The Daring Baker’s Challenge: Mille-feuille/Napoleon

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Now I am NOT one for messing around with puff pastry. In fact, I almost didn’t tackle this month’s challenge because frankly, it looked too difficult and took up way too much time for me. But when it came down to it, my simple stubbornness got in the way and I decided to take on the evil that is puff pastry this past weekend.

The first thing I did was make sure I had all the ingredients on hand  to pull off this month’s task. I tend to bake on Saturday mornings while everyone is still asleep and there is nothing I hate more than having to get out of my jammies and get dressed before 11am just to go pick up a gallon of milk or package of butter at the grocery store. So after finding out I had everything on hand, there were no more excuses as to why I shouldn’t at least try it.

The puff pastry itself, took most of the morning and was more tedious, than difficult. It was a lot of rolling, folding, and refrigerating.  I followed this recipe provided by the Daring Baker’s challenger and was sure to place a heavy pan on top of the puff pastry while it baked to avoid  the over “puff” that can often happen to the best of bakers!

Next, I made the custard according to the provided  recipe. It was nothing more than your typical custard recipe including milk, cornstarch, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and butter, but it was oh so yummy. I was half tempted to ditch the whole napoleon thing and eat the bowl of custard all by myself, but than I thought about all the rolling, folding, and refrigerating and I reluctantly changed my mind.

Once assembled, I topped my Napoleon with orange royal icing and dark chocolate to celebrate my favorite holiday!

I am so glad I decided to take on this month’s challenge. If I were dressing up this Halloween, I would be Superwoman, because there is nothing this girl can’t tackle!