March 3, 2006
View Comments | Post CommentBerry Napoleons (to wit, Barzberry Napoleon)
I've been going nuts lately with the cooking. Before a couple weeks ago, I hadn't really delved into desserts. I made crazy dinners all the time, but hadn't experienced the joys and frustration of baking, making pastries, caramelizing sugar, emulsifying custards, whipping creams, double-boiling bittersweet chocolate, separating eggs, etc.
Since then I've been making an effort to try various desserts. I've made molten chocolate cake, pineapple-cinnamon sorbet and strawberry sorbet (with the aid of an ice cream maker, obviously), creme brulee (regular and coffee), strawberries jubilee, bananas foster (sans flambe... I am in a dorm room), and probably a few other things that I can't remember. However, I've been remiss in my picture-taking. Tonight I sought to reverse that trend as I concocted a dessert of my own device.
I submit to you Barzberry Napoleon. Three layers of golden puff pastry, interspersed with fresh strawberries, grapes, and chilled, sweetened blackberry yogurt, topped with a decadent yet whimsical sprinkling of powdered sugar. And this time, I took pictures, which I really must do more often.
Posted at March 3, 2006 5:37 AM | Comments (6)
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So anything with puff pastry is amazing to me. I should really learn how to make it.
About Bananas Foster, we made it in the McGill kitchen once...flame and all. It's much more exciting with the fire.
Posted by: Cara at March 4, 2006 6:35 PM
Yeah, I've made it before with flame. The real reason for not flaming it is that I don't want to have to buy rum and schnapps, since it's still delicious without them.
As for puff pastry, you can actually just buy puff pastry sheets (or puff pastry shells) in the frozen foods section of the grocery store, and no one will think you're cheating. Alternately, they're easy to make (though it's a very drawn-out process since it requires waiting for the stuff to cool every once in a while). Try these recipes: Rough Puff Pastry Dough from Gourmet, or Quick Puff Pastry from Epicurious.
Posted by: Barzelay at March 4, 2006 11:14 PM
I have an idea for you. You should use your tech skills and your cooking experience to create a database of your recipes for those of us who lack the creativity to come up with stuff on our own. We could search for ingredients or by genre... Think about it.
Posted by: Cara at March 9, 2006 10:24 PM
Cara, that's a good idea. In fact, I've considered it before, but for my mother. The trouble with a recipe database for me is that I so rarely follow recipes. Indeed, the Barzberry Napoleons happened because I wanted to make something with puff pastry but didn't have any pudding to make typical Strawberry Napoleons. I do occasionally pin a recipe down and transcribe it after making it (I've got an excellent one for seafood etouffee that I did two weeks ago and wrote down). But what might be even better would be a recipe database to which all of my friends could post recipes. I don't really see that as a part of my blog, but as a separate site it might work well. Good idea. I'll keep it in mind.
Posted by: David Barzelay at March 9, 2006 11:25 PM
Barzberry Napolean?????? It's called a Mille' Fuelle, a traditional French desert made all around the world. I live in New Zealand and I have eaten them here, London, New York, United Arab Emirates...etc. Nice try mate.
Posted by: Stuart Mackintosh at February 18, 2007 8:40 AM
Well, aside from your misspelling of "mille feuille," you're right that they're made all over the world, and under many different names, most notably "mille feuille," "napoleon" (etymology from "Napolitan," which denotes "Naples," Italy), and "mille foglie" (in Italy). I was hardly claiming to have invented the technique of layering puff pastry with creamy filling.
But this was my take on the traditional dessert, because I wanted to make it the normal way and didn't have the ingredients. I substituted flavored yogurt for the normal cream that goes between the layers, and I also included a lot of actual fruit in the layering. So, they're my take on the classic, and I can call them whatever I want.
Posted by: Barzelay at March 13, 2007 3:16 AM
