A French pastry question???
 

I have a friend here in the US who has a bakery and makes what he calles "Napoleons". I have seen a similar pastry in Paris but it is not called Napoleons. I have been told that in France they are not called Napoleons.
My baker friend wants to know what they are called in France if there is anything close?? Can anyone suggest a French name for this "american" version of pastry? Thanks for your help.

What we call a "Napoleon" is essentially what the French call a "millefeuille" (meaning a thousand leaves, for all the delicate layers of puff pastry that go into it).

If you mean a millefeuille with crème anglaise or whipped cream between the layers, this is called a Tom Pouce.

Hi aj,

A Napolean is a rectangular piece of cake topped with whipped cream and formed so that its cross section is that of a truncated pyramid. The whole is then coated in chocolate.

You are probably thinking of a "millefeuille".

From Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking":

MILLE-FEUILLES
[Napoleons - Layers of Puff Pastry Interspersed with Pastry Cream or Whipped Cream: Iced with Fondant and Chocolate or with Confectioner's Sugar]

The Danes have been told for generations that a Danish royal pastry chef invented the dessert way back in the early 1800's on the occasion of a state visit between Emperor Napoleon and tge King of Denmar. --- The Italians are sure it is a corruption of Napolitain because of the layered pastries made in Naples --- A final story, that the dessert was reaaly a French invention after all, and Napoleone's favorite pastry; he ate so many on the eve of Waterloo that he lost the battle. The pastry then disappeared from view for half a century; when it finally reappeared from banishment, it wore another icing and a new name.

----------------------------------------

Julia takes 6 pages for her recipe.

Thank you everyone! I passed the information on to the baker! I wish that I were in Paris now eating all that pastry!!!!!