Napolitaines cakes Recipe (Gateaux Napolitaines)

Lately I have been craving flavours and taste from my motherland, Mauritius.
Since there is no mum or dad to cook for me and no Mauritian restaurant nearby, I had to use the internet and help of friends on facebook to get the recipes and tips on how to make those yummy & traditional dishes from my country that I so dearly miss.
So in the next few blog posts I will be sharing with you my attempt at recreating those flavours and taste from Mauritius.

So today, I bring you my version of "Napolitaines Cakes", a very popular and very much loved by all, pastry cake from Mauritius.
This recipe is very child friendly and as you can see Mona helped me to make the Napolitaines in heart & flower shapes as well as the more traditional round shapes.

For this recipe you will need the following:
For the dough:
- 500g flour
- 350g unsalted butter
- 5 tbsp water

For the Icing:
- 200g icing sugar
- 2-3 tbsp water
- 1-2 drop of red food colouring
- Strawberry/Raspberry or Plum Jam

To make the Napolitaines we first need to make the dough.
1. Rub the butter into the flour using your finger tips, until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add the water and knead until it forms a soft dough. Chill the dough for 30mins.
3. Preheat oven at 180 degrees.
4. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 5 mm thick.
5. Cut out shapes of small circles or any other shapes you desire of about 5 cm of diameter.
6. Place them on a lightly greased baking trap or use a baking sheet.
7. Bake them in the oven at 180 degrees for 8 to 10 mins or until the biscuits turn golden or pale yellow.
8. Allow the biscuits to cool.
9. When cooled, spread some jam over one biscuit and sandwich it up with another biscuit.
10. Place the paired biscuits on a rack.

So now we need to turn those little biscuits into Napolitaine cakes, and in order to do this we need to put the icing on the biscuits.
1. Dissolve the icing sugar with the water and add in the food colouring to obtain a pale pink colour.
2. Coat the biscuits with the icing and let it set.

When your Napolitaines are dry and set, they are now ready for you to enjoy with a nice cup of tea (Mauritian style of course!).

 

I do hope you give this recipe a try, it is very quick and easy to make, specially with the help from the little ones.

 

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