Blackberry Napoleon With Lemon Cream Recipe • 4★ • 1 hr 5 min

Preparation

• Step 1Make the lemon curd: In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, salt and lemon zest.
• Step 2Put lemon juice in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, keeping a close eye on it so it doesn’t boil away. Slowly whisk hot lemon juice into egg mixture, then pour it all back into the saucepan.
• Step 3Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until mixture begins to thicken, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking until the mixture is quite thick, another 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Whisk in the butter until the mixture looks shiny. Set bowl over ice, whisking occasionally until mixture is smooth and cool, then refrigerate. This should yield about 1 ¼ cups. Lemon curd may be prepared a day or two in advance.
• Step 4Heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Step 5Open the puff pastry sheet and lay it flat. Cut the sheet into two strips lengthwise (each about 4 ½ by 12 inches). Set strips side-by-side on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake on the top rack of the oven until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes, taking care not to overcook. If necessary, tent with foil to keep from getting too brown
• Step 6Let cool on a rack. Once cool, use a serrated knife to cut through the equator of the puff pastry, dividing both strips into 2 thinner pieces. If the interior of the pastry looks pale or undercooked, return to oven for a few minutes, cut-side-up.
• Step 7Whip the heavy cream in a chilled bowl with the vanilla and 2 teaspoons powdered sugar until it holds soft peaks. Fold in the chilled lemon curd with a spatula — it’s OK if the mixture is a little streaky.
• Step 8Assemble: No more than 1 hour before serving, place one of the bottom pieces of baked pastry on a cutting board or a platter. Spread half the lemon-cream mixture across the length.
• Step 9Quickly toss the berries in a bowl with 1 tablespoon powdered sugar. Scatter half the berries in a layer over the lemon cream.
• Step 10Carefully place a top piece of pastry strip on top and press it into place. Keep cool but not refrigerated. Dust top with powdered sugar.
• Step 11Repeat with the other pair of pastry strips, remaining lemon cream and berries.Cut crosswise into wide slices using the serrated knife and serve immediately.

Private Notes

I made this today! It is delicious.

A couple of notes— 1. I made this in the middle of a punishing heatwave and the idea of making lemon curd from scratch seemed entirely unappealing, so I substituted store bought.

It’s fine. I’m sure it tastes even better with fresh, but store bought is absolutely okay. 2.

I also subbed in strawberries instead of blackberries because I had them on hand. Tasted excellent! The photo doesn’t look like the recipe descriptions; instead it looks like each section was baked separately rather than cut from a longer piece, and the bottom part seems to have a slice of something different on it before the berries and lemon cream. ???

I must be interpreting incorrectly. Says 8 to 10 servings -- but seems like we get only two "sandwiches"?

The recipe says use half the lemon curd and half the berries…? What do you do with the other half?!

Nancy: you repeat with the other pair of pastry straps. There are 4 in total two bottoms and two tops.

I must be interpreting incorrectly. Says 8 to 10 servings -- but seems like we get only two "sandwiches"?

Kunal Bose, when baked, cooled, & cut along equator, the puff pastry makes 4 long strips – 2 tops & 2 bottoms. Each bottom has ½ of lemon curd/cream mixture spread lengthwise. Then the lemon curd/cream mixture on the bottoms is covered by ½ of the blackberries on each.

The final step is to place a top on each bottom (which are covered with lemon curd/cream & blackberries). This makes 2 long strips/sandwiches which are sliced crosswise to divide each strip into 4 or 5 smaller pieces/sandwiches.

The photo doesn’t look like the recipe descriptions; instead it looks like each section was baked separately rather than cut from a longer piece, and the bottom part seems to have a slice of something different on it before the berries and lemon cream. ???