Napoleons
Napoleons (Mille-Feuilles) are one of the classics of French p¢tisserie and deservedly so. However, those purchased from pastry shops are often a disappointment, with soggy pastry and an overly sweet fondant topping. My version will restore your faith in Napoleons and provide you and your guests with the delightful dessert experience of flaky, crisp, and buttery pastry contrasting with a luscious vanilla pastry cream.
To begin, puff pastry, either homemade or store bought, is rolled thin and draped over the bottom of a large baking pan. After resting in the refrigerator, the dough is docked with the tines of a fork to prevent it rising too much and baked until crisp.
Once cool, it is cut into three long rectangles. The rectangles selected for the bottom and the middle of the assembled Napoleon are brushed with strained raspberry preserves, which adds a nice background flavor and helps keep the pastry crisp. No more than four hours before dinner a lightened pastry cream is spread over the bottom and middle layers and the Napoleon is assembled.
On the top, the fondant is replaced by a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, which can be marked with crosshatch marks by a very hot knife. This is only recommended if you are adventurous and have an old kitchen knife you no longer use.
A note on slicing into portions – I constructed the Napoleon for smaller slices than those of pastry shops, which I believe looks better on the plate and is more than enough of a taste experience.
Napoleons are a big project, but it can easily be broken up into stages. The puff pastry sheet can be rolled out the day before, or frozen for up to a month. The pastry cream can be made up to two days ahead. With this mise en place done, the day of is simply baking and assembling.
Do try this for a dinner party one day, your guests will love you for it.
Napoleons
| Yield: 6 | # of servings: 6 |
Ingredients:
18 oz Puff Pastry or 1 box store bought frozen puff pastry
1 recipe Pastry Cream
1 cup (8 fl oz) heavy cream
1 cup raspberry preserves, strained
Confectioners’ sugar, as needed
Special tools and equipment:
- Half sheet pan (17.5†by 12.5â€) with parchment paper sheet
- Fine mesh strainer
- Small offset spatula
- 21†pastry bag with plain round tip, optional
- Kitchen torch (optional)
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Clear a space in the refrigerator to hold the 17.5†by 12.5†half sheet pan
- Clear space on your work counter or kitchen island to roll out the puff pastry.
- Heat the raspberry preserves until just warm enough to slightly liquify and pass through a small fine mesh strainer. Set aside.
Directions
Rolling out and baking the pastry:
- Roll the puff pastry into a rectangle at least 18 by 13â€. Roll the dough over the rolling pin, then drape it over the half sheet pan. The dough will extend over the sides.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The whole pan may be well wrapped with plastic film and frozen for up to one month.
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F.
- Remove dough sheet from the refrigerator and, using the tines of a fork, press holes around the entire sheet, approximately 2†apart.
- Bake the puff pastry for between 20 and 25 minutes, until golden brown.
- Turn off and let pastry sit in oven for 5 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven and place on a rack to thoroughly cool.
Preparing the cream:
- Place 2 cups (18.5 oz) of pastry cream in a medium metal bowl.
- Whip the cream until just medium peaks. Mix a large spoonful of whipped cream into the pastry cream, then fold in the remainder just until combined. Set aside.
Assembling the Napoleon:
- Remove the baked puff pastry sheet from pan to a large cutting board.
- With a serrated knife, trim ¼â€ off all the edges of the pastry.
- Using a ruler, or a cardboard template, cut the pastry sheet into three 3 ¼â€œ by 13†strips. Save the best strip for the top.
- With the bottom strip and the middle strip flat side down, gently brush with the strained raspberry preserves.
- Using either a pastry bag to pipe out, or a spoon or rubber spatula, spread one half the cream on top of the bottom layer. Use a small offset spatula to even it out.
- Place the second strip, flat side down, and gently press onto the cream. Spread the remaining cream over the second strip.
- Place the third strip, this time flat side up, over the cream and gently press onto the cream.
- Dust generously with confectioners’ sugar.
- Optional: heat an old kitchen knife over a flame and press hatch marks into the confectioners’ sugar,
- Using a sharp serrated knife, trim the ends of the napoleon so it is 12†long. Save these trimmings ae your treat when finished. You should now have a rectangle 3 ¼â€œ wide by 12†long.
- Using a ruler to gently mark 2†sections, cut into six (6) slices.
- Keep refrigerated, serve the same day.
