napoleon and charlotte.

if i was a cartoon-drawing kind of gal, i would have a comic strip involving a couple named napoleon and charlotte....

per miss deborah's request: a strawberry napoleon, made with puff pastry, a grand marnier-laced vanilla bean pastry cream, and sliced fresh strawberry. adapted from yet another ludo lefebvre recipe. the most noteworthy thing about it was the absolute ease of making this, as almost everything must be done well in advance, and each component (while time consuming) is pretty easy to make. the second most noteworthy thing: it was the first time i had made puff pastry. huzzah! another thing to cross off my list! and--i am so not pulling your leg, your finger, your nothin' on this--it was insanely not difficult to do at all. i'm not saying i did a stellar job on the matter (will i ever get the hang of rolling dough out evenly? maybe there are speed bumps on my table), but even a 50% effort yields a pastry that is 150% better than your average supermarket puff pastry dough. i always thought the puff was difficult as when i'd use the frozen stuff, it would shrink too much, be too greasy, and brown unevenly; this worked like it should. anyway, i reckon that once i get the hang of it, it deserves a post of its own. the pastry cream was one of the easiest pastry cream recipes i've tried, and one of the tastiest. chef lefebvre's version included whole vanilla beans and a generous glug of bourbon--i doubled the vanilla and substituted orange-flavoured liqueur for the bourbon. this was a little runnier than i had hoped (i blame the booze), so i'll either cut down on the amount of booze, or cook the pastry cream a little longer for a firmer product.

napoleons have never been my favourite because usually the pastry is a little stale, or the pastry cream too sweet; also, arrgh, no matter how genteel you are, they are very messy to eat. this one was as fresh as it was going to get, with delicate, flaky pastry, a lightly sweetened, flavoured cream, and of course, the bounty of perfectly ripe strawberries. and yes, still a freakin' mess to eat.

and miss susan's suggestion: a strawberry charlotte, a delightful name for a cake if there ever was one. this one was made with a base and white picket fence of ladyfingers/savoiardi, filled with an amaretto-laced bavarian cream and topped with fruit. another first, making those ladyfingers, which are cookies made with a sponge cake batter, often in the shape of fat...fingers. ladyfingers! seriously, i'm built like a peasant, but even my manhands are more delicate than this. however, the cake seems not to be the least bit bothered, with billowy clouds of silky cream and vibrant berries all wrapped up in a fluffy pink-sashed party dress. again, the ladyfinger recipe from pierre herme was actually not difficult, and yes, my 50% maxim still applies. a little more practice, and maybe i can get those stubby fingers to look a lot more ladylike.

the bavarian cream was simply the ludo vanilla bean pastry cream--this time flavoured with amaretto liqueur--folded into copious amounts of whipped cream, and stabilized with a tiny bit of gelatin. plonked on top are endless amounts of sliced strawberries, but not so endless that i don't have more berry delights forthcoming....