Juicy and tender “Napoleon. Juicy and tender "Napoleon" The most delicious airy and tender Napoleon

Recently I wrote about a recipe (not a classic version!). And I thought, why is there no traditional Napoleon recipe on my culinary blog?

That same legendary recipe from Soviet times, which was passed from hand to hand, was carefully recorded in culinary notebooks and in some regions was even a kind of “trade secret” - after all, some housewives baked it to order. And don't hesitate to share the recipe...

I can only explain this omission on my part - my blog is very young. I'm just starting to fill it with recipes. And the first places, of course, must be given to the classics. And nothing more classic in the culinary theme than a detailed recipe for the Napoleon cake is impossible to imagine. So, it's decided, today's article is entirely devoted to the traditional, classic "Napoleon"!

The main "secret" of Napoleon cake, cooked at home

I will immediately reveal to you the “secret secret” of this delicious cake: “Do not save, citizens, on products!” Well, everything is right according to the old Jewish joke - “My children, do not spare tea leaves!”

After all, what does a zealous hostess usually save on? It is written in the recipe - "butter", yeah, so let's take margarine! It is written - "add 2 tablespoons of cognac" - replace with vodka .... Well, you can not add vodka at all, and it will do without it ...

But for a real classic Napoleon, these ingredients are very important. Butter is indeed cheaper to replace with margarine, but the taste will be different. Vodka must be added to the dough - for its better "layering", and cognac to the cream - for the subtlety of taste and aroma. Then Napoleon will turn out deliciously delicious, as in ancient Soviet times!

Another feature of this recipe is if you use not one type of cream, but two- the cake will turn out especially tender! But about this just below and I will write in detail in a step-by-step recipe.

I summarize:

Products and composition of the recipe

For test:

• 5 cups flour
• 300 grams of butter
• 1 egg
• half a glass of sour cream
• half a glass of water
• 2 tablespoons of vodka
• a third of a teaspoon of salt

For custard cream:

• 3 eggs
• liter of milk
• 3-4 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 200 gr. butter
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 1 sachet of vanillin

For sour cream cream:

• fat sour cream (30%) - 1.5 -2 cups
• sugar 1 cup (it is better to grind into powder)

Cooking dough for cakes.

I must confess that one of the secrets of the classic Napoleon, I still hid from you! It's about how the test is made.

For example, I remember very well how my mother cooked puff pastry, including for the Napoleon cake. It didn’t happen often, my mother always disappeared at work. And when we asked her to make “that delicious layer cake” again, she said that it was a lot of fuss with it, and a lot of time was spent on the dough. Therefore, they made it only on major holidays.

So, that dough was made by numerous rollings, when a piece of butter was added to the base, cooled in the refrigerator, everything was wrapped in an envelope and rolled out again, and again put in the cold, repeating this procedure several times ....

This is an option I will not consider here. The dough for Napoleon that I suggest you make is much easier to make, takes less time, but nevertheless, the result will be just as wonderful and tasty! It was this recipe that was recorded by many hostesses of that time as a quick and trouble-free winning version of the classic Napoleon cake.

I will show you how to make “butter crumble” from a mixture of flour and butter in a blender (chopper), but you can do this procedure the old fashioned way - by chopping pieces of butter with flour with a regular knife, as finely as possible. And then you can still rub the lumps with your hands. Just do it quickly so that the butter does not become too soft and melt on your hands.

First, lightly chop large pieces of cold butter by hand right on the plate.

Then add the oil to the chopper bowl.

From above - all the flour, it is advisable to sift it through a sieve beforehand. We run at high speed, until the formation of small-fine crumbs.

This is the kind of crumb we should get in the end.

In another container, mix the crumbs with the rest of the ingredients - sour cream, water, egg, vodka and salt.

We form a bun from the dough. You need to knead the dough quite quickly, all for the same reason - the butter must remain cold in its composition, not melted. When the dough does not stick to the hands and the table, the consistency we need is reached. We cover our bun with a napkin and leave it to stand for half an hour.

After half an hour, we put it in the refrigerator for another 1 hour, but first wrap it in a film. By the way, now is the time to start preparing the cream, so as not to waste this hour.

After an hour we take it out, you can knead it a little more. And we divide by the number of koloboks that we need to get the same number of cakes. In the photo - 9 pieces, but can be divided into 12 and 15 parts.

We cover them again with a film and put them in the cold. We will take one small kolobok from there and roll it into cakes.

You can immediately cut the rolled cake in shape (for example, by attaching a plate or circle stencil). You can - just mark the cut, without removing the excess - we will remove it easily after baking.

I usually roll out such thin cakes immediately on parchment, so that it is easier to transfer to a sheet. But if you need to shift the thinly rolled dough onto a baking sheet from the table, roll it onto a rolling pin, transfer it to a sheet and roll it back. Very simple.

We send it to the hot oven for 3-5 minutes. Cookies should reach a light, golden hue, they do not need to be overcooked. Slightly seized, browned slightly - you can get it. The oven is heated somewhere at 180-200 degrees. We bake on parchment - it’s easier to remove the cakes from the sheet.

If it is good to “pierce” our shortcake with a fork in many places, no large bubbles and swellings will form, the cakes will look very even and neat. But I love it more when the dough puffs up during baking, because then additional “layered” places form in these places, and the more layering, the tastier our future Napoleon will be! Well, as in this photo -

Trimmings are also baked and stored separately, until better times. At the best of times, we will make crumbs out of them for sprinkling.

Cooking custard.

It is convenient to make the cream while the dough is standing in the cold. We have a whole hour of time - we will do everything in time!

Part of the milk (2/3 liters) is put to bask in a saucepan on the fire. Mix the rest of the milk with a mixer or a whisk with eggs, sugar and vanilla in a thick foam. Add flour and cognac - beat.

In a saucepan with already hot milk, add our cream base in a thin stream, continuing intensive stirring continuously. It is necessary to cook our cream until it thickens, but bubbles that indicate boiling should not be allowed. And, of course, make sure that the cream does not burn to the bottom of the pan - the taste will immediately deteriorate. If you do not have much experience in this matter, it is better to put everything in a water bath and steam the cream - this way it is easier for us to control the temperature and there is less chance of spoiling something.

We cool the cream. Butter, on the contrary, is taken out to soften at room temperature.

Now we need to connect them together. Someone starts whipping the butter into a fluffy mass and gradually adds the custard base one spoon at a time. Someone just whips everything at once in one container. I don’t see a fundamental difference here - in the presence of modern “beating” equipment in the form of mixers, blenders, etc. - everything is whipped "with a bang!".

However, maybe you have a different opinion and there is some special way of whipping the cream that gives an amazing result - share it in the comments on this article!

We are preparing the second type of cream for a delicious Napoleon - Sour Cream

There are no special secrets here, except for one thing - sour cream should be natural and high-fat, at least 25, and preferably 30%. If you do not have such sour cream, there are two options: the first is simple and fast. And the second one is slow but correct 🙂

1. We take the “Thickener for Sour Cream” (for cream, just a thickener - what can be found in your stores) - and do everything according to the instructions on the package.
2. We take ordinary sour cream - double the volume, and place it for several hours, preferably at night, in thick gauze, hanging it over a water container (or place sour cream in a small colander). The bottom line is that, under its own weight, sour cream squeezes out all the excess water from its depths (and how does it get there, I wonder?!) and we end up with thick, real sour cream, from which you can already beat a high-quality thick cream.

As sugar, it is better to take powdered sugar, but this does not matter. Pour sugar into sour cream and beat until thick. There will be a short period when the sour cream will thin a little, but keep whisking and it will thicken to the state we need.

Assembling and decorating the Napoleon cake

The most enjoyable moment of making cakes is collecting, smearing, decorating!

Why did we make 2 types of cream? For the best taste, of course!

• So, we put a dry cake and coat it with custard on top.
• We lay the second cake - we coat it again as well.
• First we smear the third cake with sour cream and on top here with custard.
• So we repeat, lubricating every third cake additionally with sour cream, whipped with sugar, until the ingredients run out.
• We don’t smear the last layer with anything yet - we leave our cake to settle for half an hour or an hour. During this time, the cakes will soak and become very tasty and moderately soft.
• Now wrap the cake with foil on the sides and put a clean board (something flat) on top and lightly press the layers down. Place a small (about 1 kg) load on the board and refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight.

And in the morning we will decorate our soaked and infused cake completely:

Lubricate the remaining cream (any, you can use two at once) on the top layer and coat the sides.
Cover the sides and top of the cake with crumbs. I hope you did not throw away our scraps, but dried them in the air and ground them into small crumbs?

Well, our magnificent Napoleon is ready to use!

I saw on the net many options for decorating this cake with different fruits, berries, etc. , but for some reason I really like the traditional, classic look of this cake - you can immediately see the real, "Soviet" Napoleon - you can’t confuse it with anything!

Cake Napoleon from ready-made puff pastry with condensed milk cream

And now let's look at the "high-speed" method of making Napoleon cake. Fast as possible. It’s faster to just buy a ready-made cake in the store, but this is not our goal!

It so happens that guests are expected in the evening. Or the children suddenly wanted a cake "right now" and certainly - in their mother's performance ... There are different situations, but there is only one way out - to have a supply of the necessary products at home and 20-30 minutes of free time. Well, good mood, of course! Without it, in general, there is nothing to do in the kitchen 🙂

So, we will need 2 packs of ready-made frozen puff pastry, even yeast, even without, there is no difference.

We spread them out of the package immediately on 2 pieces of parchment and leave them to defrost in this form. We get 2 rectangles of ready-made puff pastry per sheet.

While the dough comes to room temperature, we have time to make the cream.

Making cream from condensed milk (condensed milk)

The fastest cream that everyone knows and loves is butter whipped with condensed milk.

Sometimes they write about 150 grams of butter and 350 grams of condensed milk ... Why such difficulties? Who will measure these grams when it comes to delicious cream?!

I just take a pack of good (82.5% fat) butter and one standard can of condensed milk. I think that this is the most convenient and delicious proportion for cream!

To improve the taste, you can add a bag of vanillin and a couple of spoons of cognac - the aroma will be very memorable. But even banal condensed milk with butter, just whipped into a good smooth cream, will perfectly set off our Napoleon from the finished puff pastry.

Butter cut into cubes and hold at room temperature until softened. We begin to beat, gradually adding condensed milk and vanillin with cognac (if you decide on this option) by a spoonful.

Our task is to get a uniform, thick, smooth mass, which will be our tastiest and fastest cream for soaking and decorating the cake.

The cream is ready. The dough has defrosted, softened and even slightly “swollen” - it's time to bake it.

Preheat the oven to standard 180 degrees and put a sheet of dough in it. We will need 10-15 minutes for one serving of cakes. But make sure that they are not overcooked, but are of a beautiful golden hue.

Now we need to "get" a crumb to decorate Napoleon. We slightly cut the edges of our puff plates - and we will get the crumbs, and we will align the edges of the cake. You also need to cut - remove the top baked crust from each cake. This will give us both the material for the sprinkle and soften the finished layers.

Here we have such a semi-finished product.

Now we coat each layer with cream.

Cut crusts, if necessary, dry in the air or in the oven and grind into crumbs.

Sprinkle crumbs on the sides and top of the cake. Here he is ready!

Of course, he still needs to be given time to soak in the cream - at least 3 hours, but these are already problems for those who are waiting for a tasty treat, and we are free and can do whatever our heart desires. We have already fulfilled our duty to a hungry family 🙂

For everything about everything, it will take us 20-30 minutes! And this is along with the preparation of the cream. A good, quick option for cooking Napoleon for those who do not want to spend half a day in the kitchen.

Quick Napoleon cake in a pan - step by step recipe with photo

Let's analyze another "non-classic" version of the Napoleon cake, cooked in a pan. It sounds rather doubtful, but, oddly enough, the taste is quite decent!

If you are in a place where you do not have an oven (maybe you were drawn to nature and decided to celebrate the New Year in the country) - you will definitely amaze your guests with a freshly cooked Napoleon! On the frying pan! Fantastic…

I will not disassemble the cream - take any of the above. I met another version of the cream for Napoleon - condensed milk is added to the custard with butter ... I don’t know, I’ve never done this before .. Do you think this is a suitable option? Write, please, who made such a cream - share your impressions!

But let's take a look at the dough for cooking in a pan step by step, or rather, from photographs. It's easier.

For this version of the test, we will prepare:

• 1 pack of butter 190-200 gr. (or creamy margarine)
• 3 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 50 ml very cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon soda slaked with vinegar (or baking powder for dough - 0.5 sachet)

Some housewives are generally against soda in this recipe, they believe that it spoils the taste. If you put not 2 eggs, but 2-3 yolks, then they will serve as a good softener for the dough and may well replace soda.

Grate the butter on a coarse grater and sprinkle with flour. We mix everything quickly with our hands, grinding the butter with flour to the state of butter crumbs.

We extinguish the soda with 6% vinegar (or add baking powder for the dough), mix the ice water with the egg and add all this to the crumbs. Quickly knead our dough into a large bun. As soon as the dough stops sticking to your hands, we divide it into small koloboks (the size depends on the size of your frying pan, on which we will bake the cakes, but you can see the approximate size from the photo). We pack the koloboks in a film or bags (from winding) and place them in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

We take out one kolobok and immediately quickly roll it into a thin layer.

Here is such a thickness that the hand shines through. This is approximately 1 mm thick dough.

The lid from our frying pan will give us the right diameter for the cake. Press down the dough with a lid.

We remove the extra trimmings - then we will make another cake out of them.

We prick our layer of dough with a fork so that it does not bubble very much.

Place on a dry hot frying pan (no oil!).

Cakes are prepared in a pan very quickly - literally 1 minute on one side. And quickly turn over.

We make all the shortcakes in turn. While one is baking, roll out the other. Cool down. We roll the scraps into a common lump and also roll them into cakes.

We coat our "Napoleon from the pan" with cream. Everything is as usual, layer by layer. Leave 3 shortcakes for sprinkling - dry and grind into crumbs.

The main thing that needs to be observed is the soaking time of the cake - at least 3-4 hours, and preferably at night. The longer it stays in the refrigerator, the better it will soak and the tastier, more tender and softer it will be.

PS. By the way, I compared the dough in a pan, made from margarine and made from butter. Where I took the butter - the cakes were softer and more tender, well, it seemed to me. I didn’t have time to ask the homeworkers - everything was swept away in an instant! In my opinion, some people don’t care at all how much time and effort you spent on this cake - if only it was sweet 🙂

I would characterize this Napoleon with many flattering epithets. It is not at all dry, but not stuck together in a single lump: puff cakes are felt, but they are well soaked, soft enough that the cake can be eaten with a fork. There is a minimum of butter - only in cakes, the cake is not oversweetened and easy on the stomach. I took the recipe for the dough in contact, but some critical adjustments were made during the preparation process. Custard recipe from the "cook at home" website.

Ingredients for Napoleon Cake Soft:

Nutritional and energy value:

Recipe "Cake "Napoleon" soft":

Cooking cakes.
Preparing two doughs for Napoleon.
1 dough:
Melt 1 pack of butter (250g), remove from heat and mix with 1 cup of flour. No need to boil!

Dough:
Beat 1 cup sour cream with 2 eggs. Add 550 ml. flour (2 cups + 1/5 cup more) Mix. You will get a very soft sticky dough, the same as a normal bread or butter dough. Knead it for about 15 minutes, until it begins to peel off the walls of the bowl and stops sticking. It is not necessary to develop gluten especially.

Divide the second dough into 5-6 equal parts.
Sprinkle the table soundly with flour (well - generously, but not in a thick layer). On another table or the free half of the same table, roll out polyethylene (food wrap). Roll out one part of the dough thinly, carefully transfer it to a film and only then spread it with the 1st dough. If the first dough is very badly smeared, add 1-2 s to it. l. vegetable oil. It is more convenient to smear with a spatula or, in the absence of one, with a finger tilted horizontally on the table. Spooning can tear the dough.
Roll out the next part of the dough to the same dimensions as the previous one, transfer it to the previous part smeared with the first dough, trying to make the edges match and only then spread with the first dough. Do the same with the rest of the test.

Roll all the smeared cakes into a roll. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate overnight (12 hours).

Cut the roll across into 18-20 parts up to 1.5 cm thick. Put the parts on a plate and put everything in the refrigerator, except for one, the one that we will now roll out. Here is the roll inside.

Roll out evenly, without thinning on a generously floured table to 1.5 - 2 mm. (Roll out not along the cut, where the layers are, but along the outside) It is not necessary at all to transparency - otherwise it will be difficult not to burn the cake during baking.
To make the cakes smoother, cut the edges with a plate. Ready cakes can no longer be cut - too fragile. When baking, the shape will still be slightly distorted, but later you will need to trim the assembled cake with a knife and the problem will be solved. Crush the scraps immediately into a ball so that they do not dry out. Then we will also make cakes from them.

Bake cakes for Napoleon one by one on a baking sheet (dry, not greased) in a very hot oven. Do not overdo it, as soon as the dough is baked - immediately pull it out. Here you need to relentlessly monitor each cake, because they are baked very quickly.
Remove the cakes from the baking sheet and stack them on a plate.
As soon as all the dough is over, roll out the scrap cakes according to the same principle. So many cakes turned out from the whole dough (+ from scraps)

Once all the cakes are baked, prepare the cream.
Put the yolks in a bowl and mix with sugar and vanilla sugar (the yolks will mix with difficulty).
Pour in 50 ml of cold milk and mix.

* Adding milk makes it easier to mix, but do not pour in a lot of milk, otherwise the mixture will become too thin and lumps may form when adding flour to the yolk mass. It is better to pour milk in two doses - then lumps will not form.

Add the sifted flour to the yolks and mix again. (like biscuit dough - from the bottom up)

Pour another 50 ml of cold milk - mix everything together (the mixture should be like liquid sour cream in consistency).

Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally and making sure that the milk does not burn.

* Instead of vanilla sugar, you can use a vanilla pod - the finished cream will turn out much more aromatic. The pod must be cut in half (one half immediately removed and used for another dish). Scrape the seeds from the remaining half. Put the vanilla seeds and the peeled half of the pod into the milk. Bring milk and vanilla to a boil, stirring. Then remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve.

Pour the yolk mass into a large clean saucepan (I took a non-stick deep frying pan).

* For the amount of cream given in the recipe, it is optimal to take a steel or non-stick pan with a volume of ~ 3 liters. It is not advisable to use an enamel pan - the cream will burn to the bottom.

Pour hot milk in a thin stream into the yolk mass, stirring.

Put the saucepan with the yolk-milk mixture on the stove and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula. IT IS NECESSARY TO MIX VERY FAST.
The cream will gradually thicken as it heats up. As soon as it starts to boil, immediately remove from heat.
As you can see, perfect smoothness - no lumps.

Napoleon cake. Puff cakes for Napoleon are tender and crispy, well saturated with cream. The taste of the cake is simply excellent.

INGREDIENTS

Dough #1:

Butter - 220 gr. (or margarine)

Flour 150 gr.

Dough #2:

Egg - 1 pc.

Cold water - 160 ml.

Vinegar 9% - 1 tbsp.

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Flour - 350-400g.

Milk - 450 ml.

Sugar - 170g.

Vanillin - 0.5g

Egg - 2 pcs.

Flour - 2 tbsp.

Butter - 150 gr.

Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp (for sprinkling)

HOW TO COOK

Mix 220 g of butter and 150 g of flour in bowls, gather the dough into one lump with your hands and set aside.

Sift 350g of flour into a bowl, add salt and mix.

Pour 160 ml of cold water into a glass, break 1 egg, mix well. add 1 tbsp 9 vinegar.

Add in flour and knead the dough.

We roll out the layer, put the dough from the butter in the middle and wrap it with an envelope, put it with the seam down and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

30 minutes have passed, sprinkle the table with flour, put the dough with the seam down and roll out a square layer. We fold the envelope, lay it with the seam down and send it to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

30 minutes have passed, roll out the dough again into a layer and fold it with an envelope and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

30 minutes have passed, we roll out the layer, we fold it no longer with an envelope, but simply fold the dough and now you can roll out the cakes from the dough.

We divide the dough into parts. We take 1 part, sprinkle the table with flour and roll out the layer.

And send it to a preheated oven to 180 degrees, until golden brown.

Let's prepare the cream. Pour 350 ml of milk into a saucepan, add a little vanillin to 170 g of sugar and mix and add to milk, mix and put on fire to heat up.

Break 2 eggs, add 2 tbsp flour and beat with a whisk until smooth. Pour in 100 ml of milk, mix well with a whisk. When the milk is hot, pour the egg mixture into the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. As soon as the mass boils, immediately remove from heat. Let the mass cool down.

Beat the softened butter with a mixer until fluffy.

Add the oil to the cooled custard mass and mix well with a mixer.

The cream is ready.

We collect the cake.

We remove the cake for 12 hours in a cool place and let it soak.

The cake is moderately sweet, delicate, layered. This is delicious.

How I cook this delicious cake, see my short video below.

Bon appetit!

I have been baking "Napoleon" according to this recipe for 10 years and this cake has become my signature dish!!! Napoleon cake is always a holiday in our family! If someone has a different opinion regarding this famous dessert, I can say with full confidence that you have not tried the real Napoleon. All quick options from ready-made puff pastry are not even close to it. Delicious, but not the same.

Unfortunately, in our time, the store-bought analogue is not much like the classic Napoleon cake, so the only option to try the real, most delicious puff cake with delicate custard will be self-cooking at home. Troublesome, but worth it!

I hope my step-by-step photo recipe is useful to you.

For cooking, you will need very simple and affordable products:

Ingredients:

For test:
- Wheat flour (highest grade) - 6 cups,
- Margarine or butter - 2 packs (200 grams each),
- Chicken eggs - 2 pieces,
- Salt - 1 teaspoon,
- Water - 450 ml.

For custard:
- Chicken eggs - 4 pieces,
- Sugar - 0.5 kg,
- Butter - 0.5 kg,
- Wheat flour - 4 tbsp. spoons,
- Cow's milk - 1 liter.

Cooking cakes:

Please note that the dough for the cake must be kneaded with a knife. So the cold butter will not melt from the heat of your hands and will take the amount of flour that is needed. Otherwise, by overdoing it with flour, you risk getting a very tough dough. Whereas, ideally, thin cakes should be crispy and at the same time tender.

Lightly freeze margarine or butter, so it will be easier to work with. Sift flour onto a work surface. In flour, you need to finely chop the frozen butter with a knife, sprinkling it from the edge to the center. As a result, you should get a dry crumb.

Now we take a half-liter jar and break two chicken eggs into it, fill the rest of the jar with water. Shake the contents thoroughly with a fork, adding salt there.

From the resulting flour crumbs, we form a slide, make a recess in it and begin to add liquid from the jar.

Again, everything will need to be “chopped” with a large knife,

Those. You don't even have to get your hands dirty in the dough.

Pour the liquid mixture in parts until it runs out and work with a knife all the time.

Before our eyes, the sand crumb turns into a homogeneous dough.

As a result of this work, you should get a homogeneous lump.

The finished dough for the Napoleon cake should be divided into 16 equal lumps, laid on a board, wrapped with cling film or a bag, sent to the refrigerator for 20 - 30 minutes. Or lightly freeze in the freezer.

Then we take the dough out of the refrigerator, and roll each lump into a thin cake, using the minimum amount of flour to sprinkle the table.

The cake should be as thin as possible, literally translucent. Any form. It is easier to roll out rectangles to the size of the baking sheet. With round cakes it’s a little more difficult, they need to be cut in raw or finished form, and their number will turn out to be greater.

The dough is quite elastic, do not be afraid to tear it when transferring to a baking sheet. Even if this happens, there is nothing terrible in it. Cakes can be pricked with a fork in several places so that they swell less.

We send the baking sheet to the oven, which needs to be heated to 180 - 200 degrees. We bake the base until a beautiful golden color. While one cake is baking, roll out the next one.

As a result, you should get 16 ruddy puff cakes of a rectangular shape or a little more round.

Custard preparation:

Look no further for a better recipe, I assure you, this one is perfect!

To prepare it, you need to beat chicken eggs and wheat flour in a deep cup until smooth. It's easier to use a blender.

In a separate tall saucepan with a thick bottom, heat the milk and dissolve the granulated sugar in it. There is a lot of cream, the dishes should be capacious. And in no case do not use an enameled or aluminum saucepan. In the first it will burn, in the second it will color the cream gray when whipped with butter.

Pour the egg mass into the hot milk with sugar in a thin stream. In the meantime, stir constantly. Cook the custard on a quiet fire with constant stirring.

Cook until puree. Cool the custard mixture to room temperature. Stir several times while cooling to prevent a crust from forming.

Butter must be taken out of the refrigerator in advance so that it becomes soft. Before you combine with the cream, the butter must be beaten until smooth.

Only then, in small portions, add the cooled cream to the oil. Not vice versa!

Beat with a mixer until smooth.

It remains only to collect our gorgeous cake.

Assembly:

I'll show you how to make sure that the cake plate remains clean during assembly. A sheet of baking paper - this little detail is a little secret of your accuracy. We line the bottom of the dish or tray with parchment or paper.

Lubricate the first cake with custard, cover with the second and press to make the cake denser.

Repeat until all layers are laid. Don't forget to tamp. Napoleon must be tight!

It's time to remove the sheet of paper, hold the cake with one hand, pull out the sheet with the other.

From scraps or one cake you need to make a crumb. You can crumble them with your fingers, or you can put them in a bag and roll it with a rolling pin. Sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with crumbs. My sides are not sprinkled with anything. In this crumb, you can already add chopped walnuts or chocolate grated into crumbs to your liking, this will not make the cake worse.

We leave the finished cake in the refrigerator for impregnation and solidification of the cream, it can take at least 3 hours, it is better to wait overnight.

I think I convinced you that cooking Napoleon at home is quite simple and affordable, the main thing is that there is a desire!

In the Guinness Book of Records, sweet Napoleon is mentioned, the largest cake weighing 1.5 tons, it was baked by culinary specialists from the city of Zelenograd.

This layer cake can be found in many cuisines of the world, but it will be called differently. For example, in England you will be served a vanilla slice, but in Italy and France you can order at any Millefeuille cafe and they will bring you a piece of airy multi-layered cake, known to you as Napoleon, by the way, in translation millefeuille means "thousand layers". But the Americans, like us, know this puff cake called "Napoleon".

There are a great many stories of the creation of this famous dessert, but I would like to tell one of the most unusual and, in my opinion, the most piquant. As you know, Bonaparte was a big fan of hitting on pretty girls. So one day, flirting with another cute lady-in-waiting, his wife found him. And in order to get out of this very piquant situation, Napoleon told her about how he whispered in the ear of a beautiful girl about his newly invented recipe for a delicious cake, that, it turns out, from which the girl blushed so much! The wife pretended to believe her missus, but demanded proof. Bonaparte hastily dictated the cake recipe, a complete improvisation. Of course, Bonaparte's chef made some adjustments to the recipe. As a result, for breakfast, the spouses had an extraordinary cake on the table, which got its name - Napoleon, in honor of its author.

Well, if we talk about the plausible story of the creation of a cake loved by many, then it was baked for the first time in 1912 by Moscow confectioners for the 100th anniversary of the victory over the French and gave it the name Napoleon.

You just have to defeat your "Frenchman" in the kitchen, the step-by-step photo recipe presented today will help you. Perhaps this cake will become your signature sweet dish, like mine. I have been baking it for over 10 years, and I thank Natalia Pyatkova for the recipe.

I offer another option for preparing one of the most delicious cakes - Napoleon. This recipe, which I am now “addicted to”, was shared with me by my friend, who has this cake - one of the crown dishes, pastries always turn out with a bang - very tender dough and moderately sweet and low-fat custard in milk. Earlier I already laid out, the difference is that in the first version sour cream is added to the dough, in the same recipe the dough is cooked on water. You can use any cream - in the first recipe I used custard with butter, and in this recipe I use a lighter one - just to which (optional) you can add condensed milk.

To prepare the dough for the Napoleon cake, you can use both margarine and butter. Or you can take half the butter, half the margarine - 1:1.

For test:

• Margarine or butter 400 g
• Eggs (medium size) 2 pcs.
• Flour 700 g
• Water (cold) 150 ml
• Vinegar 9% 1 tbsp
• A pinch of salt

For cream:

• Milk 1 l
• Egg yolks 4 pcs.
• Flour 6 tbsp
• Sugar 1.5 cups

Note: the sugar in the custard can be replaced with condensed milk - either completely or partially - to your taste.

Preparation of dough for Napoleon cake:

1. Pour 2/3 flour into a large deep bowl and grate butter (margarine) here on a coarse grater.

2. Rub the butter well with the flour with your hands, mixing the flour into the butter. Then add 2 eggs, vinegar, water, salt and stir in the remaining sifted flour.

Knead the dough with your hands - at first it may stick and you will want to add more flour, but this is not necessary. As you continue to knead the dough, you will notice that the dough becomes more and more elastic and no longer sticks to your hands.

3. Roll it out on the table with a wide tourniquet (you can sprinkle the table with a little flour) and divide it into 7-9 parts.

4. Form balls from pieces of dough, put them on a board or plate, be sure to cover with cling film so that they do not wind up, and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

And at this time you can do the preparation of custard.

5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Take out one ball of dough at a time (let the rest remain in the refrigerator) and roll it out thinly on baking paper, then cut a circle with a knife and put it on the same paper in the oven for 8-10 minutes - until the cake is lightly browned. Do not remove the trimmings around the cake, we will use them to sprinkle the cake. Before baking, the cake often needs to be pierced with a fork so that it does not swell.

While the cake is baking, you can roll out another cake on another piece of parchment at this time. When the first cake is ready, you can immediately place the second in the oven. You don’t need to take a new parchment every time, you can use the previous one to roll out and bake the next cake.

6. Grind the baked dough scraps with your hands or with a crush into crumbs, you can do this with a blender.

Cooking custard with milk:

You can see a detailed recipe for custard for this cake.