Mauritian Goodies: Napolitaine

Mauritian Goodies: Napolitaine

What is Napolitaine?

Napolitaine is a very popular pastry biscuit in Mauritius. It is basically 2 shortcrust pastry biscuits sandwiched together with strawberry jam in the middle and then glazed with an icing. 
I still remember long time ago I used to go to the nearby shop to buy some napolitaine and I would enjoy it while watching movies and sipping my tea *good memories*.

Below is the recipe of this fabulous biscuit. I would highly recommend you to bake it if you never tasted it. It would be my pleasure to bake some for you guys (if we live close of course) cause I really want to promote Mauritian pastries as well. So let me know how you liked it and if possible post pictures :) It can be really fun to make especially if you have kids or nieces/nephews. Kids can decorate the napolitaines as they want, using edible glitters, sprinkles, food coloring or even draw some smiley faces using edible colour markers. They could also be cut in different shapes, for example in heart shapes for a special occasions. I believe they are very fun to make, super tasty, cheap and really easy. So no excuses, time to start baking. 

Difficulty Level:

This recipe makes about 15 napolitaines:

For the Shortcrust pastry:

• 250g sifted white plain flour
• 175g margarine or unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 50 g strawberry jam (you can use your favorite jam as well)

For the Icing:

• 2 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 2 drops red food coloring (You can have fun by changing the colours)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp lemon juice

1. Start by making your shortcrust pastry: Rub the margarine/butter in the flour and make a soft dough. Use a little more margarine/butter if needed but do not add in any water.Wrap the pastry and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 4 mm. Using a 5 cm diameter cutter, cut the rounds.
3. Re-roll the trimmings and make more rounds.
4. Place them on lightly greased baking sheet and bake them until it becomes beige in color in a 180C pre-heated oven. Once baked, allow to cool completely.
5. Once cool, spread jam over half of the biscuit rounds and cover with the remaining ones.
6. Prepare the icing: Over low heat, warm up the icing sugar and water. Allow to simmer under low heat until it forms a thick syrup. Remove from heat immediately and add 2 drops of the food colouring to obtain a pale pink color.
7. Beat up the syrup with the lemon juice until a uniform and consistent colour is obtained. Pour the syrup over the sandwiched biscuits to evenly coat them. If necessary, warm the syrup to make it easier to pour on biscuits. Enjoy!

Here is some suggestions if you want to make a revised version of this pastry: 

I will soon make a french strawberry cake called "Fraisier". I will post step by step pictures. Really looking forward to that. 
Take care people.

Diana xoxo