Napoleon Cake
8 servings
120 minutes
This is how Dina Pampukha, pastry chef at the Georgian restaurant Tkemali, prepares Napoleon.
1
Chop the flour and cold butter in a food processor or with a knife until it resembles medium-sized crumbs.
- Wheat flour: 300 g
- Butter: 200 g
2
Combine cold water, 2 beaten eggs, vinegar, and cognac, add salt and 5 grams of sugar. Mix until smooth and pour into flour with butter.
- Water: 40 ml
- Chicken egg: 6 pieces
- Vinegar: 20 ml
- Cognac: 20 ml
- Salt: 2 g
- Sugar: 120 g
3
Quickly knead the dough and put it in the fridge. Chill for at least an hour, but better overnight.
4
Divide the chilled dough into ten equal parts.
5
Roll each piece thinly. Transfer to baking paper. Prick the dough in several places with a fork.
6
Bake the cakes in the oven at 155 degrees for 5–10 minutes until they turn golden.
7
Cut a circle of the desired diameter (for example, 16 cm) from the finished cake layer. Crush the leftover cake into crumbs to use for decorating the cake.
8
Prepare the cream. Combine 115 grams of sugar and starch in a bowl, mix thoroughly.
- Sugar: 120 g
- Starch: 5 g
9
Crack the eggs into a bowl, measure 175 grams. Add the dry mixture to the eggs and whisk or stir with a spatula.
10
Heat the milk in a saucepan but do not bring it to a boil. Pour the milk in a thin stream into the bowl with the egg mixture, constantly whisking.
- Milk: 375 ml
11
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook the cream over low heat (or at minimum temperature if you have an induction stove), constantly stirring and touching the bottom with a whisk. The cooking time is approximately 5-10 minutes. When the mixture thickens and leaves a pattern from the whisk — the cream is ready.
12
Remove the saucepan with cream from the stove and add gelatin to it (previously soak the gelatin sheet in cold water for 3-5 minutes).
- Gelatin in plates: 10 g
13
Mix the cream until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
14
Pour the prepared cream into a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator - the cream needs to stabilize for at least 1.5–2 hours. Just like with dough, it's better to make the cream in advance and leave it overnight.
15
Whip cold 33% cream until fluffy.
- Cream 33%: 188 ml
16
Add cream to the custard and gently mix. The cream is ready.
17
Assemble the cake: alternate layers with cream, using 90 grams of cream per layer.
18
Sprinkle the cake with crumbs.
19
If you wish to decorate the finished cake with berries.
- Fresh berries: to taste