Napoleon at home
12 servings
180 minutes
The Napoleon cake is a legendary dessert that has captured the hearts of sweet lovers. Its history dates back to the 19th century when it was created in honor of the victory over Napoleon. This multi-layered masterpiece of crispy layers soaked in delicate custard has a wonderful balance of sweetness and creamy softness. The lightness of the dough is achieved by carefully sifting the flour and extinguishing baking soda, while the cream gains a velvety texture through gradual cooking. The Napoleon is perfect for celebrations, cozy family evenings, and tea parties. Its fragile layers crumble gently, creating an airy structure, and decoration with nuts or chocolate adds extra elegance. After soaking, the dessert becomes especially soft, with each piece melting in your mouth and leaving a rich creamy-vanilla aroma. This cake is a true embodiment of Russian pastry tradition!
1
First, we make the cream so that it cools down before assembling the cake. We pour in the milk, leaving 1 cup of milk for the dough, add vanilla sugar to the pot, and bring it to a boil.
- Milk: 3 l
- Vanilla sugar: 1 teaspoon
2
At this time, in a bowl, we beat 8 eggs, or 6, and 400 grams of sugar until smooth.
- Chicken egg: 9 pieces
- Sugar: 250 g
3
Add 3 tablespoons of flour and mix.
- Wheat flour: 900 g
4
Add 1/3 of hot, but not boiling milk to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Milk: 3 l
5
When the milk boils, reduce the heat under the pot.
6
Pour the egg mixture into the milk in a thin stream and quickly whisk. While mixing, you will feel the cream starting to thicken.
- Milk: 3 l
7
We stir for a while longer, but to prevent the cream from burning, we can remove the pot from the heat and place it in a bowl of cold water. That's it, the cream is ready. We let it cool.
8
Preheat the oven or microwave with the margarine to melt it to a semi-liquid state. It should then cool to room temperature.
- Margarine: 180 g
9
Beat 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Add margarine, 1 cup of milk (at room temperature), and baking soda mixed with vinegar.
- Chicken egg: 9 pieces
- Sugar: 250 g
- Margarine: 180 g
- Milk: 3 l
- Slaked soda: 0.5 teaspoon
10
Sift 800 grams of flour twice for easy mixing with other ingredients. First, add 500 grams of flour to a bowl and knead the dough, adding more flour if needed. It should be elastic, not sticky to the hands, and not too stiff.
- Wheat flour: 900 g
11
We divide the dough into two parts. One is set aside in a bowl and covered with a towel to prevent it from drying out. The other part is rolled out on a floured surface into a sausage shape and divided into 16 equal parts. The dough balls will be small, resulting in a total of 32 flatbreads from the two parts of dough.
12
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and place a dry baking tray inside.
13
We roll the ball into a thin pancake 1-2 mm thick. We try to make the pancakes more round. Each time, we sprinkle flour on the surface to make it easier to transfer the pancake to the baking sheet.
14
Take out the hot baking tray and carefully place the pancake on it. Put it in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Bake until golden brown. While one is baking, roll out another. Transfer the finished one to a plate. Repeat with the next pancakes.
15
We leave the two most golden pancakes or the failed ones for decorating the finished cake.
16
We assemble the cake. First, we grease the cake plate so that the bottom layer absorbs well too. Each layer should be greased with 2-3 tablespoons of cream. Make sure to grease the edges well. We leave the assembled cake to soak for a while - until it settles well.
17
Once the cake is soaked, we trim the uneven sides to give it a nice appearance. We crush the reserved two layers and sprinkle them on top and sides of the cake. Decorate as you wish: with walnuts, almond flakes, grated chocolate, or berries. Enjoy your meal!
18