Roasted Peach Napoleon Recipes

ROASTED PEACHES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225 degrees. In a bowl, gently toss peaches with lime juice and oil. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment. Place confectioners' sugar in a fine-mesh sieve and dust peaches evenly.
• Bake until peaches darken and begin to curl, about 1 hour. Let cool completely; serve.

ROASTED STRAWBERRY NAPOLEON

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, and set aside. Have ready another baking pan, unlined. In a small bowl, combine corn syrup with 1 teaspoon warm water; set aside.
• Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Roll puff-pastry sheet into a 12-inch square; trim edges. Cut sheet on the fold lines, making three 4-by-12-inch rectangles. Place rectangles on lined pan. Top with another piece of parchment. Place the unlined pan on top of the filled pan. Bake puff pastry 8 minutes.
• Remove the empty pan and top parchment, and return pan to oven. Bake until pastry starts to puff and is light-golden brown, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven; lightly brush with reserved corn-syrup mixture. Using a long metal spatula, gently flip rectangles. Brush again with corn-syrup mixture. Bake until shiny and golden brown, about 9 minutes more. With the spatula, transfer puff pastry to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.
• Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees. Using a pastry brush, coat the bottom of a medium oven-proof saute pan with 1 tablespoon butter; scrape vanilla seeds into butter. Place strawberries, cut sides down, in pan. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, and lay vanilla pod on top. Roast until strawberries start to "slump" and feel soft when squeezed, 10 to 12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer all but 2 of the berries and vanilla pod to a plate to cool. Reserve juices in pan.
• Set pan over high heat. If using Grand Marnier, add to pan, and light a match, carefully igniting liqueur; allow flame to burn out, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium. Using a fork, mash 2 remaining strawberries; add orange juice. (If not using liqueur, add 2 tablespoons more orange juice). Cook until thick and syrupy, 30 to 40 seconds; discard vanilla pod. Remove from heat. Swirl in the remaining tablespoon butter, and set aside.
• Combine cream and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, and whip until stiff peaks form.
• Without using a tip, close off the end of a pastry bag with a paper clip or clothespin; fill with whipped cream. Repeat, filling a second pastry bag with orange pastry cream. (Alternatively, use two resealable plastic bags, and cut off a corner on each; an offset spatula can also be used to spread both whipped and pastry creams.)
• Pipe a tablespoon of pastry cream onto the middle of a serving plate. Center a rectangle of puff pastry on top. Leaving a 1/2-inch border, pipe orange pastry cream onto puff pastry. Arrange roasted strawberries on top of pastry cream; scrape any remaining juices from plate into reserved sauce. Place a second rectangle of puff pastry on top of strawberries. Leaving a 1/2-inch border, pipe whipped cream onto second rectangle of puff pastry. Sprinkle with pistachios. Place a third rectangle of puff pastry on top.
• Using a serrated knife, slice assembled napoleon into 4 pieces. Drizzle with the reserved sauce, and serve.

BEET AND PEAR NAPOLEONS WITH GINGER JUICE VINAIGRETTE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle.
• Wrap beets in foil and roast until tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Let stand until cool enough to handle, then slice crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Cool completely.
• Meanwhile, finely grate ginger with a Microplane over a kitchen-towel-lined bowl. Carefully gather towel around ginger and squeeze until you have 2 tablespoons ginger juice. Whisk in orange juice, sugar, and oil. Season with salt and pepper. Divide vinaigrette evenly between 2 small bowls.
• Cut pears lengthwise around core into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Cut out 18 rounds from slices using cookie cutter and put in one bowl of vinaigrette.
• Cut out 18 rounds from beet slices and put in other bowl. Toss pears and beets with vinaigrette to coat well.
• To assemble napoleons, put 1 beet round on each of 6 plates (see cooks' note, below) and top with a tarragon leaf. Top with 1 pear round, then another tarragon leaf. Repeat layering 2 more times. Discard vinaigrette used for beets.
• Toss greens with some of remaining vinaigrette and place around each napoleon. Finely grate apple (including skin) into a bowl. Spoon a heaping teaspoon apple on top of each napoleon, then sprinkle with sea salt and poppy seeds. Drizzle with more vinaigrette if desired.

RITA'S ROASTED PEACH SALSA

Steps:

• Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler.
• Arrange tomatoes, peach, onion, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and garlic on a baking sheet.
• Broil in the preheated oven until vegetables and peach are browned and tender and tomato skins can be peeled off, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Dice the roasted vegetable and peach and transfer to a bowl. Add lemon juice, sugar, salt, and parsley; toss to coat. Refrigerate at least 1 hour for flavors to blend.

ROASTED-PEACH STREUSEL

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.
• Drizzle 2 tablespoons butter over bottom of a 9-inch baking dish or pie plate and arrange peach halves cut sides up.
• Pulse almonds, flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a food processor until clumps form.
• Top peaches with streusel and bake until peaches are tender and streusel is browned, about 20 minutes (if browning too quickly, loosely cover with foil).
• Meanwhile, whip cream with almond extract and remaining tablespoon sugar until it just holds soft peaks.
• Serve peaches warm with cream.