Episode 87
January 22, 2012
Napoleons

Napoleons are popular French patisserie desserts that combines several different recipes together.  Napoleons are also known as mille feuille which translates to 1000 sheets (or layers or leaves – I’ve heard it translated into all those terms).  Making Napoleons 100% from scratch is not for the weak of heart.  It takes nearly all day to make it.  If you’re able to break it up into different days you’ll thank yourself in the end.

The first recipe for napoleons is found in every classic napoleon recipe: the puff pastry.  Puff pastry is not to be confused with pate a choux which is used to make cream puffs and eclairs.  Puff pastry is a laminated dough which means that it is a dough with a layer of butter that has been rolled out over and over again to create many many layers of butter and dough.  The process for making laminated dough is further explained in the techniques pages here. It’s a very long process taking about 1-2 hours to complete (depending on if you count resting time).  Puff pastry dough freezes very well, so once you finish it you can freeze it and save it for another day.

After the puff pastry dough is made it is then rolled out into a sheet.  There are different ways to approach this depending on the size of your sheets pans and the space in your oven.  If you have a large sheet pan and not much room in your oven, you can make one large sheet.  If you have smaller sheet pans but double ovens, you can make 3 smaller sheets.  Before you bake them the dough must be docked (poked with holes using a fork or dough docker) to prevent it from rising too much or unpredictably.  You can also sprinkle on a little granulated sugar for added sweetness and mild caramelization.  The puff pastry goes into the oven at 425 degrees F to promote the puffiness.  I also recommend double panning your sheet pans to prevent them from burning on the bottom.

A baked sheet of puff pastry, before pressing down

After about 25 minutes in the oven, the puff pastry is removed from the heat and is actually pressed down to compress the layers.  It is very important that the puff pastry be baked thoroughly to the core so there is no raw dough in the center of the puff pastry.  In addition, because of the butter’s greasiness if the layers are not fully cooked, they will become soggy.  The layers are squished down with another sheet pan so that they are easier to handle in assembling the napoleons.  Simply take a piece of parchment paper and place it on top of the baked puff pastry and then press it all down with another sheet pan.  Bake the entire product just like this (sheet pan on top and all) for another 8 – 10 minutes.

Once it comes out of the oven at this point there are multiple directions to go.  I’ve made two different style napoleons in my baking career so far.  The first style is the one I learned from school which is the one I demonstrate in the video.  It uses a glazing or poured fondant for decoration on the top.  The second style is one I learned in the grocery store and is significantly easier.  For the second one, you wait until the puff pastry is completely cooled then sprinkle on (using a sieve) a thin layer of powdered sugar and then bake it in a hot oven (about 450 – 500 degrees F) until the powdered sugar caramelizes.  Take care not to allow the puff pastry to burn.  These caramelized layers are removed from the heat and allowed to cool completely.

Once the layers are completely cooled they are then cut to the same size using a sharp knife.  This can be done by measuring but it’s even easier to cut one piece, then using it as a template cut two more pieces.  You need three pieces all together (though some napoleons are made with only two pieces).

At this point you can be creative and use a variety of fillings and glazes.  I used apricot glaze and diplomat cream.  The apricot glaze was used to glaze each and every layer and side.  This helps keep the puff pastry from getting soggy from the diplomat cream or the glazing fondant.  It also helps the toasted almonds stick to the sides.  Diplomat cream is a pastry cream that has been lightened with whipped cream.  I like it more than plain pastry cream because it is much lighter and stretches your pastry cream further.

To assemble the napoleon, take a cut layer of puff pastry, glaze it with apricot glaze, fill it with pastry cream, and then repeat.  The final layer will just get apricot glaze.  If you did the caramelization method (method 2 from the grocery store) you will not need apricot glaze at all.

For the top of traditional napoleons a glazing or poured fondant is used.  This is the same kind of icing that is used to decorate petits fours glace.  Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of requests for a homemade glazing fondant recipe so I decided to ask the baking and pastry forum I belong to for some advice.  I ended up creating a separate video (also attached to this blog post) on how to make the two best recipes.  The recipes were chosen because they were easy and they were most like real glazing fondant.  If you prefer to use commercially produced glazing fondant, the online pastry community is abuzz over Caullet glazing fondant.

Whichever glazing fondant you use, you want to warm it up gently to between 100 – 110 degrees F though keeping it below 100 degrees if best.  You also want to thin out your fondant with a 2:1 ratio of simple syrup.  To make the simple syrup take 2 parts sugar (1#) to 1 part water (8 ounces) and bring them to a boil with a pinch of cream of tartar.  Once it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and allow to cool.  Sometimes an extra splash or two of water helps get the consistency correct but the simple syrup will get you a nice texture and a nice shine.

Once your glazing fondant is ready, pour a layer of it on top of the napoleon and push it all the way to the edge.  It’s okay if it goes over slightly.  Then taking melted tempered chocolate or melted coating chocolate create the napoleon style decoration on top.  You can view the method in the video or visit the link here on the decorations page for a step-by-step picture tutorial.  After the decoration is finished, press on the toasted almonds along the side (using more apricot glaze if necessary) and you’re finished!

Serving napoleons is a bit of a struggle.  At the grocery store we had a special tool that

Show your guests your finished napoleon. That way if it gets destroyed while it's sliced, at least they saw how it used to look.

allowed us to cut perfect slices but even then diplomat cream oozed out the sides (we would clean it up with bench scraper then wrap them up in plastic sheets to hold them in place).  It helps to refrigerate the napoleon for about an hour or so, but the diplomat cream is still very soft.  Be sure to show your guests your finished napoleon before serving, as it is very likely it will get destroyed in the process.

If there’s anything I realized from making this recipe from scratch by myself it’s that people a long time ago had a ton of free time.  Feel free to take short cuts such as using frozen puff pastry dough.  If there’s anything you get from this episode, I hope it’s an appreciation of how much time and effort goes into this kind of dessert.  Many times we can take for granted how much time and skill it takes to make pastries since all we see is the finished product.  Show your bakers your appreciation with a sincere compliment and send your friends their way to support their business.

Here are the recipes for puff pastry dough, the diplomat cream (use a half batch of the smallest batch), the apricot glaze, and the new glazing/poured fondant recipes.  Once you have those recipes the Napoleon recipe details how to assemble it.  Enjoy the videos below!

More on glazing fondant

As I mentioned I asked a baking forum I belong to about a good solid homemade glazing fondant recipe.  In the glazing fondant video I cover the my two favorites.

The first method comes from Sarah Scott who simply suggested thinning out rolled fondant with a liquid.  This method is perfect for bakers who use premade fondant (like Satin Ice, Wilton, and possibly marshmallow fondant) and have a ton left over.  After the fondant sets up, it is still soft like rolled fondant so it’s not suitable for stacking but it has a nice bite.

The second glazing fondant method or recipe was pointed out to me by Lisa Ellis and is from Sharon Zambito’s website Sharon Sugar Shack.  It is more like a cookie icing but still uses very few readily available ingredients: powdered sugar, whole milk, corn syrup, and extracts.  This method is great for bakers who don’t have access to rolled fondant or need a quick recipe.  I start off with two tablespoons each of whole milk and corn syrup and work my way up from them.  This allows you to be in control of the icing.  I usually end somewhere around 5 1/2 tablespoons each and you want to make sure you’re adding in a tablespoon or so of each as you’re making the icing.  This poured fondant sets up very hard, especially in the fridge, and has a nice shine to it.  It does have a gritty texture because of the powdered sugar.

Thank you to everyone who gave me glazing fondant recipes to try out!