Each of us knows the taste of Napoleon cake from childhood. All mothers and grandmothers cook it. Probably, there is no such person in the world who would not love the Napoleon cake with custard, because it always turns out delicious, soft and soaked. If you still do not know how to cook such a cake, then in the article we will present you with several simple recipes, thanks to which you can easily create a culinary masterpiece for the festive table and not only.

Napoleon - the classic custard recipe

Napoleon according to this recipe turns out to be so tender that it practically melts in your mouth. So, the following components are needed for cooking:

• margarine - 250 g
• water - 1/2 tbsp.
• flour - 3.5 - 4 tbsp. + 1 tbsp.
• milk - 1 l
• sugar - 1/2 tbsp.
• boiled condensed milk - 1 can
• butter - 200-300 g

Let's start making the cake:

1. First, prepare the dough. To do this, we need to chop cold margarine at random with a knife and grind it into small crumbs with flour. Heat the water a little, add a little to the finished crumb and knead the dough. If there is not enough flour and the dough still sticks to your hands, add more flour.
2. Put the finished dough in the refrigerator for half an hour and start making the custard.
3. First, boil the milk, then add sugar to it and stir until completely dissolved. After that, little by little, add 1 tbsp. flour and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, so that no flour lumps form. Cook for about 3-5 minutes. until the mass thickens. Next, remove the custard from the heat and let it cool.
4. We take out the dough from the refrigerator, divide it into 9 parts. Roll each part into a round cake, put in a greased baking sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees, about 3-5 minutes.
5. When all the cakes are baked, grind one of them into crumbs to sprinkle the cake on top and sides.
6. Now we are preparing our cream. Combine boiled condensed milk with butter and beat well with a mixer. Then we combine all this with the cooled custard.
7. Now we collect our Napoleon. Put the cake on the dish, then grease it generously with cream. We do this with all the cakes. When the last cake is greased, we completely coat our cake with cream on the sides.
8. And finally, the final touch - sprinkle our beauty on top and on the sides with crumbs.
9. Let the cake soak for 4-5 hours and proceed to tasting.

Crispy Napoleon with custard - recipe

According to the following recipe, the cakes are more crispy and crumbly. But the cake is no less tasty from this. So, for the preparation of Napoleon, we take the following set of products:

• eggs - 7-8 pcs. + 1 pc.
• sugar - 1 tablespoon + 1 tbsp.
• margarine - 100 g
• vodka - 1 tbsp.
• flour - how much will be included + 3 tbsp. for cream
• milk - 1 l
• butter - 300 g

The cooking algorithm is as follows:

1. First, prepare the dough. To do this, take eggs with sugar and beat with a whisk. Add soft margarine to this. Again, beat the mass with a whisk.
2. Gradually add flour, sprinkle the kneaded mass with vodka. Knead the dough gradually. It should be soft. We set the dough aside for half an hour, cover it with a towel or cling film so that it does not weather.
3. Meanwhile, we prepare the cream. We take a liter of raw milk, pour 200 ml from it and set to boil. While the milk is boiling, beat 1 egg in a separate container, add 200 ml of raw milk and 3 tbsp. flour. We mix everything thoroughly until a homogeneous consistency, so that there are no flour lumps.
4. Pour sugar into the boiled 800 ml of milk and cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour in the cooked mass of raw milk, eggs and flour in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Cook for just a few minutes until it thickens, after which we remove the finished cream from the heat and let it cool.
5. Let's go back to the test. Divide it into 13-15 parts, each of which is thinly rolled out, put on a greased baking sheet and baked in a preheated oven until tender. Before putting the cake in the oven, be sure to beat it with a fork so that it does not bubble when baking. Cakes according to this recipe are baked very quickly.
6. After you have baked all the cakes, chop one of them into crumbs, for powdering the cake.
7. Now take soft butter at room temperature and mix with the cooled custard.
8. We begin to collect the cake. We coat each cake well with cream. When the last crust is oiled, brush the sides of the cake and sprinkle all over with crumbs. You can also sprinkle nuts, dried fruit, raisins, or grated chocolate on top of the cake if you wish. It all depends on your desires, capabilities and preferences.
9. Let the cake brew for 6-8 hours, or even better to do it in the evening so that it is soaked all night. After that, you can have a tea party.

Despite the fact that these 2 recipes are radically different, the cake turns out to be equally amazing in taste. You just have to try to bake Napoleon and taste it with a cup of aromatic tea. Enjoy your meal!

Classic Napoleon Cake Recipe kept by many housewives in the cookbook. This one is always associated with a fun holiday and childhood. Napoleon takes time to soak, and it is especially difficult for children to resist and wait for that cherished hour when they will be given their portion. If you have not tried cooking yet napoleon cake at home, or you are looking for the simplest and best Napoleon recipe, then you can stop at ours. The cakes are flaky, crunchy, although they are cooked with sour cream, and after soaking with custard, the cake comes out juicy and delicate in taste. The recipe indicates the number of ingredients for a small family cake, otherwise, the products can be doubled, then you get a tall, birthday cake. All details are in step by step preparation of Napoleon cake with custard with photo.

Ingredients for making Napoleon custard cake

Step-by-step preparation of Napoleon cake with custard with photo

1. Add sour cream, salt and sugar to the softened margarine, beat until smooth.
   
2. Gradually add flour and knead the dough until it sticks out of your hands. Wrap it in a bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
   
3. Divide the dough 8-10 pieces. The number of cakes can also depend on the desired diameter of the cake.
   
4. Roll out very thin dough. It is most convenient to roll directly onto parchment paper. Or, after the layer has been rolled out, wind it on the rock and transfer it to a baking sheet. The dough is very thin and may tear. One cake or parts of it can be left for decoration.
   
5. Send the cake to bake in a preheated oven to 200 degrees for 7-8 minutes. When it turns golden, then it is ready.
   
6. To make a custard, it is better to boil homemade milk beforehand. With pasteurized, you can work without preliminary boiling.
7. Beat two eggs with sugar, then add flour and beat again.
8. Pour in some milk, 50 grams and stir.
9. Pour milk into a saucepan and put on fire.
10. Then, very importantly, pour the egg mixture into the milk and stir ALWAYS. If you don't, the sugar and flour will stick to the bottom and burn.
11. When the cream thickens and begins to boil, immediately remove from heat. Cool the cream.
    
12. Beat the softened butter with a mixer, then add this mass to the completely cooled cream and beat again with a mixer. Add vanilla sugar or vanilla.
13. Grease each crust liberally and shape the cake.
    
14. At first it will be tall, but as it soaks, it will settle. Grind the crust into crumbs and sprinkle on the oiled top layer of the cake.
    
15. Place it in the refrigerator to soak for 6 to 12 hours.
    

Napoleon cake is served on holidays or other special occasions along with tea, juice or compote. Enjoy your meal!

Napoleon is a modest cake without decorations. Usually they are limited to sprinkling from his own mashed cakes or scraps. The cream is also not original and is most often used custard. So why did the cake win universal love? It's all about the salty flaky cakes, which are soaked in an abundant layer of cream and become unique. Once upon a time, in Soviet times, homemade cake "Napoleon" helped out with its simplicity and cheapness, flaunted on festive tables and delighted with taste. The dough can be cooked not only in butter or margarine, but also in cooking oil, lard.

• 460 g flour;
• 160 ml of water (ice cold);
• 0.3 tsp salt;
• 260 g butter / margarine;
• 15 g vinegar.

• 0.7 liters of milk;
• 0.3 kg of sugar;
• 0.2 kg of oil;
• 2-3 eggs;
• vanilla;
• 30 g starch.

Preparation of dough and cakes for the Napoleon cake

Cooking cream for the Napoleon cake

Assembling the cake "Napoleon"

Secrets of making Napoleon cake

• You can add a little fried, chopped walnuts to the topping. The scent will be gorgeous.
• The custard doesn't have to be vanilla. Napoleon with a chocolate, coffee layer turns out to be delicious. You can add a little ground nuts, but just a little, the mass should not turn out to be thick.
• Do not use warm or room temperature water for the test. It should be cold, icy. Also, do not keep the dough indoors for a long time. You need to get out of the freezer one lump at a time, otherwise the cakes will turn out tough.

I've been baking "Napoleon" according to this recipe for 10 years now and this cake has become my signature dish !!! In our family, Napoleon cake is always a holiday! If anyone has a different opinion about this famous dessert, I can say with complete confidence that you have not tried the real "Napoleon". All quick options from ready-made puff pastry are not even close to it. Tasty, but not that good.

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 layer cake with delicate custard is to cook it yourself at home. Troubled, but worth it!

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

Cooking requires very simple and affordable products:

Ingredients:

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

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

Preparation of cakes:

Please note that the cake dough must be kneaded with a knife. This way, the cold butter will not melt from the warmth of your hands and will take the amount of flour you need. Otherwise, overdoing it with flour, you risk getting a very tough dough. Whereas, ideally, thin cakes should be crunchy and tender at the same time.

Freeze the margarine or butter lightly for easier handling. Sift flour onto the work surface. In flour, you need to finely chop the frozen butter with a knife, pouring it from the edge to the center. As a result, you should have 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 depression in it and start pouring liquid from the jar.

Again, everything will need to be "cut" with a large knife,

Those. you won't even have to get your hands dirty in the dough.

Pour the liquid mixture in parts until it ends 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 must be divided into 16 equal lumps, put on a board, wrapped with cling film or a bag, and sent to the refrigerator for 20 - 30 minutes. Or slightly freeze it 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 it can be, literally translucent. Any form. It is easier to roll out the rectangles to fit the baking sheet. With round cakes, it is a little more difficult, they need to be cut raw or cooked, and the number of them will turn out to be more.

The dough is elastic enough, do not be afraid to tear it when transferring to a baking sheet. Even if this happens, there is nothing terrible about it. The cakes can be pricked in several places with a fork to make them less swollen.

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

As a result, you should have 16 brown puff pastry cakes of a rectangular shape or a little more round.

Making the custard:

Don't look for a better recipe, I assure you this one is perfect!

To prepare it, beat the chicken eggs and wheat flour in a deep cup until smooth. 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 never use an enamel 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 hot milk with sugar in a thin stream. Stir constantly while doing this. You need to cook the custard over low heat with constant stirring.

Cook until puree. Cool the custard mixture to room temperature. Stir several times during cooling so that no crust appears.

Remove the butter from the refrigerator beforehand to soften. Before combining with the cream, beat the butter until smooth.

Only then add the cooled cream to the butter in small portions. Not the other way around!

Beat with a mixer until smooth.

All that remains is to collect our gorgeous cake.

Assembly:

I'll show you how to keep the cake plate clean when assembling. A piece of baking paper - this little detail is a little secret to your neatness. 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 down to make the cake denser.

Repeat until all layers are stacked. Do not 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 crush 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 the resulting crumb. My sides are not sprinkled with anything. You can add chopped walnuts or grated chocolate to this crumb, according to your taste, this will not make the cake worse.

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

I think you were convinced that making 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 the chefs of 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 "Vanilla slice", but in Italy and France you can order at any cafe "Millefeuille" and they will bring you a piece of airy multilayer cake, known to you as "Napoleon", by the way, in translation Milfey means a thousand layers. But 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 great fan of hitting on pretty girls. So once flirting with another sweet 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, this, it turns out, was what made the girl so flushed! The wife pretended to believe her faithful, but demanded proof. Bonaparte hastily dictated the recipe for the cake, a complete improvisation. Of course, Bonaparte's chef made some adjustments to the recipe. As a result, for breakfast, the couple 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 beloved 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 your cake will become a signature sweet dish, like mine. I have been baking it for more than 10 years, and for the recipe I thank Natalia Pyatkova.

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

The classic version of puff pastry is a rather laborious pleasure. From flour, salt, oil and water, elastic dough is kneaded, rolled into a rectangle, which is abundantly greased 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, as long as 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, therefore, recipes were invented that did not require special skills.

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

Preparation
Pour the flour into a bowl, rub half the oil, mix.
Pour water and vinegar into the depression, salt and knead the dough on the table - it should become firm and elastic.

We knead well and for a long time - this is a guarantee that the dough will not break when rolling.
So, roll it into a rectangle, spread the second pack of butter in the center, cut in half lengthwise (to make it thinner). Cover the butter with dough (first from the top and bottom, then along the sides), seal the edges well (this is important!) And quickly roll out the resulting "pie" until it increases by about three times. Fold in three, roll it out again and put it in the refrigerator. We go about our business for half 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. So you need to do this 3-4 times - as a result, you will get a piece of dough, which after baking will turn into a fragrant, creamy, layered, crumbly crust.

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 put on sprinkling the cake, so send the scraps to the oven along with the cakes), roll them out 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 rolled out the dough very thinly, so be careful not to overexpose!

Beer dough

Beer dough is the so-called false puff pastry, similar in technology to chopped dough. The cakes on such a dough are especially layered, bubbly, light. During baking, the smell of beer and alcohol "go away", 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.

Preparation
Mix flour with baking soda and salt, rub butter into ice cream, stir. When adding beer, quickly knead a dough that is elastic and not sticky to your hands.
Divide it into 8 parts, roll each into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap 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 just before serving. Light crunchy cakes appear on the table, melting in your mouth like a cloud.

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

Ingredients:
200 g cold butter
180 ml water
1 tbsp. l. vinegar 9%
1 egg
13 Art. l. with a "heap" of flour

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

Further - the most interesting: the dough should be beaten off. To do this, lift the finished lump with both hands to the level of the head (or higher) and throw it with force on the table. 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.

Divide into 8-9 parts and roll each into the thinnest rectangle possible. We cut off the excess immediately, striving to ensure that all the cakes are approximately the same size. We transfer 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 is definitely worth trying at least once. Please note that the cakes are very sweet - keep this in mind when choosing and preparing 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 is good to bake several portions of 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 tbsp. l. soda;
1 glass of honey;
5 glasses of flour.

Preparation:
Mix eggs, honey, sugar and soda, add flour and knead a thick dough. Now - the most interesting thing: hiding it in a plastic bag, we leave it for two days (or more) at room temperature. After that, we divide 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 slightly brown) at a temperature of 180 degrees.

Cakes for "Napoleon" on curd dough

Soft, delicate cakes with light flakiness. Suitable for lovers of wet custard cakes. Take into account that there are a lot of cakes, and they require a sufficient amount of lubrication, so boil the cream from about 1 liter of milk - you will not go wrong.

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

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

Cream for cake "Napoleon"

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

After the cakes are ready, cook or whisk 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 the preferences of your family.

Custard (milk)

There are a great variety of custard recipes 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, prepare new and new cakes and creams, fantasize and come up with something of your own, unusual and best.

Here's my own version of the custard - found after hundreds of experiments, trial and error. It is delicious, tender and light.

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

Preparation:
Mix sugar with flour, add eggs, grind into a homogeneous mass.
Pour hot milk in a thin stream, stir well, and then put on minimum heat and cook until puffing, stirring the cream with a spoon.
After cooling, add milk to the softened butter in very small portions (literally on a spoon), grind with a spoon until completely homogeneous or beat until smooth.

Butter cream

The richest option. Heavy, high-calorie, solid, but really, what a delicious Napoleon comes out with this cream! Present!

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

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

Beat the butter at room temperature 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 tbsp. L.), Citrus essence, vanilla.

Custard cream with curd note

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

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

Preparation:
Mix sugar with yolks and grind until smooth.
Add flour, stir, slowly pour in milk, stir again and put the saucepan on minimum heat - stirring constantly, cook until it thickens and begins to "puff". When the mass has cooled, add the cream cheese and beat until smooth.

Cream on white chocolate

What to say? The richest cream! For my taste, it is heavy and somewhat intrusive, however, I must admit that in a company with puff pastry, it is ideal.

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

Preparation:
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 chopped chocolate into pieces. Stir until the chocolate is completely dissolved and, covered with cling film, leave to cool completely.
Put butter at room temperature in the cream and beat with a mixer until fluffy.

The simplest cream with cream

The simplest cream that is easy to prepare and delicious to eat. The pitfall - 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 flavoring, you can add vanilla, citrus essence, a couple of drops of rum, brandy or orange liqueur.

Ingredients:
0.5 l heavy cream;
1 cup powdered sugar.

Whip the cream until fluffy. Around the middle of the process, add the icing sugar a little at a time. The cream should be voluminous and stable.

Variants are possible!

Below I will tell you why "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 Lagupierre's theory, claim that Napoleon can be refined by hiding the uneven edges of the cake layers under a layer of cream. Cover the freshly baked layers of dough with a mold (large plate) and cut them off, giving the desired shape. Do not give the pruning to anyone, drive away the people with a large towel - it is these crumbs-pieces that need to be dried, chopped with a rolling pin, and then used as a sprinkle on the cake.

Interlayers 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 a berry layer. Between two layers on the cream, or even instead of cream, apply a little currant puree, grated blueberries with sugar, strawberry jam, cranberry jam, lemon curd. A sour berry is most suitable - it skillfully neutralizes the sugar of the cream, turning the cake into an ideal composition of crispness, sweetness and sourness.

Very interesting "Napoleon" looks with an interlayer of fruit with a rich taste. Try feijoa puree in fall, and experiment with kiwi in winter. In the spring, you can boil the apple cubes a little and mix them with caramel sauce, and in the summer you should definitely chop the 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, the diameter of which repeats the diameter of the cake. It turns out fresh and very bright!

Additional accents

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

Chocolate, for my personal taste, does not fit into "Napoleon", however, many add it to the cream and to the dough, and sprinkle it on top in the form of a crumb. If a huge number of people do this, does it mean it's delicious?

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

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

Meringue is 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 spend time making meringues at home, you can use purchased ones.

A separate large block can be distinguished savory "Napoleons" - there are many options for puff pastry-based snack cakes, 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

For me, there is no greater pleasure than lighting a candle, taking an interesting book, brewing aromatic tea, cutting off a small piece of puff cake with an elegant dessert fork and sending it into 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, rain is beating outside the window, the houses are cozy and warm. There is almost a whole "Napoleon" on the platter, next to it is a huge teapot with tea. Probably, many years ago the great Emperor felt almost as good - he was sitting in his palace, in the fireplace the fire licked the heels of the wood, and the air smelled of calm, and there were unhurried conversations. Napoleon leaned over to one of his wife's ladies-in-waiting, whispering something to her - she blushed, embarrassed, smiled coquettishly. However, this is where Napoleon's pleasure, unlike mine, ends - the doors of the living room opened, and an angry Josephine appeared on the threshold, not without reason. I had to answer - without making any excuses (the best tactic of battle 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 simply impossible to keep up with the jealous wife, so I had to describe a hastily concocted fantasy, which the retinue immediately picked up, wrote down, and the court chef 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 to celebrate the centenary of the victory over Bonaparte. Whether in jest or in earnest, the chefs decided to prepare triangular cakes - supposedly symbolizing the famous headdress of the emperor. Unfortunately, it is impossible to prove this version, because Russia does not have a patent for the recipe for "Napoleon", however, the theory exists, and it is absurd 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 situation when Bonaparte's troops retreated, being in the area of \u200b\u200bthe small Italian town of Marengo. The emperor was angry and annoyed and did not hold back, ripping his emotions on those around him. A favorite chef got into a hot hand - he cooked a chicken that Napoleon hated, although there was simply nothing else in the neighborhood ... The next day brought unexpected surprises - a sudden reinforcement arrived in the person of Marshal Deset and his troops, the course of the battle changed dramatically, and Bonaparte returned to France the winner.

On Christmas Day, the emperor called his devoted chef: “Today I will have dinner with a lady. I want you to make that delicious Marengo chicken and something amazing for dessert - Josephine de Beauharnais loves sweets. " Lagupierre smiled, accepting the general's devious apology, and went into the kitchen.

The table was served with excellent chicken in green sauce, gourmet appetizers and salads, and for dessert there was a cake with many layers. The thin cakes were casually smeared with cream so that the sides of the cake remained uncovered. Frowning, Napoleon demanded an explanation. Lagupierre was ready:
- History is cyclical. These layers symbolize the fact that events change each other, but the spiral of life will sooner or later return to the previous round. I didn’t cover my sides with cream to remember this simple truth.
- Are you talking about Marengo? The emperor asked.
Henri Lagupierre nodded his head, and the cake has since entered the world's 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 milfey (the name translates as "a thousand petals") is the closest relative of "Napoleon". Puff pastry, custard - don't you think there are similarities?

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