Pesto Palmiers

Recently, we had a houseful of friends with us during the Thanksgiving weekend and I had an elaborate menu planned for the evening. I wanted to make something simple to serve as appetizers since I was simultaneously getting the main course ready. I always have puff pastry sheets in my freezer. They're perfect to have on hand especially when you're looking to feed a crowd with minimal effort. I used puff pastry to make 2 simple snacks- vegetable and cheese pinwheels and these savory pesto palmiers.

For the pinwheels, I got the filling ready ahead of time and kept it in the refrigerator till I was ready to make them.

For the palmiers, I just followed Ina Garten's recipe. I had a small amount of store bought pesto and some sun-dried tomatoes in oil that needed to be used up so that's what I used.

Pesto Palmiers

Ingredients:

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from a 17.3-ounce package), thawed according to package instructions

Flour (for rolling out the puff pastry)

Pesto

Sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

Pepper

A handful of coarsely chopped walnuts

Powdered Pecorino Romano

Method:

On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry sheet out to a rectangle and thin it out a bit.

Pulse together the sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, cheese, pepper and walnuts a couple of times to get a coarse paste.

Spread the paste as evenly as possible over the pastry sheet. Roll up the longer sides of the rectangle towards the center so they meet somewhere in the middle. Tightly wrap using plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Slice the chilled log into 1/2- inch slices and place onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the palmiers are golden brown. Turn the palmiers over once halfway through baking process if required.

Serve hot. They taste best straight out of the oven.