Not everything has to be complicated. These napoleons are dead simple and utterly delicious. The chocolate layers are made of an easy-schmeasy faux chocolate mousse, made by melting chocolate into heavy cream, chilling it, and whipping it like whipped cream. Phyllo is purchased, layered, and baked with minimal effort. And raspberries, oh, luscious, seasonal raspberries!

This came about because I found raspberries for sale at the greenmarket for half the price I’m used to, so I bought a bunch and came home looking for an excuse to play with them. They are more expensive and, honestly, tastier earlier in the season, but so be it. I wanted to take advantage of those last lovely berries trickling in before they were completely gone for the year.

Anyways, I am short on time lately, so it had to be a simple, fast recipe. A bit of brainstorming later, this is what Dave and I came up with.

(You know what our brainstorming is like by now, right? First he says that it has to involve chocolate. Then I say that there are other options. Then he says, if there’s no chocolate it doesn’t even count as dessert. Then I say, I want rose petal jelly with my raspberries! &c.)

I want to have a dinner party, just so I can serve all the easy food we’ve been making lately. Mango served with a dipping mix of sugar, salt, and cayenne. Some sort of straightforward fish dish. These napoleons. All of the accolades, none of the sweat.

Chocolate Raspberry Napoleons
Phyllo dough
Granulated sugar
Butter
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 C heavy cream
Fresh raspberries
Rose petal jelly (optional)

Create the pastry layers.

Preheat your oven to 375°.

Lay out a sheet of phyllo. Brush it with melted butter, sprinkle on some sugar, and lay another sheet on top of it. Keep going like that until it is 8 layers deep. Cut the phyllo into napoleon-sized pieces with a pizza roller and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Create the easy-schmeasy faux chocolate mousse.

Chop the chocolate up fairly finely. Heat the heavy cream until it steams, then pour it over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts in and is incorporated. Chill, then whip as you would whipped cream.

Put everything together.

Build the napoleons: a layer of phyllo, a layer of chocolate, a layer of fresh raspberries, another layer of chocolate, another layer of phyllo. Melt the rose petal jelly in the microwave and then spoon or brush it on top.

I actually preferred these after they chilled in the fridge overnight, because it let the chocolate layers stiffen up some until they were more mousse-like.

Posted by Danielle in Chocolate, Fruit, Sweets on September 11th, 2007 | 5 Comments » | Permalink