STRAWBERRY RHUBARB NAPOLEONS

Strawberry Rhubarb Napoleons image

Categories Dessert Bake Valentine's Day Strawberry Lemon Rhubarb Cinnamon Gourmet Vegetarian Pescatarian Peanut Free Tree Nut Free Soy Free Kosher

Yield Serves 6

Number Of Ingredients 9

Ingredients

For filling
1 pound rhubarb, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 3 cups)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 pint strawberries
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (about 1/2 pound), thawed
Garnish: confectioners' sugar
Accompaniment: Lemon Cream

Steps:

Make filling:
In a heavy saucepan combine all filling ingredients except strawberries and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, 10 to 15 minutes, or until rhubarb is soft and falling apart. Transfer mixture to a bowl and cool completely. Hull strawberries and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (there will be about 2 cups). Add strawberries to rhubarb mixture, tossing to combine well. Filling may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring filling to room temperature before assembling napoleons.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
On a lightly floured surface roll pastry into a 14- by 10-inch rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick. Cut pastry into 4 strips, each 14 by 2 1/2 inches. Working with 1 pastry strip at a time, with long side facing you, make three 4-inch-long parallelograms per strip, discarding end scraps, for a total of 12 parallelograms. Invert 2 baking sheets and arrange 6 parallelograms in one layer on each. Freeze pastry 15 minutes, or until firm.
Remove 1 baking sheet from freezer and invert a metal cooling rack directly onto pastry to cover parallelograms completely. (Cooling rack will weight down pastry to form a decorative pattern.) Bake pastry with cooling rack in middle of oven until golden brown and cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Carefully remove rack from pastry and transfer pastry to another rack to cool completely. Bake remaining pastry in same manner. Parallelograms may be made 4 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.
Assemble napoleons:
Arrange 6 parallelograms, design sides up, on dessert plates and top each with about 1/2 cup filling. Put remaining 6 parallelograms, design sides up, on top of filling and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.
Serve napoleons with lemon cream.