Napoleons!!

Cafe Society
1

(for the rollover: the dessert, not Dynamite, not the game, not the Emperor…)

So I’m making dessert for company this weekend and want to take my Napoleons out of the experimental stage and into bringing-worthy. Here’s what I have so far…

I start with laying out a sheet of phyllo dough on parchment paper, slathering the dough with melted butter, layering another sheet, and repeating for three or four layers. I make a couple pans of these, then slice through them with a pizza cutter to make diamondish rectangles. Bake for about ten to fifteen minutes until the edges are browned and crispy.

I make a basic vanilla pudding (pretty much transcribed from a Joy of Cooking from the sixties), and have it chilled enough to have set up but not completely congealed.

I have whipping cream on hand, either to whip up manually (well, with an electric mixer) or with a nitrous-based charger (er, that’s a whipped cream charger, not a fast Dodge charger).

Then in a loose jacket of waxed paper (a simple cutout, mainly to keep things together in my clumsy hands) I layer a flat of phyllo, pudding, cream, phyllo, pudding, cream, phyllo – then a final smattering of cream topped with a hint of chocolate dust and shavings for aesthetic appeal.

I don’t think it’s that appalling to use prepared phyllo dough, but I can’t help but think it’s a bit Philistine to use pudding, and definitely not traditional to use regular whipped cream. I’d really like to be able to prepare them a day in advance to give the pudding/whatnot a chance to work through the dough, so regular whipped cream is pretty much out.

So, anyone here make these things? Anyone here want to help out with a couple suggestions?

Thanks!

Rhythm

2

Hm, I learned to make them with puff pastry. Well I also learned to start by making the puff pastry, but you can buy it=) Just cut the puff pastry into lozenges [diamond shapes] gently prick the top a few times with a fork and bake, then do the layer thing.

3

I think the simplest suggestion I could offer without changing your dessert is to incorporate thin slices of bannanas. Banana pudding is a classic and tried and true. Can’t go wrong there. {Really any fruit would work).

…For something a little different maybe try thin disks of kiwi layered on the creme anglaise pudding, with some thin or not quite stiff whipped cream. Top the napoleon with a round of goat cheese sprinled with sugar and torched.

If I were doing it, I’d try to keep the texture of the crispy phyllo and do it ala minute, instead.

4

You can call the kiwi and goat cheese napolean a New Zealander or a down under Napoleon, or something like that. But, I’m sure you can come up with something better.

5

Maybe layer a sprinkling of sugar and some sweet spices (or even curry!) between your phyllo before baking. Again, be sure to serve them crispy…

6

I vote for strawberry slices and a wee bit more chocolate. Mmmmm. Napoleon.

(Nussbaum is the Napoleon of crime.)

7

Heh… the first time out I tried my hand at these I actually started with a banana pudding—delicious! I’ve gone to plain vanilla in my quest for the basic Napoleon starting point.

Whenever I think puff pastry I think of something thicker than the micro-thin layers of phyllo dough that alternate between brittle and thickly stable. Then again, when it comes to just about any dough other than bread I tend to go the prepared route, so perhaps my recollections and experiences are off. Suggestions?

As for letting them sit, what I’ve found (in the very few times I’ve tried) is that letting them sit for a night means much of the dough becomes not quite saturated with the filling, but thoroughly infused with it. All edges and the centers of the stacks (remember, it’s about four or so thin layers per story) stay some sort of crispy, ranging from untouched to Life-ceral-that’s-almost-been-in-the-bowl-tool-long.

But it’s been a few years since I lived in the City, so I just can’t place my finger on (or in!) the filling consistency – there was definitely some sort of unique pastry cream going on there, not just regular whipped cream, and the filling, well, it wasn’t just pudding (not that puddin’s not delicious!). I guess the bottom line is that these are great Rhyth-oleons, but not quite what I’m shooting for—hence the op.

Oh, and you’re definitely right about the berry garnishes!

8

Fruit in a mille feuille? Ridiculous.

All you need is:

pastry dough (good and buttery)
custard
whipping cream
more pastry dough
wet super-thick icing sugar
lines of dark chocolate
a knife to score the chocolate lines into the classic {{{ design

9

New Zealander

Prepare a traditional Pastry Cream or Creme Patisserie according to this recipe from joyofbaking.com (a classic and very good recipe)-

Pastry Cream
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/8 cup (20 grams) all-purpose flour
Scant 3 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch
3/4 tablespoon (10 ml) liqueur (Grand Marnier, Brandy, Kirsch)
In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.) Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.
Meanwhile in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture. (The vanilla bean can be dried and placed in your sugar bowl to give the sugar a vanilla flavor. This sugar can then be used in baking where you would like a vanilla-flavored sugar, e.g. pies, cakes, cookies.)
Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 - 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.
Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the liqueur (if using). Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.
Next step…
-Cream 4-6 ozs.of soft chevre goat cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and homogenous. Fold in a few tablespoons of pastry cream until it is incorporated, add this mixture to the rest of the pastry cream and fold thouroughly until a smooth creme.
-Lightly whip a cup of heavy whipping cream with a tablespoon of sugar
-Layer three pieces of phyllo, brushing it with butter and sprinkling a complete covering of sugar, masala curry powder, and Japanese 7 pepper (shichimi togarashi). Use a pizza cutter to mark out Diamonds, Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes until crisp.
-Thinly slice peeled kiwi fruit.
-Wash some New Zealand Black Currants, reserve half and make the remaining into a black currant couli by blending with sugar and citrus into a sauce.
-Layer the goat cheese Pastry creme on a diamond of curry shichimi phyllo with thin slices of kiwi. Top with a piece of phyllo, with a layer of whipped cream sprinkled with some fresh Black Currants. Repeat.
-Top with a final and fifth diamond of phyllo… spread with the thin whipped cream with stripes of black currant couli. Run a tooth pick up and down through the topping for a beautiful design.
-Napoleon down under.