Howard Test Kitchen: Chocolate Napoleon Feb 7 2013

At one time or another we've all walked into a bakery, and stared into the case with our mouth practically watering and wondered "how do they make this?" or "how do they make that?" Well, today we're gonna share with you the secret to making one of my favorite French pastries, and it's so easy. We start with a couple of sheets of frozen puff pastry. We lay them out on a baking sheet, and we'll bake them off. And if you've never bought these before, you can find them in the freezer section, right next to the desserts. You can tell they're done when they're puffed-up and golden. And the secret to puff pastry is to make sure it's baked to the point where all the layers are flakey.  For our chocolaty filling, we whisk together some milk with a couple of packages of instant chocolate pudding - until it thickens up. Then we add in some whipped topping. Fold it gently until it's all mixed. Spread that onto one layer of the cooled pastry sheet, making sure we spread it evenly like right to the edges. We're going to place the second one on top, important, flat side up, and we'll place a cookie sheet on top of that. And we'll gently press down to flatten out those puffed up areas so the filling just starts to ooze out. After glazing the top with white icing, we pipe it with some chocolate icing. And as we draw a knife over it, we get the same fancy schmancy look we find at the bakeries. And once it chills up, we cut it into squares. And when we bite into these with their creamy chocolate filling and the flaky-as-can-be-layers, watch out. Yes, the recipe for "Chocolate Napoleons" is online now just in time for Valentine's Day, or really any day that you want a fancy dessert that is worthy of ... as they say in France ... "Ooh c'est si bon!!"