There are some amazing bakers out there, I am not one of them and for that reason I had homemade pastry cream on my list of “to make” for a long time. I don’t know why the heck I waited so long!!! I decided it was time and wanted to make a simplified Napoleon, so came about these incredible Strawberry & Cream Napoleons!
I found a really wonderful creamy, smooth, rich and delicious pastry cream recipe on Real Simple, it came out perfect! The trick to getting this pastry cream just perfect is to have everything you need prepped and ready to grab. The flavor was absolutely perfect and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make. I jokingly told my husband last night that I am now ready to open a bakery… that may be a very big exaggeration.
I have a deep deep love for puff pastry because it makes for easy and tasty sweet or savory eats. I simply cut store bought puff pastry into rectangles and baked them off until golden. Once the cool a bit, simply slice in half and open them up like a sandwich. In goes that homemade pastry cream and slices of fresh strawberries! These are so light and airy, easy to make and so so good!
NOTE: Theres enough pastry cream for most of the puff pastry pieces. When I ran out of cream, a smeared on some Nutella and strawberries.
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 box store bought puff pastry, defrosted in the fridge
- fresh strawberries, sliced
- powdered sugar
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Unfold both pieces of puff pastry onto a non stick surface and cut each piece into 6 even rectangles.
- Place onto a lined baking sheet and bake until golden, about 26-28 minutes. Cool.
- For the pastry cream, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk in the milk. Pour into a saucepan.
- Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture has thickened to the consistency of creamy salad dressing, 2 to 4 minutes {you don’t want to go too long, it will be overly thick}.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla, then the butter, a few pieces at a time, until melted and smooth.
- Pour into a bowl. Place a piece of parchment or wax paper directly on the surface of the pastry cream and refrigerate until completely cool, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Once the pastry cream is ready to go, go ahead and slice open the puff pastry, smear or pipe on some pastry cream then add a layer of sliced strawberries. Top with some powdered sugar.
