Name: Cannoli Napoleon
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 4 h 25 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 1 recipe Perfect Vanilla Pastry Cream, prepared WITHOUT whipped cream and chilled for at least 3 hours (and up to 24 hours).; 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese; 8 ounces mascarpone cheese (Can substitute with 4 ounces cream cheese. See note below); 1 tsp lemon extract of a couple drops of lemon oil (see note for the difference between the two); 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/4 tsp ground allspice; 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional, but recommended); 2/3 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips; 1 cup roasted, salted pistachios; One 17.3 oz. package puff pastry sheets; about 1/4 cup powdered sugar – for sprinkling over the top of the Napoleons

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Puff Pastry Napoleon with Cannoli Filling

This Cannoli Napoleon marries two of my all-time favorite desserts, the Italian Cannoli and the French Napoleon, into one delicious pastry that is an explosion of flavor and textures.

Sheets of flaky puff pastry, baked until golden and crispy are layered with ricotta pastry cream flavored with lemon, cinnamon, mini chocolate chips, and roasted pistachios.
Using frozen puff pastry makes this dessert much easier than it looks, and the pastry cream filling can be prepared days in advance.

A slice of Cannoli Napoleon on a plate, ready to eat.

A classic French Napoleon (aka, a mille-feuille) is simply layers of flaky, crispy puff pastry and rich vanilla pastry cream, and it's seriously one of my all-time FAVORITE desserts. There's something about the contrast in texture between the light-as-air layers of flaky pastry and custardy pastry cream that is magnificent. And addicting.

Over the years, I've made many Napoleons for many different occasions, and none has ever gone to waste. It is one of the most crowd-pleasing desserts I know how to make.

This version simply incorporates the flavors in an Italian Cannoli (ricotta, lemon, cinnamon, chocolate, and pistachios) into the pastry cream for a delicious fusion of two classic European pastries.

Sprinkling powdered sugar over the top of a Cannoli Napoleon.

How to Get Perfectly Crispy, Flaky, and Flat Puff Pastry Layers

One of the best things about a Napoleon is the contrast in texture between flaky, crispy puff pastry and smooth, velvety pastry cream. The challenge with puff pastry is that it puffs as it bakes. Naturally. After all, "puffing" is kind of the point of puff pasty.

But if you're making a Napoleon, you only want those layers to puff to a point. The goal is to get them to puff just enough to reveal all those flaky layers, while remaining flat and compact. The method for achieving this is super simple and follows the same method as my recipe for Classic Napoleon.

Let sheets of frozen puff pastry thaw at room temperature for an hour.
Cut each sheet into three pieces and lay them on a baking sheet that's been covered with parchment paper.
Cover the pastry with another sheet of parchment paper and lay a second baking sheet over the top.
Bake for about 35 minutes then remove the top baking sheet and parchment paper and bake for another 10 minutes or so, until the tops are golden brown.

The weight of the second baking sheet will control how much the layers of puff pastry rise while baking without preventing them from puffing at all. The layers will puff just enough and the tops will remain nicely flat.

Cutting a sheet of puff pastry into thirds before baking it into Napoleon layers.

Three golden brown layers of puff pastry ready to be used for a Napoleon with Cannoli Filling.

A word of caution when baking puff pastry layers:

Over the years, I've heard from a handful of readers who've told me that the long bake time on the puff pastry layers resulted in overdone pastry. For a long time I couldn't understand how why the bake time is perfect for most, but too long for others. Finally, a reader sent me a message with an explantion that I belive might have solved the mystery. Here's what she said:

If you are concerned about overbaking your puff pastry, simply peek under the top baking sheet and check the pastry after 15 minutes of baking. If it’s already getting brown, go ahead and remove the top baking sheet and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown. The goal is to end up with puff pastry that is only slightly puffed, with a relatively flat top, golden brown, and flaky.

Spreading cannoli filling over layers of puff pastry for Cannoli Napoleon.

Cannoli flavored pastry cream

The traditional filling for Italian cannolis is little more than sugar sweetened ricotta, flavorings, chocolate chips, and pistachios. It's delicious, but not thick and stable enough to stand up to a stacked Napoleon.

So, for this cannoli filled Napoleon, I started with my all-time favorite pastry cream. It's a tried and true recipe that's super simple, remarkably stable, and comes out perfect every time. It's thick enough to hold its shape while still retaining a super creamy, rich consistency.

After preparing the pastry cream, simply whip in all the cannoli filling ingredients - whole milk ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese, a touch of lemon, cinnamon, allspice, and almond extract, and a handful of mini chocolate chips.

If you can't find mascarpone, you can use cream cheese instead. BUT, use half as much. Cream cheese has a much stronger flavor and can take over the other flavors in the pastry cream if you use too much.

A Napoleon with Cannoli filling and pistachios on a plate, ready to serve.

More popular pastry cream recipes:

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!

📖 Recipe

Cannoli Napoleon

Yield: 2 Napoleons (12 slices total)

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Additional Time: 3 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 25 minutes

This Cannoli Napoleon marries two delicious desserts, the Italian Cannoli and the French Napoleon, into one delicious, flaky, creamy pastry.

Ingredients

1 recipe Perfect Vanilla Pastry Cream, prepared WITHOUT whipped cream and chilled for at least 3 hours (and up to 24 hours).
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
8 ounces mascarpone cheese (Can substitute with 4 ounces cream cheese. See note below)
1 teaspoon lemon extract of a couple drops of lemon oil (see note for the difference between the two)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon almond extract (optional, but recommended)
⅔ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 cup roasted, salted pistachios
One 17.3 oz. package puff pastry sheets
about ¼ cup powdered sugar – for sprinkling over the top of the Napoleons

Instructions

Prepare the puff pastry:

Thaw the puff pastry according to the package directions.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Unfold both sheets of pastry and divide each into thirds by cutting along the fold lines, giving you 6 rectangles of pastry.
Lay the rectangles on the parchment covered baking sheet, spacing them about ¼-inch apart.
Cover the pastry with another sheet of parchment paper and lay another baking sheet on top. This will prevent the puff pastry from rising too much and give the pastry nice, flaky layers.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove the top baking sheet and the top layer of parchment and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely before assembly.

Prepare the Cannoli Filling:

Add the ricotta cheese to a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl and let stand for 1 hour, stirring from time to time, to let the excess water drain out of it.
Scoop the pastry cream into a large bowl and add the drained ricotta, mascarpone, lemon extract or oil, cinnamon, allspice, and almond extract. Beat with an electric mixer until all the ingredients are completely incorporated and the mixture is smooth.
Stir in the chocolate chips. (At this point the filling can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours)

Assemble the Napoleons:

Add the pistachios to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse 5 or 6 times just to break the nuts up into slightly smaller pieces. Alternativly, chop the pistachios with a knife.
Lay one sheet of baked puff pastry on a serving dish and spread about a ½-inch thick layer of cannoli filling evenly over the top. Layer another rectangle of pastry over the filling, repeat with another ½-inch thick layer of cannoli filling and top with a third pastry rectangle. Press on the top of the Napoleon slightly just to evenly distribute the layers.
Repeat with the remaining 3 pastry rectangles and cannoli filling so that you have two Napoleons with 3 layers of puff pastry each.
Press the chopped pistachios into the pastry cream, so that all the exposed pastry cream is coated in a layer of nuts.
Cover the Napoleons with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or freeze for 30 minutes. (This will make them easier to slice.)
Dust the tops of each Napoleon with a thick layer of powdered sugar right before serving.
Slice each Napoleon into 6 slices, using a serrated knife. *TIP: Hold on to the sides of each pastry layer as you slice through it, sawing gently with the knife, allowing the knife to do the work of cutting through the fragile layers of pastry without pressing down too hard.

Notes

Possible discrepancy in puff pastry bake time:

This recipe follows the same method for baking puff pastry into crispy brown layers as my recipe for Classic Napoleon, which I published several years ago. Over the years, I've heard from a handful of readers who've told me that the long bake time on the puff pastry layers resulted in overdone pastry. I was quite puzzled about why the bake time is perfect for most, but too long for others. Finally, a reader sent me a message with an explantion that I belive might have solved the mystery. Here's what she said:

“Yesterday I made a batch of pastry in the oven after ‘defrosting’ the puff pastry on the counter for 1 hour from frozen – this then took 50 min to cook to golden brown in the oven at the temp you suggested. Today I had one sheet of puff pastry left that was in the fridge. This took 20 to bake to perfection. So I believe the cooking time is varying for folks so much as it depends on the stage at which the frozen puff pastry has defrosted.”

If you are concerned about overbaking your puff pastry, simply peek under the top baking sheet and check the pastry after 15 minutes of baking. If it’s already getting brown, go ahead and remove the top baking sheet and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown. The goal is to end up with puff pastry that is only slightly puffed, golden brown, and flaky.

If you can't find mascarpone, you can use cream cheese instead...

But use half as much (4 ounces of cream cheese instead of 8 ounces of mascarpone.) Cream cheese has a much stronger flavor and can take over the other flavors in the pastry cream if you use too much.

The difference between lemon extract and lemon oil:

Lemon extract is relativly inexpensive and generally pretty easy to find. However, it can have a sharp, slightly bitter taste. Lemon oil is a good alternative and even if your local market doesn't carry it, it can be purchased online. See links below for the brands I recomend. Lemon oil is more concentrated than lemon extract, so use it sparingly. Start with just ½ teaspoon, then increase drop by drop if you like, until you get the desired amount of lemon flavor.

Cannoli Napoleon

Puff Pastry Napoleon with Cannoli Filling

How to Get Perfectly Crispy, Flaky, and Flat Puff Pastry Layers