Chocolate Hazelnut Napoleon with Black Sugar Powder | A Three-Layer Mille-feuille

A three-layer mille-feuille that comes together in under an hour

Chocolate hazelnut Napoleon uses three sheets of shop-bought egg tart pastry rolled flat into crisp bases, layered with whipped chocolate hazelnut cream. The cream takes 240 grams of cream, 90 grams of chocolate hazelnut spread, 20 grams of Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder, and a pinch of salt, whipped to firm peaks. Three layers of pastry, two layers of piped cream, finished with crushed hazelnuts and chocolate shavings.

The black sugar powder is the move. White sugar would give you sweetness, but the hazelnut chocolate cream already has plenty of sugar from the spread. Black sugar powder adds a caramel-molasses depth that meets the cocoa instead of flattening it.

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Why this sugar

Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder is unrefined cane sugar milled fine enough to dissolve cleanly into whipped cream without sandy bits. Twenty grams in the cream is enough to add depth without making the dessert overly sweet, since the chocolate hazelnut spread is already doing the heavy sweetening.

Made with Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder 300g. Heritage cane sugar, milled fine for baking. Shop the sugar.

Recipe

Yield: 4 servings
Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 15 minutes
Total: 1 hour

Pastry layers

• 9 frozen egg tart shells, thawed

Chocolate hazelnut cream

• 240 g cold whipping cream
• 90 g chocolate hazelnut spread
• 20 g Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder
• Pinch of salt

Topping

• 30 g crushed hazelnuts
• 15 g chocolate shavings

Method

1. Roll each thawed tart shell flat between two sheets of parchment to about 2 mm thickness. Trim to rectangles.
2. Prick all over with a fork. Bake at 200 C for 15 minutes until deep golden. Cool completely on a rack.
3. In a cold bowl, whip cream with the black sugar powder and salt until soft peaks. Add chocolate hazelnut spread. Whip to firm peaks.
4. Pipe cream onto one pastry layer, top with another, pipe again, top with the third.
5. Scatter crushed hazelnuts and chocolate shavings on top. Chill 15 minutes to set, then serve.

About Ship Brand

Ship Brand (帆船牌) is the retail line of Yuen Tung Sugar Factory Industrial Company Limited. Sugar refined in Hong Kong since 1948.