Strawberry Napoleon Crisp

Strawberry Napoleon Crisp

1. First make the puff pastry. Mix the ingredients for the puff pastry (except for the butter) and knead it into a soft dough. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to relax for 30 minutes (according to the water absorption of the flour, the amount of water needs to be adjusted as appropriate, and the kneaded dough should be as soft as possible).

2. Prepare the butter for wrapping. Use the butter just taken out of the refrigerator to wrap the butter, and don't let it soften.

3. Cut the butter into small pieces and join them on greased paper.

4. Cover with greased paper and tap lightly with a rolling pin to make the butter thinner and become a big slice. Put it in the refrigerator together with oil paper.

5. Take out the loose dough. Sprinkle some flour on the chopping board to prevent sticking, and roll out the dough. Roll out from the middle to the four corners, and roll into a square with a thick middle and thin sides.

6. Spread the wrapper in the center of the dough with butter, and remove the oily paper.

7. Fold the four corners of the dough toward the middle.

8. In this way, the butter is completely wrapped in the dough.

9. Sprinkle flour on the chopping board to prevent sticking, roll out the butter-wrapped dough on the chopping board into a rectangle.

10. Fold both sides in the middle.

11. Fold it in half again, like folding a quilt. This completes a "four fold". We have to perform three "four discounts" in total. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to give the dough sufficient relaxation time.

12. Sprinkle thin powder on the chopping board to prevent sticking. The loose dough is placed on the chopping board and rolled out into a rectangle again.

13. Fold it again.

14. After four-folding, refrigerate the dough again for 15-20 minutes, take it out, and perform the last four-folding. And refrigerate again for 15-20 minutes.

15. Roll out the refrigerated dough again to form a 0.3cm thick dough sheet.

16. Cut off the irregular corners of the dough sheet to make it a regular rectangle. Spread it on greased paper, and pierce some small holes evenly on the surface of the dough sheet with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap and let relax for at least 30 minutes.

17. Put it into the baking tray together with the oil paper, put it in the preheated 200℃ oven, and bake it for about 25 minutes until the surface becomes golden brown. Set aside after cooling.

18. Then make the custard sauce. Pour egg yolks, cornstarch, low-gluten flour and 1 tablespoon milk into a bowl.

19. Stir thoroughly.

20. Pour the caster sugar and the remaining milk into the milk pan and bring to a boil.

21. Pour the boiled milk into the egg yolk mixture from step 19, stirring constantly while pouring.

22. The poured mixture is sieved and poured back into the milk pan. Add vanilla extract.

23. Reheat on medium heat and stir constantly.

24. It is heated until it boils and it becomes a thick custard sauce. Put the custard sauce in the refrigerator to about 4℃ for later use.

25. Cut the baked puff pastry into small rectangular pieces.

26. Take a small slice of puff pastry and fill it with custard sauce.

27. Spread the strawberries cut in half and squeeze them with custard sauce.

28. Spread the second slice of puff pastry, squeeze the custard sauce, put on the strawberries, squeeze the custard sauce and spread the third slice of puff pastry. Finally, sprinkle with powdered sugar and put strawberries on the top as a decoration, and the strawberry napoleon puff pastry is complete.

Tips:

1. Napoleon pastry is a classic French dessert. The combination of layers of crispy meringue, fresh fruit and custard sauce makes people want to stop. After this dessert is made, don't store it for too long. You can feel its perfection when you make it and eat it.
2. The truly delicious Melaleuca meringue must be made with natural butter. Although there are many ready-made meringues on the market, margarine and shortening are mostly used, which is far less than the rich aroma and melt-in-mouth taste of natural butter. I prefer to use the President’s butter to make puff pastry, which best reflects the deliciousness of the meringue. Although the melting point limit of natural butter makes it more difficult to make, I feel that since I'm playing baking at home, I must challenge myself more.
3. Be very careful when making puff pastry, to avoid the butter that is wrapped in becomes too soft, otherwise it will easily leak oil. Therefore, it is more difficult to make puff pastry when the weather is hot. This is why it is kept in the refrigerator at every step. But in winter, the room temperature in many areas in the south is already very low, so you don’t need to put it in the refrigerator, especially in some places where the room temperature is only a few degrees Celsius. Instead, consider how to make the butter not too hard to avoid becoming lumps in the dough. The shape is not easy to roll out with the dough. In short, Melaleuca puff pastry is something that tests our skills. Practice more, practice makes perfect, and there is no problem.