Zekra Tahini Palmiers
Scaled amounts are a guide — baking times and pan sizes do not scale with them.
Ingredients
- 500 g all-butter puff pastry (homemade or good-quality store-bought)
- 150-200 g granulated or demerara sugar, for rolling
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp date syrup (dibs)
- Pinch of salt
The classic palmier on this site is only two ingredients: puff pastry and sugar. Zekra's version keeps both and adds a third — a thin spread of tahini loosened with date syrup, brushed over the sugared pastry before it is folded. The tahini toasts as the sugar caramelises and leaves a sesame bitterness that cuts the sweetness, which is the whole point of the change; the date syrup is there to make the tahini spreadable, not to sweeten further. Use it sparingly: too much and the layers slide apart in the oven. The folding, chilling and flipping halfway through baking are unchanged.
Method
Stir the tahini, date syrup and salt together into a thin, spreadable paste.
Scatter a layer of sugar on the work surface and roll the puff pastry out over it, pressing the sugar into the dough. Flip it, sugar the second side and press that in as well.
Spread the tahini paste over the pastry in a very thin, even layer, leaving a clean border of about 2 cm.
Starting from one long edge, fold the pastry in toward the middle; repeat from the opposite edge so the two rolled sides meet in the centre.
Chill the folded log until firm, then slice it into pieces about 1 cm thick.
Set them cut-side up on a lined tray, spaced well apart, and bake at 200°C (400°F) for about 12 minutes.
Flip each palmier over partway through baking so both sides caramelise evenly, then bake on until deep golden.
