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Originally I wanted to make these in time for the premiere challenge for Dessert Wars and also also to coincide with World Nutella Day, but I missed the deadline. Not being at home and at the mercy of borrowing someone else’s kitchen did me in.
I forged ahead after missing the deadline mostly because I had never made Naopleons before. I just hoped it wouldn’t be my Waterloo.
Thankfully, making these were way easier than I anticipated and the improvised Nutella custard was a real treat. It’s the kind of thing you do not want to have leftover because you will inevitably find yourself in front of the fridge at 11 pm digging into it. Not me of course. Just you.
These napoleons are not perfectly pretty (mostly due to a little pysanka decorating disaster), they could use some improvement in the looks department. I do however like they way the colors match my blog 😉
Regardless, they were delicious.
I guess I did cheat a bit because I used store bought pastry instead of making my own.
This obviously makes the recipe much easier but there are still several steps invloved.
Nutella Mini Napoleons
(Adapted slightly from the Traditional Napoleon Dessert recipe
from Famous French Desserts)
For the pastry:
I used store bought. The package I bought had three rectangle shaped sheets in it. I forgot which brand I bought but it was similar to this one, only with three sheets inside instead of two.
Directions:
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Lay out the pastry sheets on the baking sheet and prick each all over with a fork.
- Cover with another sheet of parchment paper, place another baking sheet on top and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Transfer from fridge to the oven and let bake for 10 minutes.
- Take out of oven, remoce the top baking sheet and parchment and place puff pastry back in oven and bake for an addition 10 minutes or until the pastry sheets turn a golden brown.
- Let cool completely.
For the Nutella custard:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups milk
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2+1/2 tablespoons flour
- 3+1/2 ounces butter
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup Nutella
Directions:
- In a medium saucepan (not over heat) stir together the egg yolks and sugar.
- Add the flour and cornstarch and stir until combined.
- Stir in the milk until combined.
- Transfer saucepan to the stove.
- Over a low heat bring to a simmer.
- Stir in the Nutella until throughly combined.
- Remove from stove and place in refrigerator.
- Beat the butter. Fold in the cooled custard.
For the Glaze:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1+1/2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 ounce semi sweet chocolate, melted
- Food coloring (if desired)
Directions:
- Stir together 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon water and the melted chocolate. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
- (Note: You can stop here and just glaze the Napoleons with chocolate. I wanted to make a design on the top with a contracting color so I took it a step further.)
- Combine remaining 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tablespoon water.
- You can leave this uncolored for a black/white contrast on your glaze or tint with food coloring.
- Transfer to small disposable pastry bag. Twist the end and seal with a rubber band or twist tie.
Assemble the Napoleons:
- Spread the chocolate glaze on one of the sheets of puff pastry.
- Snip the end off of the disposable pastry bag and pipe a design on the chocolate glaze. I attempted a pysanka design, piping stripes onto the glaze and then dragging a toothpick through the stripes. It did not come out as pretty as I would have liked. You can improvise here with stripes or swirls or dots.
- Spread half of the Nutella pastry cream on a second pastry sheets and place the third one on top.
- Spread the the third pastry sheet with the remaining Nutella cream and place the glazed pastry sheet on top of that.
- Place in fridge for 10-15 minutes until sightly chilled. Using a serrated knife carefully cut into small mini Napoleons and serve.
7 comments
Wow! These look incredible!
Nutella custard….oh my. This looks delicious!
Yum, and I'm with you I think pastry is one of those things it's ok to buy ready made.
It looks wonderful to me!
No way! They look amazing! You're way too modest, they look wonderful 🙂
Well I attempted it at least. It came out a bit wonky. thanks Barbara!
I love that you even did the traditional design on top. What a delicious idea!