Classic Napoleons
 
Ingredients
For Custard:
  • 1½ egg yolks*
  • ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1½ cups milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 Tablespoon butter, salted
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
For the Pastry:
  • 1 package of frozen puff pastry (2 sheets)
For Glaze:
  • 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
  • ⅛ teaspoon vanilla
  • 1½ - 2 Tablespoons hot tap water
  • ½ - 1 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted**
Instructions
For the Custard:
  1. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks until smooth.
  2. In a medium pot, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan and then gradually add in the milk.
  3. Cook the milk mixture for about 10 minutes on medium-high heat or until it starts to boil. Let it boil for a minute and remove from heat.
  4. Add a little of the hot milk mixture to the eggs to temper them.
  5. Pour the egg into the milk saucepan and cook over low heat for 1 minute or until the mixture barely begins to bubble. Remove from heat.
  6. Add in the butter and vanilla.
  7. Strain the custard through a fine sieve to get any of the egg that cooked too much.
  8. Put the bowl with the custard in it in a water bath. (To make a water bath, fill a large bowl halfway with ice and then cover with cold water.)
  9. Let the custard cool in the water bath for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  10. Once cool, remove the custard from the water bath, put plastic wrap right on the filling and refrigerate for at least one hour.
For the Pastry:
  1. Thaw one package of puff pastry (2 sheets) according to the package directions.
  2. Unfold the sheets on parchment paper on a baking sheet and cut along the fold marks (into 3 pieces).
  3. Cut each strip into 6 more pieces and spread them out on the baking sheet.
  4. Prick the pastry all over with a fork.
  5. Put another sheet of parchment paper on top of the pastry and sit another baking sheet on top of the pastry.
  6. Bake for 15-17 minutes at 400°F. Remove the top baking sheet and let the pastry bake until golden brown, about 2-4 more minutes.
  7. Let cool.
For Glaze:
  1. Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and hot tap water together. The glaze needs to be thick enough that it doesn’t drip down the sides of the pastry so add more powdered sugar to thicken it or more water to thin it out.
For Assembly:
  1. Whip heavy cream until you have whipped cream and fold it into the custard to make it thicker.
  2. Cut each of the pastry pieces in half thickness wise.
  3. Take three of the the thin pastry pieces smear custard on one and stack it with another, smear more custard on that one and place the final pastry piece on top of that one.
  4. Smear the glaze on top of the pastry.
  5. While the glaze is still wet drizzle chocolate with a spoon or a piping bag in neat lines back and forth over the pastry. Before the chocolate dries run a toothpick perpendicular to the chocolate strips through the glaze.
  6. Voilà!
Store the napoleons in an air tight container in the fridge.
Yield: about 24 napoleons
Notes
* I know it's strange. Use a spoon to split an egg yolk in half. I halved a recipe because the full one makes way too much custard.
** I recommend Baker's because it melts the best.
Recipe by Birch Tree Baking at https://www.birchtreebaking.com/classic-napoleons/