take a picture of pulling them up towards the middle, but here are the strips, just fold them back up towards each other to look like heart shaped/tulip shaped.

Sprinkle some sugar on top of them and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Place in oven and bake until lightly golden brown about 10-15 minutes (depending on your oven)

Fresh from the oven:

*My daughter pointed out how the one Palmier looked like a heart!

Makes about 18 Palmiers.

Cool completely and Enjoy!

Sweet Dreams,
Annamaria