Easy Napoleons

[Guest guest]

Although I was taught how to make puff pastry in the traditional manner (Merci,

Mme Yvonne), once Pepperidge Farm came out with puff pastry in the freezer

section at the grocery store, I started using it rather than the traditional

roll, fold, chill, roll, fold, chill, roll, chill, fold chill, method.

 

Following the directions on the frozen box of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry,

bake and cut baked pastry into 3 even rectangles. (Or make individual Napoleons

by dividing in more pieces and using three cooked puff pastries per Napoleon.

 

Put one cooked rectangle on serving plate and top with half of the Crème

Patissiere. (pastry cream) Place the second on top of the pastry cream covered

rectangle, then top with the rest of the pastry cream. Place the third on top

of that and frost with thin vanilla frosting. Put it in the refrigerator until

the vanilla frosting has firmed up, then pipe 6 lines of melted chocolate across

the top layer. Using a knife tip or toothpick, pull through the chocolate to

give the traditional wavey design on the top. Keep refrigerated. Cut with

sharp bread knife or serrated blade.

 

Variations:

 

Whipped Cream Napoleon - Fill layers with sweetened whipped cream, frosting

and decorating as directed above.

 

Summer Strawberry Napoleon

Make one half recipe pastry cream and one half sweetened whipped cream

 

Fresh strawberries, cut in half and sprinkled with Kirsch (optional but oh la

la)

 

Prepare puff pastry per instructions for Napoleons. On the first baked layer,

put pastry cream, then top with sliced strawberries. On the second baked layer,

put the sweetened whipped cream and more sliced strawberries.

 

Lightly frost the top layer with vanilla frosting and decorate with more

sliced strawberries. Store in refrigerator. (leftovers, yeah right, leftovers,

snicker.)

 

Crème Patissiere

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 lightly beaten large egg yolks (if pathetic little eggs, use 4)

1 1/4 cups milk

 

 

Mix sugar, cornstarch, flour and egg yolks in a saucepan. Scald milk and pour

it gradually over the egg yolk mixture, stirring rapidly the entire time with a

wire whisk. If you burn the milk, toss it out, it isn't worth using and will

ruin the pastry cream.

Cook over low heat or in a double boiler, stirring rapidly with the whisk,

until the mixture is thickened and smooth. Do NOT boil. Cool and stir in the

vanilla. (It should be thicker than pudding.)

 

Thin Vanilla Frosting

Confectioner's sugar

vanilla extract

milk or cream

 

Sorry I don't have exact amounts for this. I've made it so long, I don't even

measure. My bad.

 

Chocolate for top layer

 

Cheat! I like using about a half cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

(Gihardelli's), melted. Put the melted chocolate in a small plastic sandwich

bag and snip off a little bit of one corner, drizzle chocolate over vanilla

frosting. (I've had some success with nuking the chocolate IN the plastic bag in

the microwave, but some bags melt along with the chocolate. You'll only know if

you try.)

 

 

 

 

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