Princess Su Butterfly Pastry (Palmiers): Assorted Flavours Reviewed (Original, Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate Nut, Hazelnut, Strawberry, Coconut, Earl Grey, Scallion Oil, Quinoa, Sesame)

I recently discovered a French-style patisserie bakery in Shanghai called Princess Su Butterfly Pastry (苏王妃蝴蝶酥) specialising in French-style palmiers. It seems to have originated in Shanghai, although I couldn't find details on its establishment or when it was founded.

Princess Su Butterfly Pastry - gift box with Original Plain, Hazelnut, Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate, Strawberry Chocolate and Coconut Palmiers

What I really loved about it was its multitude of different flavours, spanning Asian or Chinese ones, a mix of sweet and savoury ones, chocolate-coated flavours and even subtler grain-based ones such as quinoa. In total, I tried the following: Original Plain Palmier, Sea Salt Palmier, Dark Chocolate Nut Palmier, Hazelnut-Filled Palmier, Strawberry-Flavoured Palmier (coated with strawberry-flavoured chocolate), Coconut Palmier, Earl Grey Palmier, Scallion Oil Palmier, Quinoa Palmier and Sesame Palmier. It was a total of 10 flavours.

Princess Su Butterfly Pastry - Original Plain, Hazelnut, Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate, Strawberry Chocolate and Coconut Palmiers

More importantly, they seemed to use pure ingredients with little to no preservatives. The ingredients list (see photo below) for the box-set flavours lists wheat flour, butter, water, pasteurised milk, full cream milk powder, sugar, honey and salt. For the other respective flavours, they also used natural ingredients to flavour them, such as shredded coconut, sea salt, condensed milk, hazelnut, almond, cocoa butter, vanilla bean extract and even real freeze-dried strawberries. I didn't see any margarine or additives with chemical names. They also seemed to have an expiry date of 90 days, which is decently short and indicative of a lack of preservatives. (Although the Japanese natural bakeries have an even shorter indicative expiry date of around 1.5 months and those tend to use dessicants which were absent in Princess Su's individual wrappers.)

Princess Su Butterfly Pastry - Earl Grey, Quinoa, Scallion Oil and Sesame Palmiers

They also came nicely individually wrapped, so they would make perfect gifts and treats for colleagues and friends after a trip to Shanghai, especially if you're not from the West perhaps. They even have a fancy boxed set of 6-flavours which is visually impressive as a gift, although I wouldn't recommend it for personal consumption as I thought that the loose mix-and-match flavours were nicer. (Photos of the different packaging are featured further below.)

Now, on to the individual flavour reviews.

Original Plain Palmier

I started here. To be honest, for a specialist selling individually-wrapped palmiers, I felt that this was somewhat underwhelming. It was clearly butter-based, had a nice crisp texture and had a good full-body wheat flavour.

But I felt that the butter's milkiness did not punch through as strongly as other pastries that focus on the butter's richness. It did not taste as rich and buttery as a gourmet butter pastry.

Furthermore, the amount of salt was a bit lacking, and usually for such French pastries, a good amount of salt is needed for the butter's richness and wheat's fullness to pop.

That said, it is of a good basic quality and better than any other shelf-stable pre-packed palmier I've had. It would not compare to a freshly baked palmier eaten at a cafe of bakery, but it is decent as a souvenir or gift, and I would have no issues eating a few of these at one go.

Sea Salt Palmier

I thought this flavour would improve on the original by being more satisfyingly salty. However, the amount of salt remained the same, so once again, it lacked that little bit more punch to bring it to premium gourmet territory.

However, possibly due to the condensed milk added, it came across as a lot richer and creamier, making up for the slight lack of richness from the original's butter. So it is definitely still an improvement.

If you love the pure palmier pastry taste and like to binge on more than one at a go, this would be a better, heartier and more satisfying pick than the original plain palmier.

Dark Chocolate Nut Palmier

Despite the pure ingredients listed and the use of almonds for extra texture, this flavour turned out to be a disappointment.

The chocolate coating somehow came across as synthetic and was very reminiscent of the chocolate Pocky stick coating, and they do use vegetable oil in Pocky. So I have no idea what went wrong, but I would totally avoid this flavour altogether. The pastry is worse off with the chocolate coating than plain.

Hazelnut-Filled Palmier

This was one of my favourite flavours. The hazelnut filling tasted very natural, earthy and woody, and it was a perfect complement to the buttery and comforting pastry. The nutty flavour was also prominent, and I could clearly taste that it was hazelnut instead of any other nut.

They also didn't add too much sugar to it, so the nut filling's flavour was not too jarring or contrived, making it come across more as a fresh bakery item rather than a shelf-stable pre-packed snack.

Strawberry-Flavoured Palmier (coated with strawberry-flavoured chocolate)

Princess Su Butterfly Pastry - Strawberry-Flavoured Palmier

This strawberry chocolate coating was a completely opposite experience from the dark chocolate one, a delightful surprise and one of my favourite chocolate coated pastries, possibly even better than Gateau Festa Harada's chocolate coated rusk.

Firstly, the strawberry coating was perfectly done. The fruity berry notes came across prominently, with a characteristic satisfying tang that is reminiscent of raspberries. which brings a delightful pop to the berry fruitiness. The freeze-dried strawberry bits were also perfectly crunchy and a great complement to the pastry's mildly crisp crunch. The coating also wasn't so sweet.

The most important part is that the buttery and wheaty pastry flavour still shines through in a balanced way, without the coating overwhelming the pastry's contribution. This is where it outshines Gateau Festa Harada's chocolate-coated rusks, which have a nice coating flavour but which completely drown out the rusk's buttery bread taste. I think Princess Su achieves this by only having half the pastry coated, and also by making the chocolate a tad less sweet, so the other flavours feature more prominently.

Coconut Palmier

This was another subtle and natural-tasting flavour which I liked. I find it interesting that they chose to flavour it by also sprinkling the shredded coconut into the pastry, in addition to the coconut filling in the middle of the fold.

It reminded me of coconut-flavoured Southeast Asian snacks, such as the traditional love letters (kuih kapit or kueh belanda) in Singapore and or Thong Muan in Thailand, which are crispy wafers made from coconut milk. But this had an extra richness from the butter, so it was a tad fuller and more rounded compared to the Southeast Asian ones with only the earthiness and nuttiness from the coconut milk.

It wasn't one of my favourite flavours because I am well-exposed to coconut milk snacks in the region, but if you're not from Southeast Asia, this would be a very natural tasting variation on the normal palmier.

Earl Grey Palmier

This was another of my favourite flavours because the earl grey flavour came out strongly, and the fragrant citrusy and woody tea notes in the top notes added a good and distinct complexity to the buttery wheat in the body or mid-notes in a delicate way which no other flavour achieved. (The other one with strong top notes was the strawberry one, but that flavour was a lot more intense than this one due to the chocolate coating, so it was a different experience.)

I also think that it's an unusual pairing not found in French pastries, so it is quite a unique flavour offered by Princess Su.

Scallion Oil Palmier

This flavour is another characteristically Asian and especially Oriental flavour, so it was a very interesting one to try. The scallion oil flavour did feature distinctly, but somewhat subtly, and it was a nuanced and savoury pairing with the buttery pastry.

What is good is that it is not as overpowering as the scallion oil in some heavily flavoured savoury Chinese pastries such as the salted bean pastry, so you can appreciate the balance between the pastry and the scallion oil fragrance. But if you prefer intense savoury flavours that pack a punch, this will not satisfy.

As I am well-exposed to intensely flavoured savoury Chinese pastries strongly flavoured by scallion oil, this flavour did not catch my attention, but if you are from a non-Oriental region such as the West, this would be another interesting flavour to try, bring home and share.

Quinoa Palmier

This was the most unusual and unexpected flavour for me. I normally don't even notice quinoa having any flavour, so I didn't understand what the value of adding it to the pastry would be in terms of taste. I thought it might be a health gimmick.

But interestingly, there was a distinct but once again mild cereal-like grain taste. Think of cereal milk based on grains such as wheat, whole grains or bran (not corn), except without the milk or sweetness. It came across as the whole-wheat version of palmiers, similarly earthy, except with more malty notes than whole wheat bread.

If you like healthy whole grain pastries and breads, you might prefer this over the original plain or sea salt palmiers.

Sesame Palmier

This is the most typically Oriental flavour. I could taste a distinct but once again naturally mild sesame fragrance and earthiness. It leaned a bit more towards a black sesame taste with stronger earthiness compared to a white sesame taste which I might characterise as more fragrant and nutty.

Once again, since I am well-exposed to this flavour and there are many other pastries with much more intense sesame fragrance and flavour, it did not rank as one of my favourites.

But if you like a more natural grain flavour that leans more earthy rather than malty or that is more characteristically from Asia, then I would pick this one over the quinoa palmier.

Verdict

Overall, all the flavours are great depending on your preferences, except for the dark chocolate palmier. Their shape makes them especially pretty, and being individually wrapped with some nice packaging (see below) also makes them presentable as gifts and very shareable as souvenirs.

My favourite was the hazelnut palmier and the earl grey palmier.

If you want to try something more distinctly Asian, I would recomment the coconut palmier or for something more unique and hearty, the scallion oil flavour.

If you like intense and satisfying flavours like in chocolate, the strawberry chocolate palmier would be my pick.

Ingredients List

This is the ingredients list for the 6 flavours in the gift box. (Click to enlarge.) These would be the original plain palmier, hazelnut palmier, sea salt palmier, coconut palmier, dark chocolate palmier and strawberry chocolate palmier. As mentioned, it's all natural flavours. You can also see the shelf life of 90 days.

Packaging

I saw 2 main types of packaging. For the most premium type, it would be the box set as previously shown (more photos below too), which would be perfect for gifting, even coming with a ribbon. There are 3 pieces of 6 flavours for a total of 18. The flavours seem fixed however, so you can't swop out flavours you dislike such as the dark chocolate one. But this is the most presentable.

Princess Su Butterfly Pastry - Gift Box flavours info sheet

But for personal consumption, I recommend the mix-and-match flavours. They are charged by weight (see the receipt below, click to enlarge) and are packed in this large bag that can be closed with a bendy wire. It is actually also very presentable as a gift, so if you are giving it to someone close, you can use this packaging and pick more of the nicer flavours. You just pay RMB2.5 for the bag, which is very reasonable.