Oh and…

…when I say “Napoleons” what I mean is the standard pastry cream-only mille-feuille, or what French pastry makers might call (or may have once called…since I’m not really sure) mille-feuille à la napolitaine. That being three layers of puff pastry inside of which are two layers of pastry cream and nothing more. There is another form of Napoleon common to New World pastry shops called the “Swedish Napoleon”, which is a standard mille-feuille where the top layer of pastry cream has been replaced by, or supplemented with, jam. I’m not a big fan of these kinds of Napoleons since for me the jam gets in the way of my enjoyment of the silky vanilla luxury that is pastry cream. Likewise with Napoleons where the pastry cream has been spiked with kirsch. That’s another German/Northern European thing that I just don’t understand…but those folks sure love their preserves and home-made fruit hooch, don’t they? Seems like they try to sneak them into every darn thing.