Valentines Day Puff Pastry Palmiers For My Dad

Hi, I found this recipe while browsing for Valentines day Presents for my dad as he isn't a huge fan of sweet things and I was trying to find a yummy savoury recipe for him. It wasn't too hard but certainly not a walk in the park {easy}. As the puff pastry requires patience and resilience but if all else fails, you can just buy it. Some of the measurements are slightly off as the puff pastry recipe I used made more than what the persons original recipe used, I have altered them but I have aslo like always left the original ones up for you to view as well. Hope you enjoy...

Puff Pastry Palmiers Original Recipe

Dietary Info:
-Contains Nuts {Pesto}
-Contains Dairy {Cheese and Butter*}
-Contains Gluten {Flour}
-Unsuitable for Vegans {see above*}
-Suitable for Vegetarians












Ingredients:
-1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed {I used the recipe below}
-1/3 cup basil pesto {As the quantities were slightly different from using the puff pastry recipe I ended up using about 3/4 of a 190g jar of green pesto. But really it's up to you depending on how much pesto you enjoy}
-1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese {I used 175g of Grand Padano cheese but as it was with the pesto, you can use as much as you want/need}

Method:

1:Preheat oven to 375℉/190℃/170℃ Fan/ Gas 5.  Line a baking tray with baking paper {baking parchment in America}.  Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured board {Or work-surface}until it's an approximately 1/8 inch thick rectangle.  Spread the pesto thinly over the pastry to all four edges.  Sprinkle the cheese over the entire thing. 

2:Roll up one of the long sides of the rectangle 2-3 times until you reach the centre, then repeat with the other side.  Don't roll too tight.  Cut the roll into approximately 1/3 inch wheels and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.{Once I'd cut mine, they started to un-roll to stop this from happening, I re-rolled the pastry around it and squished it, with the palm of my hand, so that it would hold its shape better}

3:Bake for 12-15 minutes{more like 20mins for me} until palmiers are golden brown.  Cool on rack until room temperature.


Puff Pastry Recipe:
I found this recipe after browsing for puff-pastry recipes as I decided that I wanted an extra challenge instead of using shop-brought frozen pastry. I used the BBC recipe as I have used their site a few times and trust it for good quality recipes, click the link below to go straight there.
Puff Pastry Recipe

Ingredients:

-225g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
-½ tsp fine salt
-250g/9oz unsalted butter, cold but not rock hard (or you can use half butter,-half lard){I used 225g of unslated butter as that is how much I brought and a few grams here or there won't make too much a difference. Though, if you plan on doing drastic changes make sure to alter the other ingredients as well}
-150ml/¼ pint ice-cold water

Method:

1:Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, then put the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes to chill. (Keeping the flour and bowl cold will help you to get a better result later and create nice layers of pastry.)

2:Meanwhile, cut the butter into small cubes.

3:Using a round-bladed knife, stir the butter into the bowl until each piece is well coated with flour.

4:Pour in the water, then, working quickly, use the knife to bring everything together to a rough dough.{The butter won't be mixed in with the rest of it as you want streaks of butter running through your pastry so don't try to squish them into the mixture}

5:Gather the dough in the bowl using one hand, then turn it onto the work surface. Squash the dough into a fat, flat sausage, without kneading. Wrap in cling film then chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.

6:Lightly flour the work surface and the pastry. Roll out the pastry in one direction until it’s about 1cm thick and three times as long as it is wide, or about 45x15cm/18x6in. Straighten up the sides with your hands now and again, and try to keep the top and bottom edges as square as possible.

7:Fold the bottom third of the pastry up, then the top third down, to make a block about 15x15cm/6x6in. It doesn’t matter if the pastry isn’t exactly the right size - the important thing is that the corners are nice and square.

8:Turn the dough so that its open edge is facing to the right, like a book. Press the edges of the pastry together with the rolling pin.

9:Roll out and fold the pastry again, repeating this four times in all to make a smooth dough, with buttery streaks here and there. If the pastry feels greasy at any point, or starts to spring back when as you roll, then cover and chill it for 10 minutes before continuing.

10:Chill the finished pastry for an hour, or ideally overnight, before using.

11:When you use the pastry roll it out to about the thickness of a £1 coin, and cook it at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for about 30 minutes. {In our recipe, it only needed about 20mins with how thin it was and the other ingredients but if you were using this for other recipes take this into account}