Dulce de Leche Napoleons

So before Sis arrived for her visit, she asked that we try making this new dessert together.  Flaky layers of golden puff pastry are layered with pastry cream and dulce de leche in what I'll call a napoleon.  I didn't realize this meant I would be making and assembling the dessert while Sis watched and tasted.  But that's all right.  After all, Sis has her hands full these days.

Look at her adorable peanut!  Or, as I call her, My Little Alien.  I can't help it, I'm in love with 2-month-old Audrey.  She really is a handful.  I tried to help, and felt up to my elbows in diapers all week.

Here she was at 3 weeks old, during Chinese New Year, with a hongbao from my dad for his first grandchild.  But enough baby love (for now).  Let's get back to that pastry.

You can make life much easier by using storebought puff pastry.  I've made it before, and it's a pain.  Just thaw your storebought pastry on the counter for 40 minutes, prick all over with a fork, and bake.  I took the recipe a step further by baking with a rack on top of the pastry, to help with an even rise so it doesn't dome so much in the middle.  Then  cool the pastry, split horizontally, and fill.  Easy!

You do have to make the other components, the pastry cream and the dulce de leche, so you may want to prepare those the day before.  I chose a dulce de leche recipe that didn't involve the risk of an exploding can.  Now I'm wondering what other combinations of flavors I can use to make different napoleons.

And Sis?  She loved the dessert, but has one tip: Serve the rest of the dulce de leche on the side, because you're going to want to pour more on top.

Pains aux Raisins

I was torn over whether to make these or the pains au chocolat.  Did I want a luscious pastry cream with raisins, or intense bittersweet chocolate?  Turns out I didn't have to choose because each recipe required a half-batch of the same kind of dough!

I brought these along with the pain au chocolat to my last book club meeting, and it wasn't a surprise that everybody chose the chocolate variety.  But Isabelle, our organizer who comes from southern France, took the untouched pains aux raisins with her and said she ate them before she got to the highway.  "The  pains au chocolat were delicious,'' she said, ''but the pains aux raisins were out of this world!"  She added that they were very authentic, and that she doesn't dole out undeserved flattery.  Which is appreciated!  The consensus was the same at home.  Joe found a few I had squirreled away in the freezer to bring to my mother and sister in New York: "Hey, there are more pains aux raisins in here!!"  I forbade him from touching them.  Trust me, he more than ate his share!

Clockwise from top-left: The pastry cream is easy to make and dotted with plenty of vanilla seeds; the dough is then rolled up and sliced (don't forget to add your raisins, or you'll have to unroll like I did); the pains are proofed on a sheet pan; they tend to fall on their sides after rising, so I lay them flat.

The many layers bake up golden and flaky, and the pains are brushed with an apricot glaze.  The pastry cream becomes not so much a filling as an element of moisture and flavor.

Birthday Banana Cream Pie

What do you make for someone who doesn't like chocolate?  I could drown happily in a bowl of pure chocolate ice cream, no toppings needed.  I know several of my (crazy) friends dislike chocolate in favor of flavorings like vanilla and caramel.  I don't get it, but my friend Charmie is one of them.  But I know she loves whipped cream, and who doesn't like bananas?  So banana cream pie it was.  Sliced bananas are folded into a pastry cream and spooned into a flaky pie crust, then topped with whipped cream.  This pie is simple but delicious, not too sweet, and has great mouthfeel with clouds of airy cream.  Charmie loved it, and it was her first-ever birthday pie.  Will it be cake or pie on your next birthday?

Strawberry Tartlets

Strawberries from the store have been so delicious lately, I had to make strawberry tarts. Except for the arm workout I got while whisking the pastry cream, these were easy. For visual interest, I usually also top each one with a blueberry and sliver of kiwi, but I love the pure strawberry of this version and it made for lighter work. And they were still plenty tasty.

Strawberry Tarts
Half-recipe of Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee
Pound of Strawberries, washed, dried, and hulled
Pastry Cream, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out the tart dough and cut it into squares a little larger than the square tart wells, or whatever mold you plan to use. Tuck the squares of dough inside the wells, cover the entire tray with a sheet of foil, and bake 12 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake 10 more minutes. Let it cool before removing the pastry shells, and repeat with remaining dough. Allow shells to cool completely before assembling.

Strawberries last longer if you wait until you use them to wash them. Darker ones tend to be sweeter. Choose 12 small berries that won't be bigger than the tart, and slice them in half.

Spoon or pipe the pastry cream into each shell. I like to pipe it with a star tip. Top each tart with a strawberry half. For extra shine or sweetness, you can also melt a bit of seedless jam and brush it on top of the berries. That's it! Makes 24 tartlets.

Pastry Cream

From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups whole milk

6 large egg yolks

½ cup sugar

⅓ cup cornstarch, sifted

1½ tsp pure vanilla extract

3½ tsp unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature

Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.

Neanwhile, in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well-blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about ¼ cup of the hot milk -- this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (making sure to get into the edges of the pot), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in bits of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. You can press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly -- as I always do -- put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water, and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Eclairs

My first Daring Bakers challenge! I just couldn't get them to look pretty, but let me tell you, they were tasty! Since we're a household of two, I brought most of the eclairs in to work earlier this month, and the reactions were funny. "You can make eclairs?" Some people thought they were made only in factories. They disappeared quickly, in any case. I had troubles in the beginning with eclairs that fell flat, since the instructions on sticking the spoon in the oven were confusing, but I got them to puff up all right.

I initially made both vanilla and chocolate pastry creams, since I thought that with the glaze it would be chocolate overload. But I wound up stirring melted chocolate into the vanilla cream after I tasted how divine the chocolate was. I also made the labor-intensive glaze on the first try, but swapped it out on Take 2 for a simple ganache (equal parts hot cream and bittersweet chocolate with a couple pats of butter). Now I just have to jog a million miles to work all those calories off!