I love living here in the States. I love the weather, the people, the opportunity, everything.

If there is something that I miss, though, it is my family. Luckily as a teacher I have my summer off which gives me the time and opportunity to travel. So every year for the past 10 years, Lisa, Theo and myself ( or les Trois Mousquetaires, as we like to call each others) we travel, visit family and sightsee France and Europe.

This year it was the surrounding of Paris with all its beautiful cattles: Fountainebleau, Chantilly, VilleComte…
and Berlin. If our trip is different every year, there is one thing  that stays constant, it is our usual lunch at La duree. We have made it our yearly treat. we love to go there because the setting is beautiful, the food is wonderful and it is just fun to be there;-). Plus the desserts over there are always out of this world!!!

I am sure that you can already guess what i order each time?!? Yes, it is chocolate, of course. My dessert this year looked like this… pretty?! right;-)

Theo ordered a very fancy ice-cream, and lisa ordered a rose and raspberry napoleon.

I did not say a word when she ordered that dessert because i did not want to dissuade her from her choice, but I did not think that she would like the rose flavor since she does not like my rose macaron. But to my surprise, she loved it, loved it.

Well this Sunday, for our dessert treat I decided to make that for our dessert. I somewhat followed the recipe that Stephane Glacier propose in his book Tartes, Gouters, et Entremets, but I changed a few things to make it easier. 

This dessert looks very hard to make, BUT IT IS NOT so I hope that you will give it a try. It is worth it. Yes!!!

Proof??? my daughter asked I made two so that she would not have to share hers;-)

Ingredients for a square for 4 people:

• 1 puff pastry package thawed at room temperature for 40 minutes.
• 1 box of raspberry box of about 6 oz. 
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar for the puff pastries.

Ingredients for the Creme Patissiere, or Pastry cream:

• 250 gr. or 1 1/4 cup of whole milk,
• 3 egg yolks,
• 40 gr. or 3 tbsp of granulated sugar,
• 10 gr. or 3 tsp. of flour,
• 10 gr. or 3 tsp. of corn flour,
• a pinch of salt,
• 1 stick of butter.
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of rose extract.

1. Place the puff pastry sheet on the roulpat and with a rolling-pin, spread the dough out to make a rectangle of 13″ by 9.5″.
2. Place the pastry onto a silpat that you would have previously placed on a perforated sheet. With a fork, prick the pastry. 
3.  Place another silpat on top, and place it in the fridge. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Turn the oven to 356.
5. Remove the pastry from the fridge. When the oven is at temperature, place another perforated sheet above the silpat to prevent the dough from rising when it will cook in the oven.
6. Bake the puff pastry for 30 minutes. It should be golden.
7. Remove the puff pastry from the oven.
8. Turn the oven to 450.
9. Sprinkle some sugar all over the baked pastries and when the oven is at 450, place the pastry back into the oven for 6-7 minutes or until the sugar has completely melted and has become caramel. Be careful to watch that the sugar is not burning. 
10. While the puff pastry is cooking, prepare the mousseline cream.
11. In a small saucepan warm up the milk and bring the mixture to boil.
12. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture becomes whitish.
13. Add the flour and the corn starch to the eggs and mix.
14. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and stir.
15. Place the milk/ egg mixture back onto the stove and cook until the mixture is bubbling and is becoming really thick. Remove the pastry cream from the stove, place it into a bowl, add the vanilla and stir well.
16. Cover it tightly with a plastic wrap and let it cool.
17. When the cream is completly cool, place it in kitchen mixer. Add the soft butter and whip until the mixture is fluffy. Add the 1/2 tsp of rose extract. Set aside.
18. Remove the pastry from the oven, and let it cool completly.
19. Let the puff pastries cool completely before assembling the dessert.
20. With a sharp knife, cut each pastry into 2 rectangles of 9″ by 6″.
21. Place one rectangle on a plate, and place rasberries all around the rectangle. Pipe the cream inside the rectangle of raspberry. Place a few more rasberry in the middle of the rectangle to create leverage for the top tier of the cake.
22. Top the cream with another rectangle of cooked pastry.
23. With the piping bag and the small round tip, pipe the cream all over the second rectangle.  
24. Place another rectangle atop the cream.
25. Cut a waxed paper, or aluminium a bit smaller than the top rectangle.
26. Lay it on the top puff pastry, and with a  powdered sugar sifter, sprinkle some sugar for decoration. Add a few fruits et voila!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!