Ina Garten's Elephant Ears

No, I'm not being rude about the Barefoot Contessa. I recently walked past her at a trade show and she was just as adorable in person as she is on the covers of her cookbooks! There is nothing wrong with her ears.

Ina Garten's recipe for palmiers, or elephant ears, is stunningly simple, and something I come back to again and again. I generally do not gravitate toward recipes that involve pre-made ingredients...but this is one heck of an exception because the only ingredient you need to add is sugar! And you need a flair for folding.

Palmiers

1 sheet of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, out of the freezer for 10 minutes
sugar

The Barefoot Contessa's recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar total, but I would suggest using 1/2 cup total, because there is always way too much sugar left on the counter at the end.

Spread half of the sugar on the counter. I also always add cinnamon:


Unfold the puff pastry and roll it out onto the sugar until it's a rectangle of about 9 x 14".

Sprinkle the surface of the rectangle with the second portion of sugar.

Fold the shorter edges in towards halfway towards the middle, then fold those edges in all the way to the middle. Then close the pastry "like a book" as she says.

Slice the pastry log with a very sharp knife into 1/4 inch cookies. Sprinkle or press any remaining sugar into the open sides of the cookies, and arrange half an inch apart on a non-stick baking sheet or a sheet lined with waxed paper or Silpat. This is essential as the sugar melts and oozes onto the baking sheets.

Bake in a 450 ­º oven, 6 min one side, 5 the other until caramelized and bubbling. They are pretty irresistible out of the oven, but if you can wait until they are cooled, they will reward you with sugary snapping and fresh pastry flavor.