Napoleon

This is a very traditional French desert. Its not a three coloured dessert in the American sense at all. Traditionally made with white and chocolate fondant alternately poured over the top. Now it is usually made with puff pastry dough, pastry cream, and garnished with powdered sugar which is then branded with a rod to remove a portion of the powdered sugar in a design on the top.

This formula is from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 702

Formula: yields aprox 12 pieces
Puff dough, 1 sheet pan
Pastry cream, 1.5 kg
Powdered Sugar, as needed


MOP:

• Make a batch of pastry cream. Set it over ice, or let it refrigerate to cool.
• Brush off any excess flour from the puff pastry. Dust the sheeted out puff pastry with sugar, on both sides. 
• Cut the puff pastry into three 6" wide by x" long. The length does not matter so much as long as it is consistent.
• Place the puff strips onto a parchment lined sheet pan, place another parchment on top, and then two or three sheet pans on top of that. You want to weigh the puff pastry down so that it does not rise when baking.
• Bake at 400° F in a deck oven for about 20 minutes. You want to give it a long bake because moisture is being trapped between the sheet pans. You are looking for the puff to caramelize with a dark golden brown colour when its done.

• Immediately take the weighted sheet pans off when you cool the puff pastry.
• When the puff pastry has cooled transfer them to a cutting board and trim down excess so that all three strips are the exact same size (this is a faster method but you can also trim down excess at the very end if you want). Cut with a serrated knife.
• Place one sheet of puff on parchment. Spread a thin layer of pastry cream along the sheet, about 1 pt.
• Stack the second sheet of puff on top, spread a thin layer of pastry cream.
• Stack the third sheet of puff on top. Refrigerate to set the layers, about 30 minutes.
• When the layers are set and do not move take it out from the refrigerator and slice to 1" pieces.