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Cream cheese, almond-extract, puff pastry and chocolate come together to make this simple, impressive, gluten-free dessert. Napoleons = delicious.

One of the desserts I have missed so much the past few years is napoleons. After changing my diet to be gluten-free and low sugar, it had been years since I had this impressive dessert served at my holiday table. I used to make these for every occasion because people ooh and ahh when they see this on your table, thinking that you spent hours and are a certified French Chef. Little do they know that this dessert is incredibly easy to make.

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Tools Suggested for Gluten-Free Napoleons (but not needed)

You can find links to other products I recommend for gluten-free and keto baking / cooking here.

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Ingredient Recommendations

How to make gluten-free puff pastry napoleons:

1. Let the Dough/Puff Pastry Thaw:

This is VERY important because this gluten-free puff pastry dough is a bit less pliable than normal puff pastry. Let it sit on your countertop for a bit, or put it in the microwave on defrost (follow directions on your microwave to defrost on a VERY low setting). The last rolled up bit is the hardest to get to lay flat without cracking, so be patient with this step. PS. If you’re not gluten-free, you can use regular puff pastry here. But… why would you add that yucky gluten to your diet if you don’t have to? 🙂

2. Cut the Puff Pastry into Desired Shape and Poke Holes:

Using a cookie cutter, or a barely sharp knife, cut your dough into your desired shape. I have found that circles are the best for aesthetics, but you do lose quite a bit of puff pastry in the process. I’ve made rectangles, stars, Christmas trees, candy canes. This is your preference here. Make the right look for your occasion.
We learned this the hard way. When my mom and I first found this recipe way back in the 90s, we used to make the entire sheet of puff pastry, cut into thirds, and then try and cut after the filling and everything was assembled. It just ended up squishing all the filling out. So we decided to try and cut the pieces first, and it was the best napoleon decision we ever made.

After you’ve placed your puff pastry onto your cookie sheet, lightly and generously poke holes into the pastry with a fork. This allows the steam from the butter to escape and the pastry to rise.

3. Bake the Pastry:

I use a cooking mat on a cookie sheet to bake these so they don’t stick. Or, the Schar’s gluten-free puff pastry comes with a sheet of parchment paper. Use something so they don’t stick. Bake at 400° for 7-9 minutes until just lightly golden on top (the bottoms will be more cooked)

4. Make the Filling:

Let your cream cheese come to room temp. If you forgot this step earlier on, that’s ok. Just put it in the microwave (not with the foil, of course!) for about 15-20 seconds. You don’t want it scolding, just warm enough to mix.

In your stand-mixer, or with beaters, mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar together. Start with 1/2 of the powdered sugar and on low, so you don’t end up with a cloud of powdered sugar all over you and your kitchen (not that this has ever happened to me). If your powdered sugar is lumpy, you may want to sift it first. This can be a bit messy, and I skip this step if I can, but you definitely don’t want lumps of powdered sugar in your filling. Use your best judgment here.

Once all the powdered sugar is combined, add in the almond extract and brandy. The brandy is optional. I made these for years without it, but this year decided to give it a try, and loved the flavor. But they will be delicious without it if you don’t want the alcohol.

Mix until smooth and combined.

4. Whip the Whipping Cream:

Because I like to know what’s in my food, I make my own whipping cream. It’s so easy, why not? Put about 2/3 – 1 cup of whipping cream (milk) into a cool bowl. I use my stand mixer for this because I’m inpatient and like it to work while I do other things, like clean up. But you can use beaters. Once the cream starts to form peaks, put in about 3 tbsp of powdered sugar. This is truly to your preference. Do you like it sweeter, or less sweet? I like it medium. I don’t want it to taste like milk, but not like candy either. Slowly beat now and do not over beat. It will become butter if you over beat it.

4. Combine the Whipping Cream and Cream Cheese Mixture:

Fold in the whipping cream into the cream cheese mixture using a spatula. Do this gently, as you don’t want the whipping cream to completely deflate. This is what makes it light and fluffy.

5. Separate Your Flat From Your Puffy Puff Pastry Pieces:

Divide the puff-pastry pieces into two even piles. Start with the flattest pieces (these will be your bottoms), and your puffiest pieces (these will be your tops). Make sure your piles are even. If you don’t have an even mix of flat and puffy pieces, just use your best judgment. Aesthetically, these look the best with the puffiest pieces on top, but they taste the same either way. Place your latest pieces on a tray.

6. Fill

Using your dessert tool, or a ziplock bag (if you’ve been following me, you know I oppose the use of single-use plastic if I can avoid it, so I prefer the dessert tool).
If using the dessert tool, select a large mouth opening. Fill the cream cheese mixture into the tool.
If using a ziplock, roll the top edge ziploc over a large mouth jar or glass. You want a few inches of bag that doesn’t have filling on it, or you’ll end up with a mess. Put your filling into the bag. Once you put most of the filling into the bag, take it off the cup or jar, and roll the top down to remove any air. Cut a small amount of one of the corners off to make a hole.

6. Assemble

Place the puffiest pieces on top of the bottoms with the cream cheese mixture.

7. Glaze

Prepare the glaze by mixing powdered sugar and milk in a bowl until smooth. Use a pastry brush to brush the glaze on top of the top piece. It’s ok if some falls down the sides, but you don’t want this too thick. It should be a light layer.

8. Drizzle Chocolate

Place the chocolate in a heat-safe bowl (I prefer glass). Heat in the microwave for about a minute, but stopping every 30 seconds to mix. Do not cook this. You are just melting it. It will look like nothing happened until you actually mix it with a fork. After a minute, it should all melt with mixing. If not, put it in the microwave in 15-second intervals after that so you don’t burn/cook the chocolate. I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips so this would be low sugar, but if you don’t mind sugar, you can use Baker’s Semi-Sweet chocolate squares. The Baker’s chocolate does drizzle better.

Using a fork, and while the chocolate is still warm, dip the fork into the chocolate and then lightly wave over the top of the pastry until the chocolate falls and drizzles in lines. This takes a little practice but don’t worry if you get some blobs. Some people will love a heavier chocolate piece.
See the video above for a demonstration.

9. Serve. Voila!

You can transfer these to another platter, or use the one with the chocolate drizzle. If you won’t be serving for a while, you can chill in the fridge. Be careful, your family may eat them all prior to your event. Yes, I’m speaking from experience here. They look amazing, are light and fluffy, and your guests will go crazy for them!