Edit: I’ve included an addendum at the end if you’re interested in putting fondant and feathered chocolate on top.
The original recipe for this is 4 times the amount below, and makes almost 20 pieces. I thought that I should adjust it to make it more realistic for home bakers, so I’ve changed the amounts and assembly method just a little. This recipe below should make 4 individual square napoleons with three layers of puff pastry; this is adapted from Jacques Torres’s method.

The instructions given to us are very barebones, but the chefs talk pretty extensively about each recipe so I’ve included as many notes as possible. The recipe may look long, but most of it is explanatory detail because I don’t have pictures of the process. I also use mostly weight for ingredients, but you can use my volume and weight conversion page to convert it, if needed. Um, meanwhile, let me know if my calculatations are off for anything….

Napoleons should be eaten a few hours after assembling… but the pastry cream, puff pastry dough, and caramelized apples can all be made days before the actual assembly. Napoleons are also often made with just pastry cream and maybe fruit, so feel free to enjoy that version rather than going on to make the diplomat cream; just make sure to make more pastry cream to compensate for the lost volume from the lost diplomat. But if you do make the diplomat cream and flame the apples with calvados, then you’re pure superstar.

Quick Puff Pastry

Yield: two 12″ x 16″ sheet pans of dough rolled to 1/8″

This should give you twice the amount of dough that you’ll need to make napoleons from a puff pastry baked on a 12″x16″ sheetpan; but if you try to halve the recipe, I feel like it wouldn’t fold and come to together properly. This dough ideally comes together in as little as an hour, because it needs 20 mins to rest and chill between three bouts of folding. But, if you become busy with other things, realize that it really needs “at least” 20 mins of chilling. You could do the folds hours apart if you have to; we’ve had people do the last folds the next day.

Once it is made, the dough can be refrigerated for several days, or frozen for 3 months. I find that I roll out dough best when it starts out in the shape I want it to be, so, before you store it, always try to make it into slab that’s an appropriate shape. Also, this dough can be rolled out twice, if you need to, so you can save the scraps, but try not to overwork the dough or it will be tough.

• 10 oz All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 oz Salt
• 8 oz Butter, cut into 1/2″ cubes and chilled cold
• 5.5 oz Ice Water (do this by putting ice in a cup and filling it with water; right before adding the water, pour the water into a measuring cup and while straining back the ice)

With your hands, mix together the salt and AP Flour in a large bowl.

With your hands, toss cold butter cubes into flour and salt to coat. Make sure that each cube is separate and coated with flour.

Pour 1/3 of ice water into bowl. Combine briefly with hands until evenly combined. Repeat with remaining water. By the end, it will be very loose and ragged, but should be mostly hydrated.

Dust your worktable with flour. Roll your rolling pin in flour and brush with hand to lightly coat it.

Turn dough out onto a floured worktable. Gently pat into a rectangle with the short side parallel to the edge of table, probably about 6″x10″ and an inch thick.

Roll dough out to 1/2″ thickness, making sure that it remains a rectangle with sharp corners and straight sides (you can use your hands to push and pinch it into shape if it gets mis-shapen). If flattened butter cubes stick to the rolling pin, just scrape them off and fit them back into the dough.

Fold dough into thirds, like a tri-fold wallet (this is called a threefold or a single turn). The best way to do this is to run a plastic bowl scraper under the dough to separate it from the table before attempting to lift up a part of the dough; alternatively, a long metal spatula should be fine. Make sure that the first third folded on top of the dough fits snugly into the fold of the second so that it turns out like a solid rectangle of dough. If ragged pieces fall off the dough, push them lightly back into the whole.

Turn the dough 90 degrees, so that the short side is again parallel to the side of the table.

Roll out to 1/2″ rectangle again. Fold dough in threefold again.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 20 minutes.

Again conduct two consecutive threefolds.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 20 minutes.

Again conduct two consecutive threefolds. You will have now folded the dough 6 times total, and the dough should be uniform.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 20 minutes before using.

To Bake Puff Pastry for Napoleon:

Cut the dough in half, and store one half for future use. On a work surface, roll dough out to 1/8″ rectangle to fit a 12″x16″ sheet pan as exactly as possible (if you have a larger or smaller sheet pan — or a small or a large appetite — just use as much dough as you want so that it’s 1/8″ thick).

If you have a large enough rolling pin, roll the dough around the pin, lift it up, and unroll it over the sheet pan (otherwise, carefully slip a piece of parchment btw the table and dough, and shimmy the parchment completely under the dough and carefully transfer it to the sheet pan).

Dock dough thoroughly with a fork or rolling dough docker. Chill 20 mins, covered with plastic or parchment.

Preheat oven to 425.

When ready to bake, place a piece of parchment on top of the dough and top with a sheet pan the same size as the bottom one so that the dough is sandwiched between the two. (If you don’t have another baking sheet that’s the same size — I don’t at home — just keep an eye on the dough while its baking, and if it rises unevenly in sections, gently pierce the bubbles with a paring knife).

Bake dough at 425 for about 15 mins, until the dough is light golden brown. Remove the top parchment and top pan, and bake until evenly brown and flaky, at least 5-10 mins more, rotating as necessary (optional: after you remove the top pan, evenly brush light corn syrup onto the puff pastry; this will keep moisture out of the pastry and make it crispier and more caramelized). It should be baked all the way through so that it’s completely flaky, without any opaque layers in the middle.
Cool completely.

Calvados Pastry Cream

• 3/4 oz cornstarch
• 1 oz sugar
• 3 oz eggs
• 1 oz Calvados Brandy

• 1 cup milk
• 1 oz sugar
• 1/4 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

• 1 oz butter

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 oz sugar with cornstarch to combine. Whisk in eggs and Calvados until smooth.

In a small saucepot, bring milk, sugar, and vanilla pod and seeds to boil over medium heat. While you’re waiting for it to boil, continue to whisk the egg mixture to get rid of absolutely all lumps.

Place a kitchen towel under the egg mixture bowl (this will prevent the bowl from sliding as you whisk in the milk). When milk mixture boils, pour 1/2 of it into the egg mixture while whisking the egg mixture to incorporate.

Return the pan of milk to burner, and whisk as you pour the tempered egg mixture into the milk.

Whisk briskly (scraping the sides, corners, and bottom of pot), and when the mixture comes to a boil, continue to whisk briskly for 2 minutes. It may get a little chunky early on, but it will smooth out. If you feel like it’s going to burn on the bottom, lower the heat a little.

Remove from heat. Stir in butter.

Strain into a clean bowl or airtight container. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of it so that it doesn’t form a skin. Let cool to room temp, and then chill up to three days.

Caramelized Apples

• 2 apples, peeled and sliced thin (we used granny smith)
• 1 oz sugar
• 1 oz Calvados
• Juice from 1/4 lemon
• 1 oz Butter

Over medium heat, mix apples with butter and sugar in saute pan to evenly distribute. Don’t touch it again until the apples start showing some caramelized color on the bottom. Stir to re-distribute.

When apples are nicely caramelized, add Calvados, and take off the heat to flame with torch or other lighting implement (I didn’t do this part, but I saw that the flame goes pretty high; you could probably omit the flaming, too, and live with the stronger alcohol taste). When the flame goes out, add lemon juice and stir to incorporate.

Remove from heat and cool completely.

Calvadoes Diplomat Cream

• 8 oz heavy cream (not ultra-pasteurized; Clover Stornetta is a great brand to use)
• 1.5 oz sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp powdered gelatin
• 3/4 oz cold water
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 recipe Calvados Pastry Cream, above, chilled

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in wide, shallow bowl. Let bloom for 5 minutes. Do not stir.

Meanwhile, whip cream with sugar and cinnamon to medium peaks. Chill in fridge.

Whisk pastry cream well in large bowl so that it is smooth and loose (if it’s difficult to do by hand, whisk in a standing mixer).

Melt gelatin with 1/4 of pastry cream over double boiler with simmering water. Fold back into remaining pastry cream.

Gently fold whipped cream into chilled pastry cream.

Chill 20-60 minutes.

Napoleon Assembly

With a serrated knife, trim the edges so that they’re straight (if necessary) and cut the puff into twelve 4″ squares (or if you prefer the traditional Napoleon engineering, cut the puff into three 4″ strips that you will later stack and cut into rectangles). Set aside the four most evenly risen squares for the top layers (they will probably be placed upside-down for the flattest top).

Divide caramelized apples btw four squares. Spread some diplomat cream evenly onto the apples; use half of the diplomat cream in all (you could also pipe the cream to make it a little less unwieldy).

Top each square with a second layer of puff pastry. Divide the remaining diplomat cream between the squares. Top each square with a third layer of puff pastry.

Sift powdered sugar over the tops of each napoleon.

Enjoy!

A Note on Fondant: We use a poured fondant from a big blue tub from Village Imports that’s labeled as “White Icing.” Its ingredients are sugar, glucose syrup, and water. We heat it to btw 100-110, thinning it a little with simple syrup to get it to the right consistency.

It’s hard to find that fondant in stores, and one chef told us that it’s a real pain to make yourself, but I found a couple recipes online that use sugar (or conf sugar), corn syrup, and water for any really intrepid souls….

This one involves heating it to the soft ball stage and probably produces something close to what we use
http://www.ochef.com/744.htm

This one just gently heats up the ingredients and might be acceptable in a pinch (personally I don’t think the clear vanilla flavoring called for is necessary)
http://www.baking911.com/recipes/cakes/fondant_poured.htm

To assemble the napoleon with fondant: Omit sifting powdered sugar on top. Have prepared fondant, melted dark chocolate in a parchment cone, and a wooden skewer ready. Pour the fondant over the top layer of puff pastry in one pass and quickly smooth with spatula. Immediately pipe thin lines of chocolate on the length of the pastry. Run the skewer up and down the width of the pastry (perpendicular through the lines) for a feathered effect, wiping the tip of the skewer clean as needed. Let set, and then trim fondant from sides of pastry.

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