These French heart cookies (or palmiers) are the easiest cookies to bake. Ever! With just 3 ingredients and 12 minutes in the oven, you get shatteringly crisp, golden cookies that taste like they came straight from a Parisian bakery!
Every year, when the holidays hit, I’m suddenly the person who wants to bake gorgeous things but also wants to lie on the couch with a mug of tea made with homemade chai masala. This French hearts recipe satisfies both personalities beautifully!
Also known as French hearts, elephant ears, pig’s ears, palm leaves, and a dozen other adorable names, these flaky, buttery, and puffy cookies shatter in the mouth and have a recipe that is zero stress, zero mess, and zero drama.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
✨ Puff pastry, sugar, and cinnamon. That’s all you need for this Palmiers cookies recipe. Light, elegant, and yummy, it’s perfect with coffee, hot chocolate, or even a glass of cold milk.
✨ This French hearts recipe is super easy. You roll, cut, sprinkle, and bake. You get the perfect combination of crisp, buttery, flaky cookies, cinnamon, and melted sugar!
✨ Palmiers are customizable in a hundred ways. Sweet, savory, chai-spiced, jam-filled. Go wild. They look fancy in all ways, like you totally spent all day making them.
✨ Wrap them in a tin with other holiday cookies (Christmas spritz cookies, wreath sugar cookies, chocolate crinkle cookies) and you have a stunning edible gift.
Recipe Ingredients
Sugar: Raw sugar is what I used for this French cookie recipe. It caramelizes and creates the signature crunchy shell. You can also use demerara sugar or regular granulated sugar.
Puff pastry is your shortcut to happiness. Use store-bought puff pastry to keep things easy. If you’re in the mood, homemade puff pastry absolutely works too. Winter months are great to make puff pastry at home and try puff pastry apple donuts, or this easy chocolate puff pastry braid, or cranberry brie puff pastry bites.
Filling: Cinnamon is optional, but I highly recommend it because classic cinnamon sugar palmiers are just delicious. You can, of course, skip the cinnamon or make:
- Make Masala Chai Palmiers (Cardamom, Clove, Ginger, Cinnamon, Black Pepper)
- Make Vanilla Sugar Palmiers
- Make Savory Palmiers With Parmesan And Herbs
- Make Jam-Filled Palmiers With Cherry Jam Or Strawberry Chia Jam
Please see the recipe card below for full information about the ingredients and quantities.
How To Make French Heart Cookies
Step 1: Set the oven to preheat and line your baking tray.
Step 2: Bring puff pastry to room temp.
Step 3: Lightly dust your work surface with flour and roll the pastry into a rectangle.
Step 4: Sprinkle cinnamon sugar generously across the sheet. Press gently with a rolling pin so the sugar sticks.
Step 5: Fold the long sides inward toward the center until they meet. (It should look like two scrolls kissing.)
Step 6: Chill the rolled log for 15–20 minutes.
Step 7: Cut into ¼-inch slices and sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top (optional but SO worth it).
Step 8: Bake 12–14 minutes until golden on top and caramelized on the bottom.
Step 9: Dust with extra cinnamon sugar right out of the oven.
Step 10: Cool, serve, and enjoy!
Top Tips
- Your pastry must be at room temperature when rolling it. So, if it’s frozen, thaw it thoroughly. Cold pastry cracks. Warm pastry rolls beautifully.
- When you roll puff pastry, the butter in it melts. When you chill the rolled log, the butter solidifies again, and that’s what gives the flaky layers.
- Don’t overcrowd the tray. They expand and puff dramatically.
- I recommend keeping an eye on the French palmiers after the 12-minute mark. Each oven is different, and the sugar on the cookies can burn easily.
- Flip halfway if your oven runs hot to get even browning.
French Hearts Recipe FAQs
Palmiers are French puff pastry cookies shaped like hearts or palm leaves, which is why they’re also called French heart cookies, elephant ears, or palm leaves cookies. Flaky, sugary, caramelized, these cookies are just so delicious!
There are two common reasons. The butter in the puff pastry was melted- so do chill the pastry log. Or the oven wasn’t hot enough when baking started.
The cookies are done when they are puffed up, golden on top, and brown on the bottom.
Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week. If they soften, just pop them in the oven to crisp back up.
📖 Recipe
French Hearts Recipe
Ingredients
- 17.3 oz Puff pastry at room temperature
- 1/3 cup Raw sugar You can use regular granulated sugar too
- 2 tsp Cinnamon powder
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F. Line a baking tray with Silpat or parchment paper.
- Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle about 14" x 12".
- Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon powder on the dough. Lightly press the sugar and cinnamon into the dough, using a rolling pin.
- Starting with one long side, start rolling the dough tightly until the center. Repeat on the other side.
- Chill the log for at least 20 minutes.
- Cut into 1/4" thick slices and place on the baking tray. Sprinkle some more sugar if you like.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until the pastry is all puffed up and golden brown in color.
- Transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before transferring to an air-tight container. Enjoy!
Notes
- Your pastry must be at room temperature when rolling it. So, if it’s frozen, thaw it thoroughly. Cold pastry cracks. Warm pastry rolls beautifully.
- When you roll puff pastry, the butter in it melts. When you chill the rolled log, the butter solidifies again, and that’s what gives the flaky layers.
- Don’t overcrowd the tray. They expand and puff dramatically.
- I recommend keeping an eye on the French palmiers after the 12-minute mark. Each oven is different, and the sugar on the cookies can burn easily.
- Flip halfway if your oven runs hot to get even browning.
Rosalie Mazure says
I'm going to make this tomorrow at work using my vanilla sugar (if I remember to grab a cup in the morning). Looks delicious and I know my residents will love it!
Natasha Minocha says
Awesome! Hope this worked out well for you and your residents!! xx