Ever since I’d seen the beautiful photograph of raspberry napoléon in Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook, I’d always wondered what the contrasting textures would taste like. The only hurdle in my way was the puff pastry.

I’ve always wanted to give puff pastry a go, but never had the courage to do so. I’ve convinced myself that the butter blocks would just melt horribly in the warm weather over here and I’d end up with a thick block of dough with no layers whatsoever.

So, when my parents presented us with store-bought puff pastry they’d carted all the way back from Melbourne (please don’t ask me how they did this without the pastry sheets defrosting on the flight), I knew right away what to do with them.

The resulting dessert was visually pleasing, but I didn’t like the texture of the store-bought pastry. Although the layers were present, I found the pastry a little too dry and flakey. Fortunately, the vanilla flecked pastry cream, which I’d also infused with orange zest, was lovely with the slightly tart raspberries. It looks like I’ll have to try making my own puff pastry!

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