Savory Olive and Goat Cheese Palmiers
16 May
When it’s time to gather with friends for just about any occasion, Savory Olive and Goat Cheese Palmiers are one of the easiest-to-make appetizers ever. Perfect for when you need extra time to tend to other things!
What’s in a name?
This treat goes by many names, but palmier – French for palm tree – might be the most common. You might also know these as elephant ears, and maybe had a sweet version, coated in sugar and cinnamon or made with fruit spread or honey. Both the sweet and savory versions are delicious and easy to make.
Basically, easy
I haven’t talked much about how much I love the pastry class I’m taking (when I enrolled in the class I also signed up with a trainer at the gym – pretty smart). In class we’ve been learning the essentials, and puff pastry was one of our most recent recipes. Surprisingly, like most of the other basics, it was easier to make than I imagined. We made the “quick puff pastry” version, which only takes about an hour. Don’t be alarmed: the recipe in this post calls for a faster, easier pastry option!
The classic version takes a lot of time to make because large portions of butter are placed on the dough, then the dough is folded and rolled many times to ensure the butter makes its way to all the layers of the dough. The quick version incorporates the butter into the mixture and only takes four folds with rolling in between. One of these days I’ll share the recipe for the quick version, but for now, I’ll use the quickest version ever – straight from the freezer aisle of the grocery store.
Speedy and savory
For a super-quick option of puff pastry, the grocery store version works really well. To make this recipe for Savory Olive and Goat Cheese Palmiers quick and easy, I used prepared puff pastry and olive tapenade. Actually, to call it a recipe doesn’t seem right – it’s more of a set of instructions for a tasty, flaky and easy-to-make appetizer.
Recipe for Savory Olive and Goat Cheese Plamiers
Yields 16
Ingredients
- 1 package (2 sheets) prepared puff pastry dough, thawed
- 1/2 cup crumbled chèvre cheese
- 1/4 cup prepared olive tapenade (or another type, like artichoke tapenade)
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
- Coarse salt, to taste
Directions
- Allow the puff pastry dough to thaw, according to the package directions.
- Lightly flour a flat work surface.
- Place one sheet of the dough on top of the other on the floured surface, and gently roll it out to a 9x12-inch shape that is about 1/4-inch thick. (You could use each sheet of dough individually, if you prefer.)
- Spread the olive tapenade over the dough, followed by the crumbled chèvre cheese. Top with the toasted pine nuts.
- Start by rolling the short ends of the dough toward each other until the meet in the middle.
- Tightly wrap the rolled dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
- Unwrap the dough and use a serrated knife to slice the rolled dough into 1/4-inch slices, and put them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Sprinkle the tops with the coarse salt and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until they are just lightly golden.
- Serve warm.
Can you believe it – I’ve never seen a savory palmier before. The flavors look amazing and I bet the texture is just perfect. This is a fantastic idea!
Both sweet and savory are delish! Best part: so easy:)
My mouth is watering! Looks special. (Yet seems easy to assemble & enjoy.)
Mmmm…I know! I can’t wait to make an easy sweet version, too. Got a few ideas…..
This looks delicious! I love anything easy and especially if it involves olives.
Thanks Alicia! I love the “easy” part A LOT
Oh wow, what a stunning picture! The recipe is equally mouth-watering. Shall try this recipe: saving this for the weekend!!
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Thank you, Purabi! These are perfect for a get together – they taste great and look nice!
Yum! I want to try this soon.
I want to make a sweet version soon…thinking Nutella!
Love the swirls…They look fantastic! I love to try this sometime.
Thanks! They’re easy to make and you can use many different ingredients – yum!
What a delicious recipe! And they’re so beautiful to look at : ) I love an olive tapenade too…also…love the plate Patricia, it’s so pretty!
Hi Jenn – thank you! They’re so easy to make
I can’t wait to make sweet ones, next!
Is there a serving/nutrient breakdown on these?
and S says they taste good cold also!
Hey Sharyn – I didn’t do any of the nutritional content/serving, but you could look at the puff pastry package for its per serving count, then the olive tapenade and goat cheese (pine nuts are minimal). Not too much help, but that’s what I would do!
When you write that it calls for 1 pkg. Puff Pastry, do you mean the whole box or 1 wrapped pkg.? I only have 1 wrapped pkg and was wondering if that is enough fornthis recipe. Can you tell I am rather a novice with Puff Pastry?
You can use just one sheet from the box, but I combined the two sheets from one box to make it thicker dough. Let me know if they turn out!