Nutty Napoleons Recipes

PISTACHIO NUT NAPOLEON

Steps:

• Thaw one package puff pastry. Cover work space with thinly spread flour. Unfold the of puff pastry and cut along the folds for 3 pieces and decide how large you want your napoleons. Can cut into 3, 4 or 5 pieces. Place on a baking sheet and you can add an eggwash to the top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack. When cooled use a serrated knife to cut each piece into 2 pieces.
• In a mixing bowl add the whipping cream, milk and the 2 boxes of pudding and mix with a handmixer until all is mixed and nice and thick.
• For the glaze mix the cocoa and hot coffee and add the icing sugar by spoon fulls until it makes a nice glaze when you dip a fork into it and it runs in a nice thin stream. Add a teaspoon of clear karo syrup.
• Start with the bottom of the puff pastry and add the pudding mix and layer it quite thick on all the bottom layers first so they are similar in height. Add the top layer of puff pastry. Dust with icing sugar and then drizzle with the chocolate glaze.

CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT NAPOLEONS

Steps:

• Make hazelnut crème:
• Melt chocolate with Nutella and keep warm.
• Beat cream with an electric mixer until it just holds soft peaks, then chill.
• Beat egg and yolks in cleaned mixer bowl with cleaned beaters at high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, bring sugar, water, and corn syrup to a boil in a 1-qt heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until sugar has dissolved. Continue to boil, undisturbed, until candy thermometer registers 238°F (soft-ball stage; you will need to tilt pan to get temperature), about 4 minutes.
• Reduce mixer speed to medium and add hot sugar mixture to eggs in a slow steam (try to avoid beaters and side of bowl), then beat until mixture is pale, thick, tripled in volume, and completely cool, about 5 minutes.
• Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture. Fold in one third of whipped cream to lighten, then fold in remaining whipped cream gently but thoroughly. Chill at least 4 hours.
• Candy hazelnuts:
• Line a baking pan with foil (shiny side up).
• Heat sugar in a heavy 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. Add hazelnuts, stirring until coated. Transfer to foil and cool completely, then coarsely chop.
• Bake pastry:
• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Line a large heavy baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll out puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 17- by 10-inch rectangle (about 1/8 inch thick). Transfer to baking sheet, then cover with a sheet of parchment and top with a heavy baking sheet or sheet pan to weight down. Bake until pale golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, stir together corn syrup and water.
• Remove top baking sheet and parchment. Generously brush pastry with corn syrup mixture and cover with parchment, then invert pastry and brush other side with corn syrup mixture. Replace parchment and baking sheet and bake until deep golden and crisp, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool completely.
• Using a serrated knife, trim edges of pastry, then halve lengthwise and cut each half into 8 equal rectangles for a total of 16 rectangles.
• Assemble dessert:
• Arrange 8 rectangles on a baking sheet and dust with confectioners' sugar to cover. (To mark pastry decoratively, see cooks' note, below.)
• Dab a small amount of hazelnut crème in center of 8 plates, then put an undecorated pastry rectangle on top. Divide remaining hazelnut crème among pastry rectangles. Sprinkle with some of the candied hazelnuts and top with decorated pastry rectangles. Sprinkle with more candied hazelnuts.
• Do Ahead
• Hazelnut crème can be chilled up to 2 days. Candied hazelnuts keep in an airtight container 3 weeks. Pastry can be baked 2 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

LEMON MOUSSE NAPOLEONS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Finely grind 1/3 cup pistachios with sugar, coriander, and cardamom in a food processor. Finely chop remaining pistachios and reserve.
• Put stack of phyllo sheets on a work surface and cover with 2 overlapping sheets of plastic wrap and a dampened kitchen towel. Put 1 phyllo sheet on a cutting board and brush with some butter. Sprinkle phyllo sheet evenly with half of nut sugar, then top with another sheet of phyllo. Brush phyllo with some butter and sprinkle with remaining nut sugar. Top with remaining phyllo sheet, pressing down gently, then brush with remaining butter. Chill phyllo 10 minutes.
• Trim edges of phyllo with a sharp knife to make 1 (15- by 12-inch) rectangle. Cut stack lengthwise to make 4 (3-inch-wide) strips, then cut strips crosswise into 5 (3-inch) squares, forming 20 total. Halve each square diagonally, then carefully transfer triangles, 1 at a time, with a spatula onto a parchment-lined large baking sheet, spacing them 1/4inch apart. Cover triangles with another piece of parchment and a baking sheet (as a weight). Bake in lower third of oven until golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove top baking sheet and carefully peel off top parchment (some phyllo may stick to it), then cool crisps on baking sheet on a rack.
• Beat cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until it holds soft peaks, then gently fold in lemon curd.
• Put 1 crisp on each of 8 plates. Top each crisp with 1 heaping tablespoon mousse, then layer with another crisp and tablespoon mousse. Top with crisps. Sprinkle reserved chopped nuts around napoleons.

MINIATURE ROQUEFORT NAPOLEONS

Steps:

• On a lightly floured surface, working with 1 half of the pastry at a time, roll out the pastry to form 16- by 12-inch rectangles and transfer each rectangle to a baking sheet. On 1 of the baking sheet draw 2 shallow crosswise lines with a blunt knife, dividing the sheet into thirds, and sprinkle the walnuts over two thirds of the pastry sheet. Cover each pastry sheet directly with the buttered bottom surface of another baking sheet to weight it. Bake the pastry sheets in a preheated 400°F.oven for 5 minutes, remove the baking sheet weights, and with a fork prick the pastry sheet all over. Return the baking sheet weights to the pastry sheets for 10 minutes more, and remove the baking sheet weights. Prick the pastry sheets again, switch the baking sheets in the oven so the pastry sheets bake evenly, and bake the pastry sheets for 7 to 10 minutes more, or until they are crisp and golden. While the pastry sheets are still warm, with a pastry wheel cut each sheet crosswise into sixteen 1-inch strips and cut the strips into sixths, making ninety-six 2-by 1-inch rectangles per sheet. The pastry rectangles may be made 1 day in advance and kept, covered with plastic wrap, on the baking sheets.
• In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together the Roquefort, the cream cheese, the lemon juice, the white pepper, and salt to taste until the mixture is creamy and smooth. The filling may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Let the filling return to room temperature before spreading it.
• Spread a thin layer of the filling on each of the rectangles without walnuts. To assemble each napoleon stack 2 Roquefort-topped layers and top them with a walnut topped layer.