Delicious, delicious napoleons

These were so surprisingly easy to make that my waistline may never forgive me. Its basically just puff pastry, some vanilla custard thinned with whipped cream, and berries. The perfect dessert any time. I might also add that my mom even liked them. You might be thinking to yourself, of course she did, moms like everything their children do. Well, you clearly do not know my mom. Her usual response to things goes something like this..."So mom, what do you think?" "Hmmmmm," said in a disapproving tone. So, to have her compliment both how they looked and how they tasted (even though she got hers 2 days after they were completely assembled) was really fantastically awesome.

Napoleons
adapted from Martha Stewart

Yield Makes 6

Ingredients

• For Assembling
• 1 pound  puff pastry, about 1/3 recipe
• 1/2 cup sugar, for work surface
• Strawberries, cored and sliced into bite size pieces
• For the Pastry Cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• 1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped

Directions

1.     Prepare the Puff Pastry.

2.     Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle work surface with sugar. Roll dough into a rectangle 1/8 inch thick and, using a sharp knife or a pastry cutter, cut in half. Cut each half into thirds, keeping rectangles equal sized, each approximately 6 inches by 8 inches. Water-spray two baking sheets and place pastry rectangles on them. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes. (If you only have 1 wire rack like I do and don't mind having big dents in 2 of the napoleons, you can do this on 1 baking sheet)

3.     Prick rectangles all over with fork tines (I forgot to do this and it didn't seem to make a difference). Place a wire rack over each set of pastry rectangles and bake until pastry reaches the top of the rack, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove rack and continue to bake until golden and evenly browned, about 5 to 10 minutes more. Cool completely on racks.

4.     Make pastry cream: Scald the milk, vanilla bean, and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until thick. Sprinkle in flour and cornstarch, and continue beating until well mixed.

5.     Remove vanilla bean from milk. Beat half of the hot milk into yolk mixture. Return this to remaining hot milk and bring to a boil quickly, whisking very fast to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Rub top of pastry cream with  teaspoon of butter to prevent a skin from forming. Cover with plastic wrap and cool completely. Immediately before using, fold in softly whipped cream with a wooden spoon.

6.     To assemble, slice each rectangle horizontally. Place each bottom half on a serving plate. Top with a 1/2-inch layer of pastry cream and berries. Place the top half on top of berries and repeat process with remaining rectangles. I added a small dollop of cream on top of the berries so that the top piece of pastry would stick. Garnish with berries and serve immediately. (Can be wrapped and refrigerated for a couple of days)

Even though these are best served immediately after assembly, these were still truly fantastic after being wrapped with clear wrap and put in the refrigerator for a couple of days. They didn't get the slightest bit soggy, which was my big fear.

Also, I had quite a bit of left over pastry cream that I covered with clear wrap and we used to dip berries in later in the week.