These elephant ear pastries are tricky to make but boy, are they delicious

These crisp and flaky wafers of sugary, cinnamony, buttery pastry are known as arlettes in Britain or elephant ears in the United States. Photos: TNS

Avid fans of The Great British Baking Show may recall the episode in Season 3 when host Paul Hollywood devilishly chose as the technical challenge a pastry called an arlette.

Each face in the meadow’s white tent fell blank. Arlettes? Never heard of them. What’s an arlette? The bakers were, in a word, gutted.