In its simplest and traditional form, a palmier is puff pastry dough that is sprinkled with granulated sugar, folded and rolled several times, then cut into thin strips and baked. As an alternative to the pastry heavy mince pie, this year I decided instead to make mincemeat palmiers.
Makes around 20
Ingredients
1 jar (around 400g) good quality mincemeat
1 piece stem ginger, finely chopped
zest of an orange, finely chopped
1 tsp each of Cointreau and Cognac (or whatever spirit you fancy)
1 sheet ready rolled all-butter puff pastry
1 small egg beaten
handful flaked almonds (optional)
granulated sugar
ground cinnamon
Method
- In a bowl mix together the mincemeat, ginger, orange zest and spirits.
- Unroll the pastry, leaving it on its paper, and gently spread the mincemeat mixture all over the pastry.
- Roll up the long side of the pastry in towards the middle and do the same on the other side.
- Brush the inner edges of pastry with beaten egg and bring the two sides together to seal.
- Place seam side down on the paper and transfer to the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and prepare 2 baking trays by lining with greaseproof paper.
- Take the pastry out of the fridge and using a bread knife (a serrated knife works best) cut 1cm slices.
- Lay the slices flat on the baking tray and brush the outer pastry edges with the egg.
- Poke a few almonds in and around the mincemeat, you can have them standing up like shards, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
- Bake in the oven for 10-20 minutes until the pastry is golden.
- Transfer the cooked palmiers, still on the greaseproof, to a cooling tray and leave to cool completely. When cold, the bottoms of the palmiers will be satisfyingly sticky!