Daring Bakers - October 2012

I am two days late, I know.
Actually I was out of town for the weekend, so I am posting today...

This month's challenge was hosted by Suz from Serenely Full .
 We had to make our own puff pastry and a mille-feuille or napoleon.

Well, that was a first for me! Never made puff pastry before and I can't say that I want to make it again... Sorry, my fellow Bakers, but I wasn't very happy with the end result of my puff pastry, even though my Napoleon was very tasty.
The pastry cream, on the other hand, was so good, I ended up licking the bowl!

I made a Napoleon for G's birthday celebration and our friends really liked it. The taste is very ellegant!

What I would change is this:
- I will buy fresh ready made puff pastry
- I will not use chocolate for the topping.

Let me explain what I mean by that...
I melted bitter chocolate alone and decorated the top of my dessert. When I tried to cut slices, the chocolate was hard (naturally), pressuring the Napoleon, making the cutting difficult and resulting in not so pretty slices. Next time, I will add some butter or cream in the chocolate, so that it is soft!

Making the pastry cream...

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I covered it with cling film, so that there will be no crust on top.

I think I rolled the puff pastry very thin...

The pastry cream was very easy to handle and spread.

My RI is rather runny....

This is the end result!

Thank you Suz!