When the Farmer's Hand You Preserves...

The Market Inspiration

There is something about the taste of homemade preserves, or jam, that can't be replicated by store bought products. You can really taste the quality of the fruit and it is never too sugary or artificial tasting. My Mother-in-Law's exquisite strawberry jam is a treat I always look forward to.

One of my favorite things to bake are European pastries because of their unique and sophisticated flavors. However, they are often time consuming and require many steps to complete, so I am always looking for time saving techniques that don't sacrifice any of the quality and deliciousness of the pastries. Recently I made mille-feuille, also known as a Napoleon, which is a stacked tower of rough puff pastry, creme patisserie (pastry creme), and often a layer of homemade jam.

As great as it would be to make all these elements yourself, most don't have the time required. However, because I can get perfect homemade jam from the Farmer's Market, I can cut out that time consuming step and focus on the other parts of the pastry, without losing any quality. There are so many unique flavors of jam available as well and they can be used on everything from an elaborate pastry to a simple piece of toast.

The Recipe

1 jar Preserves, any flavor. I used Peach Blossom Preserves.

1 recipe rough puff pastry dough, chilled, and cut into evenly sized rectangles, approx. 2 1/2 x 5". I used Paul Hollywood's Cheat's Puff Pastry Recipe.

1 recipe Creme Patisserie. One of my favorite Pastry Cream recipes to use is from The Model Bakery Cookbook. Look through some of your own Baking and general Cookbooks and you will be sure to find a great pastry cream recipe.

Sprinkle the top of the puff pastry sheets with sugar and bake at 390° for 15-18 minutes, until golden and crisp. Allow to cool.

To assemble the mille-feuille. Layer one square of puff pastry with your jam and then a layer of pastry cream. Repeat a second time and top with a final piece of puff pastry.

The Pairing

One of the most epic adventure stories of all time, The Count of Monte Cristo has also been made into several cracking good movies, none better than the 1934 version starring Robert Donat as the Count. Napoleon, namesake of the pastry, plays a small but crucial role in the story, inadvertently setting in motion Edmond Dantes' imprisonment and eventual revengeance. Enjoy with a side of Mille Foille and you'll have a wonderful evening, no doubt. -Z