Recipe #9 Fall Fruit Napoleon

This recipe was inspired by my local grocery store.  Every time I have walked into a store over the last month or so, the first thing I am hit with is huge displays of apples and pears.  Fall fruit is becoming plentiful now, so I decided to do something about it.  I've always loved the elegant and tall Napoleon desserts with their many different layers, so that's what I have created here.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups apple juice, divided
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Red Delicious apple, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Bosc pear, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Bartlett pear, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 tsp. apple pie spice or cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 (14 oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce
4 teaspoons corn starch
whipped topping
1 box (2 sheets) puff pastry

Lay out puff pastry on a cutting board to thaw (takes about 30-40 minutes).  In a 2 quart sauce pan, bring 1 cup apple juice to a boil.  Add apples, apple pie spice (or cinnamon) and sugar.  Boil for about 5 minutes or until apples are tender. Lower heat to medium and add pears and cranberry sauce and simmer until cranberry sauce is completely melted.  In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup apple juice and corn starch and stir until well blended.  Pour cornstarch into simmering apple mixture.  Stir until mixture thickens, about 1-2 minutes.  Allow fruit mixture to cool while preparing other ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with vegetable spray.  Open puff pastry sheets and roll out slightly to seal any creases.  Cut into 4 inch squares and place about 1 inch apart on cookie sheets.  Bake pastry for 10 minutes.  Pastry will puff up during baking.  With a spatula, press pastry down slightly to flatten.  Turn pastry over at this time.  Bake for 10-15 more minutes or until both sides of pastry are golden brown.  Allow pastry to cool to room temperature.

To assemble Napoleon dessert, lay one square of pastry onto serving plate.  Place a dollop of whipped topping on pastry.  Next, place one spoonful of fruit mixture.  Repeat process.  Place the last piece of pastry on top with a smaller dollop of cream and a smaller amount of fruit sauce. Try to get a piece of apple directly on top of the cream.  The layers should go as follows:  pastry, cream, fruit, pastry, cream, fruit, pastry, small amount of cream, small amount of fruit. Use the picture above as a guide.  This one is a little difficult to put together, but really easy to cook.

What I learned from this recipe:
-When using apples or pears in your desserts, the variety of the fruit is very important.  If you want a firmer apple with a little more tart flavor (like in apple pies), Granny Smith is the apple for you.  If you want something a little sweeter and you don't mind a softer texture, use Red Delicious.  Pears are pretty similar between varieties, but can be firm or very soft at different parts of it's life cycle.  The pears you get at the grocery store are very likely to be firm or even hard.  If you leave them on your cabinet for a few days or even up to a week, you can have a very soft, juicy pear.  For this recipe, you want a softer, riper pear.  However, if you can only find firm pears and don't have time to let them ripen, you can add them into the apple juice at the same time as the apples to let them cook a little longer.