Napoleon cake at home. Napoleon cake - a classic step-by-step recipe at home

Napoleon cake is a long-known dessert that is very popular. Many housewives like to cook this delicacy, because they are sure that the dessert will instantly fly off the table. Homemade Napoleon cannot be compared with any store-bought version, because a product made with love will always taste better!

The hostesses of our time do not even realize that in past years it was very difficult to get a cake recipe.

To be more precise, in the 80s, the recipe for making this dessert was still not exactly known. The hostesses passed various cooking options to each other, but there was no classic recipe among them.

Cooks of those times loved to write down all the recipes in a notebook. A separate notebook was created for cakes, since in those years they were considered one of the most popular dishes.

As you know, butter is used for cakes, which was difficult to get in those days. Margarine was used as a substitute, with which it was not easy to cook something tasty.

Also, one of the reasons why every hostess could not make a delicious treat was that the dessert recipe was not publicly available. It was then unrealistic to buy a delicious cake in the store, and it was difficult to make it at home because of the reasons described above. Those who knew how to make Napoleon at home often always sold it.

In addition to this delicacy, other cakes were also produced, but Napoleon was the most sought-after delicacy at all holidays. In those days, the dessert consisted of many cakes, which were 30 cm in diameter. Each was soaked in cream.

There were those who managed to get by chance the recipe for cooking Napoleon. In this case, the hostess kept it a secret from the rest.

Napoleon cake at home with custard - a classic recipe

Napoleon cake is popular in all families of the Soviet era; at any big holiday, you will definitely find this dessert on the table. Our family is no exception - we often prepare it too. We make it every time according to an old traditional recipe, which, in my opinion, is the most successful.

Cooking takes skill and time. To make a treat, you will have to allocate about 4 hours from your personal time. Experienced housewives divide cooking into several days: cakes are baked on one day, and cream is prepared on the second. You do as you wish!

Ingredients:

For cakes:

• wheat flour of the highest quality 0.7 kg.
• butter 250 g. (margarine can be taken as a cheap option, but the taste will deteriorate significantly).
• salt on the tip of a knife.

For cream:

• chicken egg 6 pcs.
• high fat milk 1 liter
• sugar sand 0.5 kg.
• wheat flour of the highest quality 4 tbsp.
• butter 250 of the highest quality at room temperature.
• vanillin 1 g
• vanilla sugar 1.5 tsp

Cooking

1. First of all, we will prepare the cakes. To do this, combine flour and butter in a deep bowl.

2. Now it is necessary to grind the mass to a crumb state. Personally, I chop the components with a knife.

3. Beat 1 chicken egg in a glass, then salt, fill with water to the top and beat the mass again.

4. Pour the mixture into a bowl with flour and proceed to kneading the dough. First, mix the liquid with flour with a spoon, then continue to knead with your hands.

Cream preparation

1. We put the dough made earlier in cling film and put it in the refrigerator.

Now let's start creating the cream. We are looking for a 3 liter saucepan, pour out the milk and put it on the stove. In the meantime, you need to beat the eggs and sugar, add vanilla, flour to them. Then beat again until the lumps disappear completely.

2. Add about 250 ml of milk to the egg mixture, beat, then pour the mass into a saucepan.

3. We wait until the cream thickens. It will cook for a long time, it should be constantly stirred. If this is not done, then the cream will burn. The whole process takes about 20 minutes. If a path remains from the spoon, the cream is ready, if the cream is liquid, continue cooking.

4. We temporarily set aside the creamy mass on the table, it should cool completely. In the meantime, we take the cooled dough out of the refrigerator and cut it into 8 pieces. We turn on the oven and bring it to a temperature of 200 degrees.

5. We will need one part, put the rest 7 in the refrigerator again. We roll out the dough with a rolling pin, turn it into a cake of very small thickness.

The easiest way: put parchment on the desktop, put the dough on top and cover with a second layer of parchment. Roll out with a rolling pin until you get the desired shape.

6. Put the dough together with parchment on a baking dish, make holes with a fork so that the dough does not swell during baking.

7.This step will take an average of 10 minutes. It all depends on the power of your oven. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the cakes. Personally, I got 12 cakes, your quantity may vary slightly.

8. We continue to work with the cream. Beat the butter until white (or knead with a spoon). Gradually add cream to it and create a homogeneous mass.

9. Now let's start assembling our cake: lay out the cakes one by one, grease each with cream. Personally, it takes me about 3 tbsp for each layer. Along the way, I try to align all the cakes, breaking off unnecessary parts. Later they will come in handy to decorate the dessert. Important: immediately set aside one cake - it will be needed in the future to decorate the dessert.

10. The pieces that were cut from the cake should be crushed together with the last cake, then sprinkle the top layer of the cake and sides with chips. Ready.

Napoleon should absorb the cream, it will take about 6 hours.

The dessert will turn out soft and very tasty!

cake decoration

In my case, the cake was made for the child's birthday. The boy asked to portray a typewriter. I do not have much experience with mastic, but surprisingly I got something! I did this:

1. I took about 100 g of marshmallow and melted it, mixed it with 1 tbsp. butter and gradually add powdered sugar. You should get an elastic mass.

2. I used food coloring to give the desired color.

3. I blinded the shape of the machine with my hands.

The cake began to disperse in the morning, because you can’t hide it from a child! Napoleon turned out very tender!

Napoleon Dessert Assembly Rules

1. Find a tray or dish.

2.Place the cake on it and spread with a middle layer of cream.

4. Next, we coat first with sour cream, over custard.

6. The following two are two views.

7. Spread the last cake with a thin layer.

8. The cake should stand for half an hour and absorb all the cream.

9. Cover the top cake with baking paper.

11. We remove the baking paper, coat the top cake again with cream.

12. We crumble an additional cake on the top of the cake.

13. Let the cake stand for about 10 hours at room temperature.

14. Put the dessert in the refrigerator overnight. This time is enough for soaking.

Now you can take a sample from the "Napoleon"! Bon appetit!

Some useful secrets for housewives

1. As soon as I learned how to use the Internet, I immediately became interested in finding a Napoleon cake recipe. All were similar to mine, but still something was missing in my version.

2. Along the way, I began to understand the main secrets. It turned out that vodka is present in the classic recipe - it is added to the dough. Regarding the cream - 2 types are required. It is these details that make the cake tender and insanely delicious.

3. Try to make the cakes as thin as possible, while not sparing the cream. You can make it bigger - let it remain superfluous, but you will be sure that the cream will not end at the most inopportune moment. So be sure to soak the cakes with plenty of cream!

4. Now I will tell you a few words about store-bought sour cream. Just imagine, you went to the market, but you could not buy fat sour cream. What to do? Take a dairy product of lower fat content, a colander and gauze. Put the sour cream on cheesecloth, put everything in a colander and let the excess water escape. Add a little butter or cream to sour cream - this will save you in this situation.

Hi all. Today I will share with you the recipe for the legendary Napoleon cake. I think for many this dessert is associated with childhood, and also with the New Year. Because, most often, it was on this holiday that our mothers and grandmothers spoiled us with this masterpiece.

There are two camps of people who are divided according to the type of finished product into a “wet” version and a “dry” version, or, more precisely, into soaked and crispy. I prefer the “wet” version of Napoleon. With lots of . Recently, I began to prepare a light version of the cream -. In addition to these classic options, you can cook with and with, it's insanely delicious. With these creams, the cake just melts in your mouth.

Well, if you are a crunchy lover, then just replace the custard with butter, and you will be happy. For example, or

What is a Napoleon cake anyway? This is a puff pastry. I will tell you in detail how to cook this most puff pastry at home. Of course, you can also buy ready-made puff pastry. But, as you know, the taste will be completely different.

I won’t write about the preparation of custard here, I just give links to two creams, the choice is yours - and. Well, for those who like to crunch -.

So, how to cook Napoleon cake at home. By the way, I want to note that the weight of the cake according to my recipe is 2-2.5 kg. If you want a smaller size, feel free to halve the ingredients.

Napoleon cake recipe step by step with photos.

Ingredients:

1. 450 gr. flour
2. 250 gr. butter 82.5%
3. 1 egg
4. 150 ml. ice water
5. 1 st. l. vinegar 6% (I have white wine)
6. 1 tsp salt (no slide)

Cooking:

We send the butter and a glass of water to the freezer for 30 minutes. I usually put the butter in the chamber in the evening, and in the morning I start cooking.

Sift flour into a bowl.

We rub our well-chilled butter on a coarse grater there, mixing the butter with flour all the time.

Quickly rub the grated butter with flour with your hands, spend no more than 2-3 minutes on it.

Add the egg, salt and vinegar to the chilled water.

Mix with a fork. Vinegar can be any, but not more than 6%. In my case it is white wine.

Pour this liquid into the butter-flour mixture and collect the dough into a ball. There is no need to knead the dough for a long time until smooth. It is ideally obtained with large pieces of unmelted butter.

We divide our dough into 13-15 parts. This time I had a diameter of 19 cm. 15 cakes came out, before that the diameter was 22 cm. 12-13 cakes came out. We remove the dough in a container sprinkled with flour, either in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours, or in the freezer for an hour.

During this time, prepare the cream. I have recipes for two types of cream on my site that are ideal for the layer of this cake. and its light version - . You can choose the cream of your choice. In these articles, the amount of ingredients is calculated specifically for this recipe.

After our dough has cooled, we proceed to rolling. If the dough was in the freezer, then we shift it to the refrigerator. Each time we take the balls out of the refrigerator one at a time, do not take out the rest of the dough so that it does not melt prematurely.

I used my miracle purchase - a silicone mat, it has markings with different diameters. In one of the articles, I already told you about its benefits, then I cooked.

Here is my silicone mat. If you didn’t find one in your city, then you can order it in the Bakerstore store using this link - Silicone mat.

If you don’t have this device, then I suggest rolling out the dough on parchment, where you draw a circle of the diameter you need in advance (just remember to turn the parchment over to the other side before rolling, so as not to eat the dough with pencil particles later). So, you at least roughly understand what to strive for.

The dough should be rolled out as thinly as possible, constantly sprinkling flour on the rolling pin. Of the indicated number of cakes, the thickness will be just the minimum. It is necessary to roll out the dough a little more than the outlined circle. Firstly, the dough will shrink during baking, well, and secondly, we will make the top coat of our cake from the scraps.

After you have rolled out the dough, prick it with a fork. So the cake will not rise much when baking.

I baked the cakes directly on the rug, if it is not there, then transfer the rolled cakes to a baking sheet covered with parchment and bake at 200 ° for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. Try to fit 2 cakes on the baking sheet at once, so the baking time will be significantly reduced.

As soon as the cake is ready, you must immediately cut it! This is a very important point, since the cakes from the oven are still pliable, but as they cool, they become brittle and will simply crumble. We cut it in the same way, focusing on the saucer, carefully with a knife. And even easier - cut with the help of a cover, you just need to scroll it left and right half a turn, and no knife is needed, and the circle turns out perfect. Unfortunately, I did not have a lid of the diameter I needed, and I used a plate.

Transfer the sliced ​​cake to a wire rack and let it cool.

We do this with each cake.

During baking, our cream will just cool down and be ready to go.

We collect the cake.

We spread a couple of spoons of cream on the dish so that the cake does not slip.

Place the crust on top.

Lubricate it with cream. Do not spare the cream, according to my recipe, a sufficient amount comes out (2-3 tablespoons can be safely taken). So we do with all the cakes. At your request, you can put some filling in the layer, my mother always puts walnuts, you can add jam or curd, boiled condensed milk. This time I missed every 3 cakes, I just had a jar left after cooking. And you can not add anything, our dessert already tastes great.

After we have collected the whole cake, we press it a little with our hand on top and send it to the refrigerator for a couple of hours. During this time, the cakes will be slightly soaked with cream and the cake will settle. You can put a load on top of the cakes for 30 minutes, so the cakes will become even softer.

We send the cake to the refrigerator for half an hour, so that the cream grabs.

At this time, we put our trimmings of the cakes in a blender and grind them. I don’t like to chop much into crumbs, it seems to me that this is more suitable for. But you can choose a different size for yourself. By the way, you can grind it simply with your hands or with a rolling pin if there is no blender in everyday life.

Sprinkle these scraps on our cake.

We put it in the refrigerator to soak. Best for overnight. From above, you can decorate with berries, or you can not decorate and leave it like that.

Here's what a handsome man turns out. A large number of cakes and cream make this cake a truly royal dessert. The recipe for this cake was borrowed from Victoria Melnik, for which many thanks to her.

And, following such a delicate and feminine cake, I will soon tell you the recipe for a real masculine, brutal handsome man - dark beer cakes, chocolate cream and ganache ... And all this splendor of taste will be gathered in. Your men should appreciate it. Do not miss!

Enjoy your meal.

Napoleon is a cake that can be cooked and eaten endlessly. I came across your site and immediately decided to make a classic Napoleon cake. All my guests were very pleased with the result. Thank you for the recipe!

Good afternoon, Leonid and Grandmother Emma! My name is Svetlana, I'm from Minsk. I have always loved the classic Napoleon recipe and bought it from a pastry shop near my house. But soon the shop closed, and wherever I bought Napoleon, it tasted significantly different and, frankly, I didn’t like it. It was difficult for me to cook myself, since sweet pastries, to be honest, are difficult for me. But when your wonderful site caught my eye, and I saw the Napoleon cake recipe from the video, I immediately began to cook it, strictly observing all the steps and proportions. At the finish, I got that taste of Napoleon, which I liked so much earlier when I went to my favorite pastry shop. Thank you so much for the recipe and good luck!

Dear Emma Isaakovna, Leonid! I want to thank you for the Napoleon recipe. My grandchildren often come to me and love my sweet pastries very much. Often I bake pies with different fillings, but this time I wanted to somehow please the kids and bake them a delicious Napoleon cake. The recipe from your site helped me a lot, and I quickly coped with this task. My grandchildren ate everything with pleasure and now they ask me to constantly cook such a “hairy” cake. Health and good luck to you all!

I watched a video from your site on how to make a Napoleon cake. How much you love your job, these cute smiles on your faces, directly charged with positive and good mood while cooking. Well, the cooking itself went to "5". Thank you! Your admirer, Galina Viktorovna.

How glad I am that my mother uses your site! A few days ago, she made a Napoleon cake, and it tasted like something from my childhood. I loved this dessert so much as a kid. Such great memories and it's all thanks to you! Be healthy and happy!

Hello dear videoculinary team! I was always afraid of puff pastry and did not undertake to cook it, because something always went wrong with me. But I wanted to overcome my fears and still make a successful attempt to make a puff pastry dessert. On your site, I was the first to open a page with a description of how to cook Napoleon and I realized that this particular dessert would be my first successful puff pastry debut. After following all the cooking steps, I still managed to cope with my weakness, and I think that now I can do any recipe) Thank you so much!

Classic recipe! Napoleon cake will always decorate the festive table, as almost everyone likes it. Thank you.

Dear Grandma Emma! It’s probably time for you to open a network of pastry shops and sell your desserts and pastries there. I would be your regular customer and would take my whole family to you. In the meantime, I will get to know this mysterious world of confectionery with you.

Despite the fact that today Napoleon can be bought in almost any supermarket chain, home-cooked Napoleon cake is a real culinary masterpiece. Its delicate taste is so different from the store-bought one that it seems as if you are eating a completely different cake. Do not be lazy and cook such desserts yourself, it's worth it.

Good afternoon Napoleon is a cake whose recipe has been passed down from generation to generation for many years. My grandmother always indulged us in childhood with the exquisite taste of Napoleon. And now it's time to pamper her on her birthday and cook her a delicious napoleon under your guidance. I hope that she will be satisfied, and our Napoleon will turn out no worse than the one she cooks!)

Grandmother Emma, ​​Daniella and Leonid are my favorite cooks! I enjoy watching all their video recipes and cooking with them. Everything is always very tasty and satisfying. I look forward to new recipes and culinary tricks. Keep it up!

Hello Grandma Emma! My name is Victoria. To be honest, I'm not very good at cooking. But when I first got acquainted with your site, I became very curious, and I decided to study. After all, few people need a wife who does not know how to cook. And I just really want to build a family and I know folk wisdom that the way to a man's heart lies through his stomach. I have been experimenting in the kitchen for more than a month and making progress. Last week I cooked beef fillet with champignons and apricots, and yesterday I decided to test myself in cooking Napoleon. Fortunately, everything worked out and I'm extremely happy. Compliments to you and the whole team, and also thanks for giving me the opportunity to learn how to cook deliciously in your favorite kitchen! In addition, self-cooking helps to save a lot, as food in restaurants and canteens noticeably hit the pocket.

The traditional version of the test for "Napoleon" is puff. You can cook it at home or buy it in the supermarket. The first option is tastier, the second is faster. You choose. In addition, some housewives also cook sand cakes - in my opinion, such a cake is as far from Bonaparte as I am far from genetic engineering or the hadron collider, however, it would be simply dishonest not to mention this moment.

The classic version of puff pastry is a rather time-consuming pleasure. An elastic dough is kneaded from flour, salt, oil and water, rolled into a rectangle, which is liberally smeared with butter. The dough is wrapped in an envelope and sent to the refrigerator, after which it is rolled out again, greased with a large amount of oil, wrapped in an envelope, cooled, rolled out, greased - and so on, until there is oil and strength. They say professional chefs can make 500 layers of puff pastry!

The average hostess is not ready for such feats, I think. And it will take a lot of time, so recipes were invented that do not require special skills.

So, I offer you a choice of several test options for the classic Napoleon recipe.

Cooking
Pour the flour into a bowl, rub half the butter, mix.
Pour water and vinegar into the recess, salt and knead the dough on the table - it should become elastic and elastic.

Knead well and for a long time - this is a guarantee that the dough will not tear when rolling.
So, roll it into a rectangle, in the center lay out the second pack of butter, cut in half lengthwise (to make it thinner). We close the butter with dough (first from above and below, then on the sides), fasten the edges well (this is important!) And quickly roll out the resulting “pie” until it is about three times larger. Fold in thirds, roll out again and put in the fridge. We do our own thing for half an hour or an hour, then we pay 10 minutes of attention to the dough - we take it out of the refrigerator, roll it out, fold it, roll it out, fold it and hide it again. You need to do this 3-4 times - in the end you will get a piece of dough, which after baking will turn into a fragrant, creamy, layered, crumbly cake.

With a sharp knife, divide the dough in half, cut off the round edges from the other three sides of the layer (literally half a centimeter - after baking, they can be used to sprinkle the cake, so send the trimmings to the oven along with the cakes), roll out additionally in the shape of a baking sheet, prick a little with a fork (or a lot: the more holes, the flatter, smoother the cake) and bake for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 220 degrees. Each sheet (layer, cake) is baked separately! It may take even less time if you roll out the dough very thinly, so be careful not to overdo it!

Beer dough

Beer dough is the so-called false puff pastry, similar in technology to chopped. Cakes on such a test are especially layered, bubbly, light. During baking, the smell of beer and alcohol “leave”, only crunch and tenderness remain.

Ingredients:
4 cups flour;
1/2 tsp soda;
1/2 tsp salt;
2/3 cup light beer;
250 g cold butter.

Cooking
Mix flour with soda and salt, grate ice cream butter into a dry mass, mix. Adding beer, quickly knead the dough that is elastic and does not stick to your hands.
Divide it into 8 parts, roll each into a ball, wrap in cling film and hide in the refrigerator. After half an hour, take out one at a time, roll it into layers (I prefer rectangular, round ones are easier), bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for about 5-7 minutes each.

My signature dough for "Napoleon"

The finished dough according to this recipe turns out to be incredibly tender and fragile - and so much so that the cake is smeared with cream immediately before serving. On the table are light crispy cakes that melt in your mouth like a cloud.

Yes, do not try to cut off the baked dough layers - they are so fragile that you will only crumble, turning everything into indistinct crumbs and scraps.

Ingredients:
200 g cold butter
180 ml water
1 st. l. vinegar 9%
1 egg
13 art. l. with a "slide" of flour

Cooking:
Break the egg into a glass, add water, vinegar and shake everything well with a fork.
Pour flour into a deep bowl, rub ice cream butter, mix and pour in the liquid component. Quickly knead a fairly elastic dough that does not stick to your hands - if necessary, add a little flour.

Next - the most interesting: the dough should be beaten off. To do this, we raise the finished lump with both hands to the level of the head (or even higher) and throw it on the table with force. We collect the resulting cake into a lump and throw it again - and so at least 15 times. This procedure will make the dough smooth, pleasant and very pliable.

We divide into 8-9 parts and roll each into the thinnest possible rectangle. We immediately cut off the excess, striving to ensure that all the cakes are approximately the same size. We shift to a baking sheet, prick with a fork and bake at a temperature of 200 degrees until a moderately golden color (7-10 minutes, but the time is conditional and may be different for you).

Honey "Napoleon"

Of course, this is not a classic at all, however, the cake according to this recipe comes out tender and pleasant, so it’s definitely worth trying at least once. Pay attention to the fact that the cakes are very sweet - keep this in mind when you select and prepare the cream. Sour cream and cream go very well with this dough.

By the way, the recipe is very convenient because the cakes can be stored for quite a long time - it’s a good idea to bake several portions of the dough in advance, and then be glad that you always have a “duty” version of the cake at hand.

Ingredients:
1 cup of sugar;
4 eggs;
1 st. l. soda;
1 glass of honey;
5 cups flour.

Cooking:
Mix eggs, honey, sugar and soda, add flour and knead a thick dough. Now - the most interesting: having hidden it in a plastic bag, we leave it for two days (or more) at room temperature. After that, we divide it into equal parts (there is a lot of dough - if you make thin cakes, you will get at least 10 layers), roll it out and send it to the oven for 7-8 minutes (watch the dough - it should only lightly brown) at a temperature of 180 degrees.

Cakes for "Napoleon" on curd dough

Soft, tender cakes with light layering. Suitable for lovers of moist cakes with custard. Keep in mind that you get a lot of cakes, and they require a sufficient amount of lubrication, so cook the cream from about 1 liter of milk - you won’t lose.

Ingredients:
500 g of cottage cheese;
400 g of sugar;
6 eggs;
700 g flour;
1/3 tsp salt;
1/3 tsp soda;
1/2 tsp lemon juice.

Cooking:
Beat the eggs well with sugar, add salt, soda, lemon juice, stir in the cottage cheese. Add flour, knead elastic dough. We divide it into 15 parts, hide in the refrigerator. After half an hour, we take out one at a time and roll it into cakes. We bake at a temperature of 200 degrees for about 7-8 minutes.
I recommend cutting hot cakes to get an even, beautiful cake.

Cream for cake "Napoleon"

So, with the test, they seem to have clarified, your task is to decide and bake. This is a laborious process: if I bake Napoleon, I usually make double the norm of dough, after which my hands hurt from the rolling pin. However, the result is always worth the effort!

After the cakes are ready, cook or whip the cream. It is believed that the classic in this case is butter cream, but I prefer custard. Choose for yourself, focusing on your taste and preferences of your family.

Custard (milk)

There are a great many recipes for custard and, probably, every housewife prepares it in her own way. This diversity hides the great generosity of cooking as an art - you can, without repeating yourself, cook more and more cakes and creams, fantasize and come up with something of your own, unusual and the best.

I offer my version of custard - found after hundreds of experiments, trial and error. It is delicious, soft and light.

Ingredients:
1 liter of milk;
4 eggs;
1 st. Sahara;
3 art. l. flour;
200 g butter.

Cooking:
Mix sugar with flour, add eggs, grind into a homogeneous mass.
Pour hot milk in a thin stream, stir well, and then put on a minimum heat and cook until puffing, without ceasing to stir the cream with a spoon.
After cooling, add milk to the softened butter in very small portions (literally on a spoon), rub with a spoon until completely smooth or beat until smooth.

Butter cream

The most intense option. Heavy, high-calorie, solid, but, the right word, what a delicious "Napoleon" comes out with this cream! Real!

Ingredients:
250 g high quality butter;
3 eggs;
1 cup of sugar.

Cooking:
Stir the eggs with sugar and, placing the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, beat until elastic splendor. The cream will look more like a viscous elastic mass than foam, however, it will clearly increase in volume.

Beat room temperature butter until smooth, gradually add the cooled egg mass, without stopping the mixer. The result is a shiny, beautiful cream that can be flavored with alcohol (literally 1-1.5 tablespoons), citrus essence, vanilla.

Custard cream with curd notes

Light cream with a soft curd aftertaste. Ideal if you don’t like the “emptiness” of custard, but the heaviness of cream is too much for you.

Ingredients:
0.5-0.6 l of milk;
4 egg yolks;
3 art. l. flour or corn (potato) starch;
1/2 cup sugar;
300 g mascarpone or any other cream cheese.

Cooking:
Mix the sugar with the yolks and grind until smooth.
Add flour, mix, slowly pour in the milk, mix again and put the saucepan on a minimum fire - stirring constantly, cook until thick and start to "puff". When the mixture has cooled, add cream cheese and beat until smooth.

Cream on white chocolate

What to say? Cream is the richest! For my taste, it is heavy and somewhat intrusive, however, I cannot but admit that in the company with puff pastry it is ideal.

Ingredients:
250 ml of milk;
150 g of sugar;
2.5 st. l. flour;
200 g of white chocolate;
100 g butter.

Cooking:
Mix sugar with flour, pour in milk and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly.
Remove the cream from the heat and immediately put the chocolate broken into pieces into it. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted and, covered with cling film, leave to cool completely.
Put butter at room temperature into the cream and beat with a mixer until fluffy.

The simplest cream on cream

The simplest cream that is easy to prepare and delicious to eat. Pitfall - in order for the cream to whip, it must be thick enough, of good quality and chilled. It is better to replace sugar with powdered sugar, it stabilizes the cream better. As a flavor, you can add vanilla, citrus essence, a couple of drops of rum, cognac or orange liqueur.

Ingredients:
0.5 l of heavy cream;
1 glass of powdered sugar.

Whip cream until fluffy. About halfway through the process, add a little bit of powdered sugar. The cream should be voluminous and stable.

Options are possible!

A little lower I will tell you why the Napoleon was named after the great commander. Looking ahead, I can only say that Bonaparte's personal chef believed that the sides of the legendary cake should be open - and I, contrary to Henri Lagoupier's theory, argue that Napoleon can be ennobled by hiding the uneven edges of the cakes under a layer of cream. We cover the freshly baked layers of dough with a mold (large plate) and cut, giving the desired shape. Do not give trimmings to anyone, drive away people with a large towel - it is these crumbs-pieces that need to be dried, crushed with a rolling pin, and then used as a sprinkle on the cake.

Layers for "Napoleon"

However, this is far from the only way to slightly embellish the classic look and taste of Napoleon. The most delicious option is the berry layer. Between two layers of cream or even instead of cream, apply a little currant puree, grated blueberries with sugar, strawberry jam, cranberry jam, lemon curd. The sour berry is most suitable - it skillfully neutralizes the sugar of the cream, turning the cake into the perfect composition of crunchiness, sweetness and sourness.

Very interesting "Napoleon" looks with a layer of fruits with a rich taste. Try adding feijoa puree in the fall, experiment with kiwifruit in the winter. In spring, you can boil apple cubes a little and mix them with caramel sauce, and in summer you should definitely chop apricots and add them to the cake in the form of puree or jelly.

By the way, if there is a desire to “play” and experiment, instead of a berry layer, you can lay out a layer of jelly - it must be prepared in advance and poured into a mold whose diameter repeats the diameter of the cake. Looks fresh and very bright!

Additional accents

nuts perfectly complement the delicate taste of "Napoleon" - believe me, a handful of roasted hazelnuts, some almond petals, a little chopped walnuts - and the cake is transformed.

Chocolate, for my personal taste, does not fit into Napoleon, however, many people add it to both cream and dough, and sprinkle it on top in the form of crumbs. If a huge number of people do this, then it is tasty?

Another option to diversify your usual cake recipe is smear the cakes with two different creams (cream mix). By alternating the custard and cream layers, you get an incredibly rich taste.

Mac in "Napoleon" looks unexpected, but very nice. If you first dry the grains a little in a dry frying pan, they will happily crunch on your teeth, leaving an elusive flavor of nuts. If you boil the poppy seeds with milk and sugar, and then chop them with a blender, you get an excellent additive to the cream, which will turn it into an excellent filling for a homemade cake.

Meringue - another way to decorate "Napoleon", giving it unusual shades. Crispy, tender, light meringue will make the puff pastry cake more interesting, unusual and tasty. If you don’t want to waste time making meringues at home, you can use store-bought ones.

A separate large block can be distinguished unsweetened "Napoleons"- there are many options for snack cakes based on puff pastry, but this is such an array of information, ideas and recipes that I propose to talk about it some other time.

How "Napoleon" became a cake

There is no greater pleasure for me than to light a candle, take an interesting book, brew fragrant tea, cut off a small piece of puff cake with an elegant dessert fork and put it in my mouth. Close your eyes with pleasure, leave the dough and cream to melt on your tongue... Take a sip of tea, slowly read a page of a fresh novel about the important and necessary, and then again - a small piece of joy, an explosion of taste, a fountain of sweetness.

There is no greater pleasure! Silence, the rain beats outside the window, the house is cozy and warm. There is still almost a whole Napoleon on the dish, next to it is a huge teapot with tea. Probably, many years ago, the great Emperor was almost as good - he was sitting in his palace, in the fireplace the fire was licking the heels of the firewood, and the air smelled of calm, and unhurried conversations were held. Napoleon leaned over to one of the maids of honor of his wife, whispering something to her - she blushed, embarrassed, smiled coquettishly. However, this is where Napoleon's pleasure, unlike mine, ends - the doors of the drawing room of the hall opened, and an angry Josephine appeared on the threshold, not without reason. I had to answer - without justifying myself at all (the best battle tactic is an attack!), The emperor said the first thing that came to his mind: “Honey, I came up with an absolutely wonderful cake! Knowing how much you love sweets, I didn’t want to forget the idea, and therefore I secretly shared it with a person you can trust!”. It was impossible to just fall behind the jealous wife - therefore, I had to describe a hastily concocted fantasy, which the retinue immediately picked up, wrote down, and the court cook realized. This is how the Napoleon cake was born.

However, maybe the real story of his appearance is not at all like that. It is said that the dessert was invented by Russian confectioners in 1912 on the occasion of the celebration of the centenary of the victory over Bonaparte. Either jokingly or seriously, the chefs decided to cook triangular-shaped cakes - allegedly symbolizing the emperor's famous headdress. Unfortunately, it is impossible to prove this version, because Russia does not have a patent for the Napoleon recipe, however, the theory exists, and it is ridiculous to simply deny its existence.

However, if you really want to, you can try to convince the world that the name of the Napoleon cake was given by a completely different story. They say that during the war with Austria there was a crisis when Bonaparte's troops retreated, being in the area of ​​​​the small Italian town of Marengo. The emperor was angry and annoyed and did not hold back, taking out his emotions on those around him. A favorite cook fell under a hot hand - he cooked a chicken that Napoleon could not stand, although there simply was nothing else in the district ... The next day brought unexpected surprises - sudden reinforcements arrived in the person of Marshal Desaix and his troops, the course of the battle changed dramatically, and Bonaparte returned to France as a winner.

At Christmas, the emperor called his devoted cook: “Today I will have dinner with a lady. I want you to cook up that delicious Marengo chicken and something amazing for dessert - Joséphine de Beauharnais loves sweet things." Lagouppierre smiled, accepting the general's devious apology, and went into the kitchen.

The table was served with a magnificent chicken in a green sauce, gourmet appetizers and salads, and for dessert they brought out a cake with many layers. Thin cakes were carelessly smeared with cream so that the sides of the cake remained uncovered. Frowning, Napoleon demanded an explanation. Lagoupier was ready:
- History is cyclical. These layers symbolize that events change each other, but the spiral of life sooner or later returns to the previous coil. I did not cover my sides with cream to remember this simple truth.
Are you talking about Marengo? the emperor asked.
Henri Lagoupier nodded his head, and the cake has since entered the world of culinary art as "Napoleon".

However, French cuisine has undoubtedly “its own” recipe for such pastries, the origin of which should not be disputed, citing this or that story as proof. The famous millefeuille (the name translates as “thousand petals”) is the closest relative of Napoleon. Puff pastry, custard - don't you think that there are similarities?

Well, enough history, you won't be fed up with it. Let's better choose which option you will cook for the next holiday, buy food and run to the kitchen - create! Sweet experiments, delicious creams and layered cakes!

Today we will cook the most delicious cake "Napoleon". Delicate, melting in your mouth, fragrant homemade cake "Napoleon" is rightfully the king among homemade cakes. Nothing compares to homemade baked goods made with love. And it’s not necessary to cook cakes only on holidays: after all, a simple homemade Napoleon recipe allows you to bake a yummy at least every day. Let's not waste time, but go to the kitchen and prepare the Napoleon cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken egg;
• 1 pinch of salt;
• 250 grams of creamy margarine or butter;
• 200 milliliters of water;
• 700 grams of flour.

To prepare the cream:

• 420-450 grams of sugar;
• 8 grams (sachet) of vanillin;
• 1 tablespoon of starch;
• 6 pieces of chicken eggs;
• 1 liter of milk;
• 200-250 butter;
• 4 tablespoons of flour.

The most delicious cake "Napoleon". Step by step recipe

1. For the dough, we need a large bowl with high sides. Sift flour into it through a sieve.
2. Creamy margarine or butter, any of the products can be used in the recipe, put in the freezer in advance, for 15-20 minutes, so that they freeze and become hard.
3. We rub cold margarine or butter on a coarse grater. You can do this right in the bowl into which we sifted the flour.
4. Mix the grated margarine and flour until smooth. The result should be an oily flour, ground into a homogeneous crumb.
5. We drive one chicken egg into a cup or glass, do not separate the yolk from the protein. Add salt and beat lightly with a fork or spoon.
6. Add cold water to the egg with salt, mix. Please note that for the preparation of this cake, the water must be cold.
7. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour the egg and water into it.
8. Now we start kneading the dough. First we do this with a spoon, then with our hands. The dough shouldn't be tough, but it shouldn't stick to your hands either.
9. When the dough becomes smooth and homogeneous, we shift it from the bowl to the table and continue to knead.
10. We wrap the finished dough in cling film or simply transfer it to a plastic bag. We send the dough to the refrigerator for half an hour.
11. When 30 minutes have passed, take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it into 16 parts. Sprinkle the table with flour first.
12. Pieces may turn out to be smaller: it depends on the diameter of the mold in which you will bake the cakes. We leave a few pieces of dough on the table, send the rest back to the refrigerator.
13. Roll out each piece of dough on a table sprinkled with flour into a thin circle.
14. We cut out a square from parchment, a little larger than the diameter of our dough. We transfer the rolled dough to paper, this is done very easily, due to a large amount of butter or margarine. When the dough is shifted, we prick it in several places with a fork so that it does not bubble during baking.
15. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. As soon as it warms up, we send the dough into it, literally for 5-6 minutes. Bake until golden and remove from oven immediately.
16. In the same way, we roll out and bake all the other cakes, then let them cool completely.
17. Cut the baked cake evenly according to the pattern. Do not throw away the edges that crumble easily, but leave them to decorate the cake.
18. While the cakes are cooling, let's prepare the cream. Pour milk into a saucepan and put on fire so that it warms up, but does not boil. Be sure to watch him, because milk tends to "run away."
19. Pour sugar into a separate pan or bowl, beat in eggs and add vanilla. Mix everything with a spoon or whisk until smooth.
20. Combine flour and starch, pour over eggs and sugar, mix again.
21. Pour one ladle of warm milk into the pan with eggs, mix. So, gradually, we add it all.
22. We put the pan on the fire and, stirring all the time, bring the mass to a boil. It should become smooth and thick.
23. Let the cream cool slightly and put softened butter in it, which you need to get out of the refrigerator a couple of hours before cooking. Mix well. Cream for our cake is ready.
24. With a warm, not yet cooled cream, we grease all the cakes. Be sure to put a little cream on the bottom of the dish in which you will serve the cake: this way the bottom cake will also soak well.
25. Each cake that you put on top of the other, lightly press down. Do not forget to grease the sides of the cake with cream.
26. We knead the scraps that we have left with our hands into crumbs: sprinkle the top and sides of the cake.
27. We send the cake to the refrigerator for impregnation. This will take approximately four hours.

So you learned how to make a homemade Napoleon cake. Cut off a piece of cake: you will notice how tender, fragrant, very well soaked in cream. So it asks: "Eat me!". Well, now we just have to brew black or green tea, you can have coffee, cut the cake into portions and call your relatives for a tea party. Tasty? Yes, this cake is a decoration of any table. Cook with our site "Very tasty" - and your family will always be fed the most incredibly delicious dishes. Bon appetit!