Want to prepare a nice yet easy and quick gesture for your loved one this Valentine season? These valentine Lebanese napoleon bites are the perfect match!
These cute little heart-shaped bites are my Lebanese intake of the traditional napoleon dessert.
First, what is napoleon’s dessert?
The napoleon dessert is a kind of flaky pastry filled with creamy custard filling or almond paste with a classic chevron design on the top. Some people also know this dessert as “mille-feuille” in French.
Usually, we prepare the pastry dough from scratch and same for the custrad filling. But as a new mum for a very naughty active toddler I wanted something quick and easy yet looks nice and sophisticated for a valentine treat.
I bought frozen puff pastry squares cut the heart shapes into them directly. And for the filling, I went Lebanese style with a creamy delicious ashta made with ricotta and with minimum effort to prepare. Also to add the sophisticated look I garnished with heart shapes strawberries and some dices for extra flavor and a sprinkle of icing sugar. And the recipe is done.
Quick and easy flakey bites with healthier cream filling that you wipe up in minutes for a last-minute valentine treat.
Make-ahead kind of bites!
These valentine Lebanese napoleon bites are also perfect for a make-ahead kind of treat. You can prepare and bake your puff pastry in advance. You can also make the ricotta ashta filling 3 days ahead and store it in the fridge. And you can even dice the strawberries and make the heart-shaped strawberries and store them. So, whenever you want to serve you just need to assemble and serve et voila!
Don’t forget to check my other valentine-inspired recipe for your celebration this year.
And if you want something really special make sure you check my valentine’s board that contains a full dinner set with a free grocery list and all the details you need to prepare it in no time.
Valentine Lebanese Napoleon bites
Equipment
- 3 heart-shaped cut-out set (see note )
- 1 piping bag (see note)
- 1 fine-mesh strainer (see note)
Ingredients
Lebanese Achta Filling
- ¼ Cup Cold milk
- 2 Tbsp. Corn flour
- 1 pack Ricotta cheese (250g)
- 2 Tbsp. Honey
- 3 Tbsp. icing sugar
- 1 Tbsp. Rose water
Pastry
- 1 pack Puff pastry squares 20 pieces (800g) (see note)
- 1 small Egg
- 1 Tsp. Instant coffee
- 2 Tbsp. Milk
Garnish
- extra Icing sugar for garnish
- 1 Cup Fresh strawberry
Instructions
For the filling:
- Put the ricotta cheese in a strainer and let it drain for 30 minutes in the refrigerator if it has any extra liquid if not you start with it without draining.
- In a small pan pour the milk and corn flour and mix well till the corn flour is all dissolved in milk. Turn on the heat on medium and keep mixing until the milk thickens, remove from heat and set aside.
- Add drained cheese and mix well until you a smooth mixture. Add the honey and icing sugar and mix it. At the end add the rose water and mix it all through until you have a smooth mixture. Store einthe frdige while you prepare your pastries. ( see notes)
For the pastry:
- Preheat the oven 200˚C.
- Dust with some flour and Roll the pastry to make the squarres fit your heart shape cookie cutter.
- with the large heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out all your squares (20 pieces). than with a smaller heart-shaped cookies cutter cut smaller windows inside half of the big heart-shaped puff pastries that you have already cut (10 pieces) .
- line two baking sheets with some parchemet paper and arrange your puff pastry hearts on it.
- poke few holes with a fork in each heart
- dissolve the instant coffee in the milk and pour over the egg and whisk to make your eggwash.
- Brush the pastry with the egg wash.
- Bake the pastry for 19 minutes ( or as per manufacturer’s instructions.)
For the topping:
- slice your strawberries lenghtwise into 5 mm thick slices. on the outter slices with the skin on cut small heart shapes with the smallest cookie cutter to decorate with. and after you have 20 small strawberry heart-shape, dice all the remaining slices for topping.
For the Assembly:
- Using a piping bag pipe your ashta filling on top of the solid baked heart-shaped puff pastry.
- Gently sandwich the heart-shaped "window" puff pastry on top of the solid ashta-topped puff pastry.
- Fill the window with the diced strawberry
- Pipe a small point of ashta on the corner of each heart and top it with the small heart-shaped strawberries.
- Pour ½ cup of powdered sugar into a fine-mesh strainer and lightly dust the tops of each heart-shape napoleon bite.
- serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- the heart-shaped cut-outs: I used Wilton cut-outs to prepare this recipe. for the big heart, I used the 7 cm cut-out; for the window, I used the 5 cm cut-out and for the small strawberries hearts I used the smallest one in the set 2cm.
- you don’t have to cut the pastry into heart shapes if you don’t have the cut-outs you can leave them squares and just with a sharp knife cut out the window.
- Ricotta filling: I used this piping bag to fill the pastries in a clean way. but you can also do it with a small spoon and just work gently.
- fine-mesh strainer: make sure a fine-mesh strainer for the icing so you don’t end up with a big mess of sugar.
- make-ahead: you can prepare and bake your puff pastry and store it in an air-tight container on your kitchen countertop for up to 3 days. and you can also prepare the filling in advance and store I in the fridge for up to 3 days. and assemble whenever you are ready. you can also dice and shape the strawberries in advance but it is better to cut fresh.
- store any leftovers after assembly in the fridge and enjoy within 48 hours.