In Germany, this is a customary holiday treat. Having it as your first meal of the new year is lucky. Butter is usually sprinkled on it when Germans eat it. This dough is gently sweet rather than salty like a pretzel. This was converted from metric measurement and German language, and it turned out absolutely fantastic!
| Prep Time: | 1 hr 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 20 bars |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ (17.5 ounce) packages frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 4 cups milk, divided
- ⅓ cup cake flour
- ⅞ cup white sugar, divided
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (12 ounce) jar apricot jam
- 3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Roll out 3 sheets of puff pastry, each to the same size and a thickness of 1/8 inch. Prick with a fork, and place on baking sheets.
- Bake in preheated oven until golden, about 10 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, combine cornstarch and 1/2 cup milk with your fingers until smooth. Stir in cake flour and half of the sugar. Beat in egg yolks. Set aside.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, bring remaining milk and remaining sugar to a rolling boil. Stir in egg yolk mixture; continue stirring and bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Let cool.
- In a small saucepan or in the microwave, heat jam until runny.
- Place one sheet of pastry on a board. Spread with cooled pastry cream to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Place a second pastry sheet over cream. Brush with fruit glaze. Spread remaining pastry cream over glaze. Top with final pastry sheet and gently compress layers, using a baking sheet to press.
- To make icing, beat together confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice with enough egg whites to make a creamy consistency like that of a cream soup. Working quickly, color a small portion of frosting with red food coloring. Frost the top and sides of the assembled pastry with white icing. Pipe parallel lines of red icing on top of the dessert, then draw a pick or knife crosswise through icing to make the traditional design. Let icing set before cutting into bars.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 406 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 61 g |
| Cholesterol | 33 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 133 mg |
| Sugars | 37 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made for my husband for his birthday. Consistency of filling was way too soupy. Tasted good, just a mess to eat. Will try again next time but double or triple the cornstarch to hold it all together and maybe make it in a baking dish to hold it all together
They turned out great. Thanks so much.
Good recipe.
I made this for my daughter’s Paris birthday party. It looked really beautiful but only a few of the kids actually liked it. I thought it was ok. I think it might have been better if the puff pastry was baked at a higher temp.
THIS RECIPE WAS OUT OF BOUNDS…:) I USED A DIFFERENT PASTRY CREAM AND AS FOR THE ICING I ACTUALLY ADDED THE EGG WHITES ALITTLE AT A TIME TO THE CONSISTENCY I WANTED…WOULD I MAKE IT AGAIN..ABSOLUTLY MY DAD AND I LOVED IT
Very good. Apricot is traditional and ideal, but my mom puts up blackberry jelly every year so it’s on hand and I used it. I “buttered” the top and bottom of the center pastry and very much liked the color contrast. Also used thin stripes of blackberry on the top. I served it cool, not cold, and it fit a summer dinner fine.
I wanted to do the traditional recipe and this one fit the bill. I like the flatter pastry and the icig to look like a real French Napoleon. I think it worked … you be the judge. Good recipe with a few teaks. 🙂
i hated this! I expected so much more recipy . It was a mess…everything from the cream to the icing. what a waste of ingriedients! i will never make this again.It had no flavour and thats after i added extra sugar and vanilla. I left everything else excatly how the recipy asked for it and it is aweful. if you are not experienced with puff pastry do not try this , find a differnt recipy and try it first. i love baking and hate dissing others’ recipies but this is the biggest dissapoitment EVER
Need to bake the pastry at 400 for 15 mins. For the icing, use about 1/2 the egg whites, mine was totally runny and spilled over the edges, what a mess.
OMG this recipe is soooo good! I have made it now 3 times and now it is a favorite request from all of my family for our special gatherings. Does require quite a large platter to assemble but the presentation is awesome when done right!