Name: Napoleon Pastry Dessert
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 20 h 15 min
Cuisine: French, American
Ingredients: Puff Pastry; Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper set aside.; Unfold the puff pastry sheet and trim edges to a 9-inch square.; Cut pastry into nine rectangles.; Transfer pastry dough to the prepared baking sheets; prick pastry.; Bake in a preheated oven for 18-23 minutes, or until golden. (Or bake according to package directions.) Carefully remove pastries from the baking sheet. Cool on a rack.; Custard Filling:; 6 egg yolks beaten; 2 cups of milk; 2 tablespoons of butter melted; 1 full piece of orange peel (optional); 3/4 cup sugar; 6 tablespoons of flour; 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract; Melt butter in a pan add flour stir till smooth no, lumps add milk, beaten egg yolks, sugar, butter, peel if using, vanilla stir constantly until thick and creamy; If this gets too thick add a little more milk.; Remove immediately from the pot as it will continue to cook and then pour into a bowl.; Cool with a piece of wax paper over the top and a teaspoon of sugar this will keep the skin from forming on top. and cool completely.

Napoleon Pastry Dessert is a puff pastry delicious and flaky with several layers filled with custard in between.

The dessert is baked, cut, and drizzled with a little chocolate and vanilla frosting marble effect on top.

This recipe is easier to make than you may think and so impressive.

We use store-bought puff pastry although you can make your own from scratch from our Red Raspberry Turnover recipe.

The recipe directions are step by step and printable at the bottom of this post for your convenience.

this is a pastry filled with vanilla custard between flaky puff pastry

Step By Step Napoleon Pastry

Unfold the puff pastry cut and bake
make the custard filling
assemble
make frosting thin enough to drizzle over the top with both chocolate and vanilla frosting

pastry made with puff pastry frozen dough rolled out

Tips:

Thaw your frozen puff pastry (preferably in the fridge, overnight
only unfold when thawed
flour your surface
use a paring knife to cut the dough
to get the highest puff out of the dough cut and refrigerate until ready to bake and use

Puff Pastry

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper set aside.

Unfold the puff pastry sheet and trim edges to a 9-inch square.

Cut pastry into nine rectangles.

You can refrigerate again until custard is completed cooking.
Transfer pastry dough to the prepared baking sheets; prick pastry.

Bake in a preheated oven for 18-23 minutes, or until golden. (Or bake according to package directions.) Carefully remove pastries from the baking sheet. Cool on a rack.

Custard Filling:

6 egg yolks beaten

2 cups of milk

2 tablespoons of butter melted

1 full piece of orange peel (optional)

3/4 cup sugar

6 tablespoons of flour

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Melt butter in a pan add flour stir till smooth no, lumps add milk, beaten egg yolks, sugar, butter, peel if using, vanilla...stir constantly until thick and creamy, if it gets too thick add a little more milk. Remove immediately from the pot as it will continue to cook and then pour into a bowl. Cool with a piece of wax paper over the top and a teaspoon of sugar this will keep the skin from forming on top.... cool completely.

Assembly:

Spread about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the pastry cream on the bottom layer and precede as follows:

Top with middle pastry layers. Spread another 1 1/2 tablespoons of pastry cream on each middle layer. Finally, top with remaining pastry layers.

You can stack as many as you like I used six for each pastry.

Spread glaze over top of napoleons, then drizzle with melted chocolate. Chill up to 1 hour before serving.

Topping:

First of all, you can use white and dark chocolate chips melted or make a powdered sugar frosting.

Either one will work fine.

Chocolate

Use canned or homemade chocolate or vanilla frosting or you can melt white of dark chocolate to drizzle on top:
1/2 cup chocolate chips melted (I used a microwave-safe dish in the microwave) or make a chocolate frosting (see below recipe) using half the vanilla and adding 3 teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to half the vanilla frosting recipe.

Vanilla Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon butter

2 to 3 tablespoons of hot water

Mix sugar, butter, and water till a smooth consistency, the frosting should be loose, not thick.

After the pastry is layered, slather white thick frosting over the top, drizzle with melted chocolate and swirl with a knife to get the marbled effect.

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For a printable recipe card see below and hit the print button.