28 December 2008

Recipe: Fresh Fruit Napoleons with Blackberry Curd

I did these blackberry curd & fresh fruit napoleons a while back for restaurant baking. I wished I would've had time to get better pictures.





This recipe is more suited for summer, but when winter rolls around, and the holidays have past - it is refreshing to see desserts that awaken memories of summers past - and that reminds you summer is right around the corner.


Fresh Fruit Napoleons
This recipe yields 20 servings.

16 sheets of frozen phyllo dough
1 cup butter (melted) [you can substitute "butter flavored" baking spray or earth balance sticks]
1/2 cup crystal sugar
2 cups blackberries
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
4 1/2 cups mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blue berries)

Whipped topping,
or hand whipped cream,
or sweetened whipped marscapone cheese

Pastry Procedure:


Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Now as stated in my former post (Recipe: Banana - Rum Napoleons) you need to work fast and follow certain guidelines when working with phyllo {Tip: When you are working with phyllo dough it is best to have a tray to lay out the sheets, then keep totally covered, under a damp kitchen towel. If exposed to air, the moisture from the phyllo dough will be wicked out and it will become dry and brittle - which means non workable for you. So work quickly.]

You will need 2 half sheet pans (jelly roll) lined with parchment, to bake 10 sheets on each pan.

Place a sheet of phyllo onto a jelly roll pan, brush with melted butter. Sprinkle crystal sugar. Top with another phyllo sheet and repeat these steps until 10 sheets are used. Make sure to repeat butter & sugar on the last (top piece). Repeat with second sheet pan.

Using a ruler - score each pastry stack with a pastry wheel or sharp paring knife into squares or rectangles of equal measurements. Bake in the preheated oven 10-12 minutes (pastry should be golden and crisp). Allow the baked pastry to cool. Do not handle the pastry until building your napoleons or the baked phyllo squares may crack.

Blackberry Curd Procedure:

In a sauce pan combine the blackberries, 1/2 cup of water and orange zest. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes more. Scrape berry contents into a food processor and pulse until smooth. (if you don't have a food processor, you can place the berry contents in a sieve over a bowl and using a ladle , gently push and rub the contents against the mesh, repeat this until most of the contents have been filtered through the sieve into the bowl. This will leave behind seeds and a few skins from the berries).

Return the berry contents back into the sauce pan (on medium heat) - stir in 1 cup of sugar and 4 tablespoons of butter.

Combine the cornstarch & cold water in a small bowl stirring briskly. With a wire whisk add the cornstarch mixture to the berry contents in the saucepan . Stir until thick and bubbling. Stir for 3 minutes more. Remove from heat , scrape into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap - allow to cool for 2 hours or over night.

Napoleon Assembly:

Place a small dallop of blackberry curd onto the center of your serving plate.
Place a baked phyllo square (sugar side down), add 1 tablespoon of curd onto the center of the pastry square. Add (by pressing) enough of the mixed berries to cover the blackberry curd.

Finish by piping or adding rounded dollops of your favorite topping (Whipped topping,
or hand whipped cream, or sweetened whipped marscapone cheese) then add another pastry squared (sugar side up) to top.

There are many ways to finish this dessert , you could make it much fancier than this- drizzling berry syrup onto it, or around the base, using pastry cream on top of the blackberry curd - the combinations are endless.










Related Posts:


40  Comments
 Tweets
  Comments

40 comments

Anonymous
2:35 AM, December 29, 2008 Reply  

Hi, I'm just found your website. Thank you very much for your share. Seems I can tried to my husband. Keep great posted.

Anonymous
9:42 AM, December 30, 2008 Reply  

I really liked the blog, really good! Congratulations!

Anonymous
5:42 PM, December 30, 2008 Reply  

Oh wow, this looks really good. I try to make things like this, but my presentation is no where nears yours!! Thanks for the phyllo tips too!

Anonymous
11:15 PM, December 30, 2008 Reply  

Thanks for the tasty recipe. I will go to prepare!

Anonymous
12:59 AM, December 31, 2008 Reply  

great Recipe!! if you want ,i can give you some Chinese traditional recipe such as Spicy diced chicken with peanuts ,Sweet and sour pork.

Anonymous
8:08 PM, December 31, 2008 Reply  

Sumptuous. But I find some of the listed ingredients hard to find in our place like phyloo dough. Care to list easy substitute for people like me? I find your recipe very tasty.

Anonymous
8:22 AM, January 04, 2009 Reply  

I would like to try this one, I like recipes with mascarpone in it. And it looks so delicious just looking at the pictures, you need not get better pictures. Those are great already.

Anonymous
7:40 AM, February 20, 2009 Reply  

It looks so delicious from the photos. I will definitely spend some time on this in the weekend. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous
5:23 AM, March 10, 2009 Reply  

Hi
What an excellent site ! And an excellent recipe. One small word of advice if I may be permitted - you have misspelt Vegetarian in your tags, Vic

12:40 AM, May 24, 2009 Reply  

thanks good post

1:20 AM, May 24, 2009 Reply  

The informations are so lovely and so usefull so thank you very much. Be sure i will use all of them keeping in my mind.Have a goog luck.

Ing
4:11 AM, June 08, 2009 Reply  

Looks very appetizing. I will necessary try to make it. Thanks for the recipe.

6:05 AM, June 12, 2009 Reply  

Those Napoleons are much likely to be delicious. They seem so light and yummy, yummy, yummy.

2:47 PM, June 30, 2009 Reply  

oh my god that looks heavenly... better phone mom and beg her to prepare this for us... :D

3:29 AM, July 08, 2009 Reply  

Mouth watring dishes you have mention here images looking cool. I will sure try this tips to make this recipe.

3:19 AM, September 03, 2009 Reply  

This really looks fantastic delicious. I will now buy frozen dough and I'll make this delicious refreshment. Thank you!

1:58 PM, December 20, 2009 Reply  

That's awesome & look very appetizing. I gotta try it, I mean i must try it. Every time i take a look to the picture my hunger to have this one grows. I will note down recipe & definitely try it tonight.

3:30 AM, January 29, 2010 Reply  

ooooh, this sounds naughty napoleon!

Naimah

11:49 PM, March 13, 2010 Reply  

Yammy! And vegetarian!!!

7:42 PM, May 02, 2010 Reply  

WOW..it's look very delicious. I can't wait to taste it. Thanks for this recipe. Inspire me to make and give it to my husband :) ...

2:40 AM, May 15, 2010 Reply  

I once made a cake with blackberries but the result is not as nice as this. In the picture you show looks very delicious to eat. I'll try to make it. Thank you. :)

8:11 PM, June 09, 2010 Reply  

Dry bread combined with blackberries. Interesting and creative recipes.

1:04 PM, July 14, 2010 Reply  

These look absolutely amazing. That pastry looks so nice it's actually making my mouth water. Going to make these for the wife (for me really) as a treat.

Great recipe and a great blog.

4:51 AM, September 16, 2010 Reply  

So delicious food. Its yummy!

3:30 AM, November 17, 2010 Reply  

Hmmm... This is Yummy.

5:50 AM, November 24, 2010 Reply  

That looks really yummy

6:40 AM, January 28, 2011 Reply  

thanks for sharing such a good topic,i would be very happy if you kindly provide us information like food Recipe. Nice post Enjoyed reading it.

7:34 PM, February 12, 2011 Reply  

Very good and very long article. I like it but unfortunately I don't have time and money to try it. I think if you opt to buy

2:19 AM, March 11, 2011 Reply  

great recipe. look delicious. tahnk fot this recipe.

7:02 AM, March 20, 2011 Reply  

Mmm... Yammy!

1:31 AM, April 09, 2011 Reply  

looks delicious and yummy!!

8:28 PM, April 17, 2011 Reply  

Ill try this one later. very temptatios.lol

1:57 AM, April 27, 2011 Reply  

yummy yummy yummy!!

8:52 PM, June 26, 2011 Reply  

Hi! Really good article! I am just a ordinary visitor to your site (very much like addict :P) on your website even though I had a issue. I'm just not likely pretty sure whether its the right site to question, but you have no spam comments. I receive comments day by day. Can you assist me? :

4:49 AM, August 08, 2011 Reply  

Look delicious. I'm gonna try this.

2:52 PM, August 10, 2011 Reply  

OMG, I can't believe how delicious these look. Forget my waistline, I'm having some of that.

3:57 AM, November 22, 2011 Reply  

Can I just say, this blog is what got me through the day today. Every time I read it, I just get more and more excited about whats next. Very refreshing blog and very refreshing ideas. Im glad that I came across this when I did. I love what youve got to say and the way you say it.

It’s amazing, looking at the time and effort you put into your post and detailed information you provide. I’ll bookmark your post and visit it weekly for your new posts.

9:31 PM, December 08, 2011 Reply  

Great post, very good contents in this post. Thank you very much for sharing this post with us. Keep it up

3:15 PM, April 13, 2012 Reply  

You know what, i think i will do this for the upcoming mother's day! My mother always loved to cook and this will be a fine experience for both of us

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting! Your thoughts on posts are very much appreciated.

Due to spam, all comments will be reviewed - before any comments are published.

Type-A Parent New York City Bootcamp (Focus: Brand-Blogger Relations)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Back to TOP