In the Soviet Union, and later in the post-Soviet space, this cake broke records of popularity compared to any other dessert. At least in many families, Napoleon cake is the most festive option. It is traditionally baked for holidays or birthdays.

Initially, the classic Napoleon was puff pastry cakes with custard. By the way, such a “thousand-layer” dessert is still baked in France. Today we will look at this recipe. But most of all I want to show you my Napoleon cake from my childhood. I hope someone likes it.

Zealous Soviet housewives have greatly simplified the cake. They changed to a simpler and faster version with cold chopped butter. In it, the layered structure is achieved due to the large number of cakes. Also, custard is often replaced with condensed milk.

Soviet-style cakes taste just as good. The search for options to simplify and reduce the cost of the cake has given rise to a huge number of recipes that can be found on the Internet. What’s more, there are even no-bake versions of the Napoleon cake, so you can choose any of them to your taste.

A little about the history of the famous dessert

The origin of the name of this cake has already acquired a whole bunch of legends, and many associate it with Napoleon Bonaparte, in honor of the victory over which this dessert was baked. When serving, it was cut into triangles, which supposedly symbolized the cocked hat of soldiers. But it's not.

Moreover, a puff pastry cake with custard was invented several centuries before the birth of Napoleon himself. However, the French really came up with it. It was the French confectioner who first thought of wrapping butter in a layer of dough and rolling it out many times, getting a puff texture.

This confectioner went to improve his knowledge in Naples, where his recipe was stolen in a banal way. But the invention of the cake does not end there, because the first idea to smear puff pastry cakes with custard came to the mind of Neapolitan confectioners. So, the dessert was called Neapolitan. Under this name, it was prepared in many European countries, including Russia.

So what does Napoleon have to do with it?

For the ears of the inhabitants of the Russian Empire, the names "Neapolitan" and "Napoleon" sounded about the same, so the triangular cake changed its name and became very popular. However, its popularity soon faded away, since cunning restaurateurs, serving an expensive dessert to tipsy merchants, shamelessly saved on food.

In Soviet times, this cake was the pinnacle of the confectionery art of many housewives. It was indeed a feat to bake it, especially given the food shortage, when it was very difficult to find high-quality butter. Maybe that's why the birthday cake from my childhood was so delicious.

Never replace butter with margarine!

Serving such a dish to the table has always met with a stir, and the guests meticulously counted the number of layers. The more there were and the thinner they were, the more compliments the hostess received.

Today we have the opportunity to bake homemade Napoleon cake from ready-made puff pastry. But I want to show you a quick way to prepare the dough. Try it and make sure that there will be no less layers in it than in the purchased one.

What you need for cakes:

Cooking:

1. For the preparation of quick puff pastry, only chilled ingredients are used. Therefore, before starting cooking, place butter and water in the freezer. Yes, and the flour does not hurt to hold in the freezer for half an hour.

2. First, sift the flour and grate the frozen butter. Pour a mixture of water and vinegar into the resulting mass.

Depending on the quality of the flour, the amount of liquid that the dough will take may be different. Therefore, do not pour out all the water at once.

According to the recipe, the liquid must be added to the flour mixture in portions, gently mixing the ingredients to obtain an elastic dough.

3. We roll the resulting dough into a bar, wrap it in cellophane and place it in the freezer for half an hour.

Cream preparation:

4. If all the products are cold for the test, then the opposite is true for the cream. Remove milk, eggs and butter from the refrigerator in advance and let them lie down at room temperature for several hours.

5. Preparation of the cream begins with mixing the ingredients. We put regular and vanilla sugar in a container, beat in the eggs. Beat everything well, adding flour. Now carefully introduce a glass of milk without stopping stirring with a whisk.

6. Grind the contents of the pan until smooth and heat over low heat. As it heats up, add the remaining milk and prepare the cream, gently stirring it until it thickens. In the cooled mass, we introduce whipped butter.

To prevent the cream from burning, you can put the pan not on fire, but in a water bath. This is exactly what you should do if you are preparing the cream for the first time.

A water bath will allow you not to constantly watch the cream, but to knead the dough in parallel. This will also save time.

7. We take out the chilled dough and divide it into the required number of parts. Their number can be either 6 or 8. It depends on the diameter of the future cake. At this stage, turn on the oven to heat up.

8. Roll each piece of dough into a thin layer and immediately cut it to size. To do this, you can use an ordinary plate.

9. Cakes are baked at a temperature of 200 degrees. within 5-10 minutes. It will not take too long to bake the cakes, because while one cake is baking, the next one can already be rolled out. We also bake the dough scraps after the cakes. They will be needed to make crumbs.

10. Lubricate the finished cakes with cream and form a cake. We cover the top and sides with the rest of the cream and sprinkle them with crumbs - it is in this form that we all know this famous dessert.

If desired, you can additionally sprinkle the cakes with nuts, pieces of fruit.

Alternatively, you can add pureed prunes, orange juice, cocoa, or another flavoring additive to the custard, which will provide a pleasant nuance in the classic buttercream.

Classic Napoleon at home

The classic Napoleon is still being prepared from. It will have to be prepared by yourself. This option is not for lazy housewives, since puff pastry is quite capricious and will take time. Since after each rolling out the dough must be sent to the refrigerator.

To speed up the process, you can buy ready-made puff pastry and bake cakes from it. It will take much less time, and the result will be almost the same. I will make a reservation right away that the dough should be bought only from trusted manufacturers.

This video walks you through the steps of making a classic cake from scratch, just in case you decide to spend a whole day making a great dessert.

Quick no-bake cake

We will make this super fast cake from ready-made cookies. Let's just make the custard. Although, even it can be replaced with condensed milk. Instead of kneading dough and baking cakes, we bought half a kilo of puff pastry "ears". And now I'll show you how to make a cake out of them.

The popularity of no-bake cakes is undeniable, since such recipes guarantee success and do not require much time.

And although it will not be a real Napoleon cake, it is certainly his close relative.

What you need:

From these ingredients, 1 kg of cream is obtained. It is quite enough to assemble a quick, puff cake from 0.5 kg. puff "ears". And no one will forbid us to call him Napoleon.

Cooking:

1. Preparation of the cream begins with mixing eggs, sugar and starch - mix all the ingredients until smooth.

2. At this time, milk must be poured into a saucepan and put on a small fire to warm it up.

3. Then, in small portions, pour hot milk into the egg-sugar-starch mixture. Gently mix the future cream so that lumps do not form. It is necessary to stir the resulting mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.

4. After that, pour the semi-finished product back into the saucepan and put on fire. Stir the mixture constantly.

To prevent the cream from burning, the fire should first be medium, and then the smallest.

5. As it heats up, it begins to thicken. Look at the photo for the result. This is how thick cream should be brewed.

6. After removing the cream from the heat, you need to cool it a little and add softened butter - mix the mixture with a mixer until smooth.

7. Whip 200 grams of cream in a separate container until a stable foam is obtained. Next, the brewed cream and cream must be combined. Mix them together and get the custard Plombir

8. The cream keeps its shape perfectly and has a smooth, uniform structure, and tastes like creamy ice cream. Hence the name Plombir.

9. To assemble the housewife's cake, special culinary talents are not required - just put the cookies on a plate, smearing each layer with a portion of the cream.

10. Do not forget about the design, so we grease the sides and top of the cake with the rest of the cream and sprinkle it with crumbs.

There is one nuance in the preparation of this dessert: the classic version of making Napoleon involves the combination of unsweetened cakes and a fairly sweet cream. In our quick recipe, the ears themselves are sweet, so the amount of sugar in the cream is less than in the classic recipe. Otherwise, the cake will be too sugary.

11. It will take no more than an hour to prepare such a cake, while most of this time will be spent on preparing custard. We leave the finished cake for impregnation for at least 3-4 hours, after which you can start tasting.

In fact, the resulting dessert only remotely resembles the classic Napoleon.

Such a cake is a great option for those who do not want to mess around with the oven and baking cakes. This is especially true in hot weather.

The same French cake Mille Feuille or "1000 layers"

If you want to try the same dessert that became the prototype of the well-known puff pastry Napoleon cake, follow the instructions from this video. It seems to be both a classic dough and a creamy cream, but the result is still noticeably different. It is this cake that is prepared in all pastry shops in France.

After such a solemn dessert, I have nothing more to say about Napoleon cakes. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments below the article.

Thanks to everyone who cooked with me today!

This Napoleon cake recipe is my favorite. Delicate, not sugary cream, with a pleasant aroma and delicious puff cakes. I tried a lot of recipes - cakes on beer, on sour cream, made them in a pan and even tried store-bought ones. But it was this dough that made me forget about all my previous attempts to find the perfect Napoleon cake recipe at home.

If you follow all the recommendations for cooking, then the result will pleasantly surprise you and exceed all your expectations.
Adviсe:
1. All products and accessories must be well chilled and even from the freezer (butter, flour, water, eggs, grater, rolling pin, etc.).
2. Grate the butter only on a coarse grater, by no means crush it with your hands and grind it in a blender. You will not get puff cakes.
3. Gather the dough into a ball and knead a little with your hands, not letting the butter melt. The dough for the Napoleon cake must be kept in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or even more.

Total cooking time - 11 hours 35 minutes
Active cooking time - 1 hour 35 minutes
Cost - 7 $
Calorie content per 100 gr - 344 kcal
Number of servings - 14 servings

How to make Napoleon cake

Dough Ingredients:

Water - 220-230 ml.(icy)
Egg - 1 pc.
Butter - 400 g.
Vinegar - 2 tbsp.(apple, 6%)
Salt - 0.5 tsp
Flour - 500 g.

cream ingredients:

Flour - 2 tbsp.
Egg - 2 pcs.
Vanilla sugar - 2 tsp
Sugar - 140 g.
Milk - 400 ml.
Cognac - 1 tbsp.
Butter - 160 g.

Cooking:

Sift cold flour and salt onto a cold cutting board. Take the butter out of the freezer. You need to act quickly, the hand freezes from everything cold. Grate the butter on a grater (using a large nozzle). I prefer to do this with a glove, so the oil slips less in my hand. In order for the grater not to stick and the oil to rub well, I advise you to periodically dip a piece in flour.

Mix the grated mass with light movements and make a funnel in it.
Crack an egg into a measuring cup, pour in apple cider vinegar and bring to the 250 ml mark with ice water. Mix everything thoroughly with a whisk. Pour the liquid in small portions into the butter-flour mixture.

Gently fold the batter together (kneading lightly) to form into a stick or ball. Wrap a piece of dough in a bag (you can use cling film) and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Such puff pastry can be prepared at home for the future, freeze it and use it on occasion. It is perfect not only for the Napoleon cake, but also for sweet and savory pies, buns, puffs, croissants with all kinds of fillings.

Pour milk into a saucepan or saucepan. Part (half a cup) pour without bringing to a hot state. We will still need it. Bring the rest of the milk that is left in the pan to a boil. Add both types of sugar, stir the mass thoroughly until the grains completely disappear. You can give the cream a different taste. Make it classic by adding half a vanilla bean to the milk while boiling (be sure to strain the milk afterwards to get rid of the black vanilla seeds); citrus fruits - grate the zest removed from one orange or lemon into milk; almond - when whipping butter with custard, add finely chopped, roasted and peeled almonds. In this case, the cake can be decorated with almond petals, not crumbs. In the meantime, gently mix 2 tablespoons of wheat flour and eggs (be careful, there should be no lumps), adding a little of the set aside milk.
Pour the egg-milk mixture into the boiling milk with a thin string, stirring constantly with a whisk. Boil the cream until bubbles appear, without allowing it to boil. Cover the finished cream with a film (so that a crust does not form) and leave it to cool completely.

Beat soft butter (room temperature) with a mixer until white and gradually add a tablespoon of cream without turning off the mixer. At the end, add a spoonful of cognac and beat well again. The finished cream should be smooth, light and fluffy.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Cut it into equal pieces and roll out 3 mm thick according to the dimensions of a given shape. In several places, prick a layer of dough with a knife or fork so that the cakes do not swell during baking. Put parchment on a baking sheet (do not grease with oil), put the cake and send to bake at 200″ for about 7-8 minutes.
It is normal for the cakes to shrink in size during baking.
Use all the dough for cakes, and roll out the thinnest layer from scraps and leftovers, bake in the oven. It will be necessary to make crumbs from it to decorate the cake.

Form a cake from the cooled cakes. Cream evenly cover all layers of the cake, top and sides. Sprinkle the cake with crushed crumbs.

Take the finished product to a cool place, leave for 6-8 hours. I advise you to cover the cake with cling film so that the top of the cake is not too dry.
The longer the cake is left to soak, the tastier it is. Sprinkle the finished cake with powdered sugar. Cut the Napoleon cake into portions with a sharp knife.

Cake "Napoleon" - a bit of history or why this cake is named after Napoleon Bonaparte

One of the versions of its creation is that it was baked in 1912 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Russia's victory over the French. Not without reason, cakes are served triangular - in the shape of a commander's hat.

However, let's digress from history and start preparing the legendary Napoleon cake dessert at home. Our recipes will help you cope easily and with pleasure!

Cake Napoleon: "Family Tradition"

Cakes:
3 cups flour, 250g margarine, 3/4 cup water (very cold!), 0.5 tsp. slaked soda.

Sift the flour into a large bowl, put 1 pack of margarine in it (let it stand for at least half an hour at room temperature) and chop the flour with margarine with a spatula into small crumbs.

Now add water and knead with your hands, at the end add 0.5 teaspoon of soda slaked with vinegar and after that knead a little, in a bowl and in the refrigerator for an hour; let him rest.

Custard for cake:

1. we take 2 packs of cream (10%), in a saucepan, there a glass of sugar and stirring to bring to a boil.
2. Separately, in a mug, mix a little more than 1 tbsp. l. flour and 1.5 tbsp. spoons of starch, gradually pour one packet of cold cream into it (i.e., in total, three packets of 200 ml are obtained) so that the mixture is well kneaded without lumps.
3. Pour this starch-flour mixture into boiling milk with sugar, you can not boil it, but remove it from the stove for the duration of the infusion so that it doesn’t run away anywhere. Pour in according to the principle of cooking semolina - in a thin stream, stirring constantly (Very important!); otherwise lumps form and then the cream failed! The appearance and density are obtained like semolina. Cool the cream.
4. In a chilled (at room temperature) cream, mix a pack (250) of butter (previously softened at room temperature). First mix in a quarter of the oil, beat at low speed with a mixer, then add more and more and beat well (but do not over-beat) the cream will turn out to be quite airy.

Let's go back to the test:

• Divide the dough into 7 pieces.
• Roll a piece into a ball, roll it thinly into a circle on a floured table.
• Measure with a lid (or something else) and transfer with a rolling pin to a baking sheet (I don’t grease it with anything), prick with a fork and put in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 4-5 minutes. (until it begins to brown, pull out onto a board, and put the next bake.
• Set aside the two best cakes for the top and bottom. The worst goes to the top.

Further, a non-classical approach to Napoleon (but our family recipe; I have no right to retreat!). We take a glass of walnuts (or more) and chop (but not very much, the pieces should remain). Grind the crust for sprinkling.

Now how do I do:

1. I lay out all the cakes on the table and spread the cream on them (in order to distribute them evenly), on average, two or three tablespoons each.
2. We add: cake with cream, nuts, cake; at the end, sprinkle with nuts and sprinkles (you can dry the cake for sprinkling a little more in the oven; just so that it doesn’t burn).
3. Gently press the cake on top with your hands and leave at room temperature for 4-5 hours, then refrigerate.

The cake in our family is very popular - everyone loves both ours and strangers (guests in the sense). It turns out creamy; but the fat content of the cake is not felt at all!
True, it is difficult for me to evaluate it myself; Still, for me it is a taste familiar from childhood, from Soviet times.

Cake Napoleon: 2nd recipe

500 g butter, 4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup cold water.

Cake Napoleon: 3rd recipe

3 cups flour, 1 egg, 250 g butter, 0.5 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon vinegar.

Pour two cups of flour onto a board and chop with butter, build a mound out of the resulting mass and gradually pour water and an egg into its center, with salt and vinegar mixed in it.
Knead the dough by adding the remaining flour. Then divide the resulting dough into 8-9 parts. Put in the cold for 1 hour, roll into cakes.

Cake Napoleon: 4 recipe

I met the Slovak version of Napoleon, who is known there as Kremesh. The cream is like a variation of custard, the composition is slightly different - starch-milk. And one more thing - since the Slovak cream keeps its shape better due to starch, they make it and put much more.
First, 1 pound (roughly speaking, half a kilo) of ready-made puff pastry is baked for 10-15 minutes. The dough is rolled out to the size of the pan.

Creams: 2 liters of milk, 8 eggs, divided into whites and yolks, 14 tablespoons of powdered sugar (400 g), cornstarch 200 g

How to make cream cake

1. Boil approximately 1.5 liters of milk with 7 -8 table. powder spoons.
2. Mix the remaining milk and beat with 8 yolks and all the starch.
3. Add this mixture to boiling milk and let it boil for 30 seconds - 1 minute with constant stirring.
4. All 8 egg whites beat with 8 table. tablespoons of sugar, adding it gradually as you beat.
5. Pour the boiling milk mixture into the whipped proteins and mix with a spoon.
6. Cut the baked and cooled dough into 2 parts along the length (lid and bottom) and put cream between them.

From above, as far as I remember, it was not smeared. I did 1 time - not very difficult. If you do it together, it turns out quickly and without hassle. The taste of the cream is lighter than that of creamy, it is airy, high.

Cake Napoleon: 5 recipe "Honey Napoleon"

For cakes: 4 eggs, 4 cups flour, 4 tablespoons honey, 150g butter, 1 cup sugar, 1.5 teaspoons soda quenched with vinegar.
Cream: 1l 250g thick sour cream, 1.5 cups powdered sugar, 1 lemon.

Melt honey, sugar and butter in a water bath, cool slightly and beat in the eggs. Add quenched soda, flour and knead the dough. It turns out oily. Divide into 10 koloboks and put in the refrigerator (can be in the freezer). While the dough hardens, prepare the cream.

Grate the lemon on a fine grater along with the peel (whoever does not like her bitterness can cut off the crust). Beat sour cream with powdered sugar with a mixer, add grated lemon. Whisk again and place in the refrigerator. Now we take out one piece of dough, roll out thin cakes on baking paper, pierce with a fork and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees until golden brown.
It is better to make cakes thin - then they are better saturated. The crumbs are dried, crushed and sprinkled over the whole cake. But the taste is equally tender, and melts in your mouth.

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

The 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 - 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 bowels (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 stand 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. Put a small (about 1 kg) load on the board and put it in the refrigerator for several hours, preferably at night.

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 vanilla 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 off 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! Fantasy…

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 soda with 6% vinegar (or add baking powder for dough), mix ice water with an 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 so. 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 🙂

When I first tried the Napoleon cake, I fell in love with it once and for all. The hostess who prepared this delicious and delicate dessert shared the recipe. Since then, I myself have spoiled my family with this culinary masterpiece.

This cake is easy to prepare, no special skills are required, but it takes a lot of time to make if you make the classic puff pastry yourself. Therefore, several times I bought "Napoleon" in the store. However, store-bought cake has never tasted better than homemade.

Then I found other recipes where the dough cooks faster and is not inferior to the classic version in taste, and today I also want to offer them to you.

Before jumping into the recipes, let's look at some tips to keep in mind when making puff pastry at home.

How to cook a Napoleon cake at home quickly and tasty - useful tips

• If you replace margarine with butter in the recipe, the cake will be tastier.
• If you used all the flour according to the recipe, and the dough continues to stick to your hands, then add a little more flour. It won't ruin the dough.
• The water must be cold when kneading the dough.
• To make the cakes more airy and tender, add a tablespoon of vodka or cognac to the dough.

• It is convenient to roll out cakes on baking paper and bake on it. So that the cakes do not swell too much, it is recommended to pierce them with a fork in several places before the oven.
• If the cakes are supposed to be round, then cut them raw in a round pattern, for example, on a plate. Bake the cake together with the scraps, which will then be used to prepare the sprinkles of the cake.
• You can also roll out the dough between two layers of baking paper, also pierce the cake with a fork through the paper and place everything together in the oven. In this case, you will have to cut the finished cake, and be careful, as the edges will break easily.
• When assembling the cake, each cake is generously smeared with cream. This must be done carefully to keep it airy. Let stand for half an hour, and then cover the top cake with baking paper and lightly press down with something flat, for example, a flat plate. Since the cakes managed to soak a little cream in half an hour, they will no longer break, but the surface of the cake will become even. We remove the paper, grease the top layer with more cream and sprinkle the finished cake with crumbs.
• In order for our "Napoleon" to be completely saturated with cream and acquire a delicate taste, it must be put in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours.

The most delicious cake comes from the hostess, who prepares it with pleasure and love.

How to make puff pastry

The classic recipe for "Napoleon" involves the use of classic puff pastry. Making such a dough at home is not difficult, but tedious, because the whole procedure will take several hours.

Now this process can be accelerated by buying puff pastry in the store. However, I will say again that do-it-yourself dough cakes will be tastier and more magnificent.

Try it and see for yourself.

Ingredients:

• 2 whole eggs and 2 yolks
• salt - 1.5 tsp
• water - 320 ml
• 1 teaspoon citric acid + 2 teaspoons warm water
• vodka - 50 ml.
• sunflower oil - 50 ml.
• butter - 800 gr.
• flour - 700-800 gr. (how much dough will take)

How to cook puff pastry is still better to watch than to read. Therefore, we suggest watching this video to help you.

In Soviet times, every self-respecting housewife knew how to bake "Napoleon". And the dough for him was necessarily a real puff. We learned how to cook it from the above video. Now from this dough we will bake cakes.

But first, let's prepare a classic cream.

Cream Ingredients:

• milk - 3 cups
• sugar - 1.5 cups
• eggs - 4 pcs
• butter - 250 gr
• flour - 4 tbsp

Pour milk into a saucepan and add sugar to it. Mix well and put on fire, stirring occasionally. Our task: to heat the milk and dissolve the sugar in it.

Never boil!

While the milk is heating, lightly beat the eggs in a bowl.

Add flour to eggs and mix well.

Now, from a saucepan with well-heated milk (but not boiled!) We scoop a ladle and pour hot milk into a bowl with a mixture of eggs and flour. Mix well and repeat the procedure 2 more times.

We put the saucepan with milk again on the stove over a very slow fire. Whisking constantly, pour the mixture from the bowl into the milk. Continuing to stir, cook it all until it thickens. It should turn out such a gentle and beautiful cream.

Take the saucepan off the fire. Take a clean bowl and pour the resulting cream into it. Add the oil and beat it directly into the hot cream with a whisk to make it homogeneous and glossy.

To prevent a film from forming on the cream, cover it with cling film on top and set to cool to room temperature.

While the cream is cooling, we will bake cakes. To begin with, divide the finished puff pastry into 10-14 parts and roll each part thinly. It is convenient to do this on parchment, and put plastic wrap on top of the dough.

Then we remove the film, and cut the dough in a circle. We bake the trimmings together with the cakes.

To prevent the cake from bubbling while baking, prick it with a fork.

We stack the finished cakes in a pile and prepare to coat them with cream.

We generously coat each cake, as well as from above and from the sides.

Grind the dough scraps and sprinkle the cake on top, you can also from the sides. Let the cake soak for 10-12 hours in the refrigerator, and then cut into pieces and enjoy the taste.

Cake "Napoleon" with custard at home

This recipe is also very popular. It takes less time to prepare the dough in this version, but the taste does not suffer from this.

Dough Ingredients:

• flour - 3 cups
• margarine - 250 gr
• eggs - 1 pc.
• water - 2/3 cup
• vinegar - 1 tablespoon

Cream Ingredients:

• milk - 3 cups
• sugar - 1.5 cups
• eggs - 4 pcs
• butter - 250 gr
• flour - 4 tbsp

Sift the flour into a bowl and rub the chilled margarine there. Margarine can even be frozen before rubbing.

Gently mix everything with a knife to a large crumb.

Separately stir the egg.

In the same container, add water, vinegar and mix everything well.

We make a hole in the flour and gradually pour the resulting mixture of egg, water and vinegar into it.

We knead the steep dough, divide it into 10-11 parts and send it to the refrigerator.

While the dough is resting, prepare the cream. Beat not until foam, but simply until smooth, eggs and sugar.

Then add milk, whisk again and pour the flour here. Now you don’t need to beat, just mix everything well with a fork.

We put on a slow fire, cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

Remove the cream from the heat, add the butter and mix well again. The cream is ready, send it to cool.

While the cream was being prepared, our dough had a rest and was ripe for working with it. Place each piece of dough on parchment paper and roll out thinly.

Cut on a plate.

We prick with a fork so that bulges do not form.

Bake with scraps.

Finished cakes are generously smeared with cream.

Grind the scraps with your hands or a pusher, coat the cake on the sides and sprinkle with crumbs on all sides.

After 10-12 hours in the refrigerator, the cake will be soaked with cream and such a beautiful piece itself asks to be put into the mouth.

Recipe for the classic Napoleon cake with condensed milk cream

It is believed that the classic cream for Napoleon cake is custard. But housewives love to experiment, and one day, one of them tried to make cream from condensed milk. It turned out that it is faster and no less tasty. We suggest you try to cook a cake with such a cream.

Dough Ingredients:

• flour - 600 gr + 200 gr for rolling
• butter or margarine - 350 gr
• egg - 2 pcs
• sugar - 60 gr
• salt - a pinch
• vinegar 9% - 1 tbsp
• cold water - 150 ml

Cream Ingredients:

• soft butter - 100 gr
• condensed milk -350 gr

Knead the dough: mix cold butter with flour.

In a bowl, beat (not foamy) the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, water, vinegar and mix everything well with a whisk. Add sugar and mix again until smooth.

Gradually pour the resulting mixture into a bowl with flour and butter and mix.

Put the resulting dough in the refrigerator for 1.5 hours.

After an hour and a half, the rested dough is taken out of the refrigerator, divided into 9 parts.

We roll out one part thinly, and at this time let the rest wait for their turn in the refrigerator.

Cut the cake in a circle using a plate.

We prick the dough with a fork so that it does not swell in the oven.

Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes at a temperature of 230-250 degrees.

Now it's time to make the cream, let the cakes cool for now.

Put softened butter in a bowl and beat well with a mixer. Continuing to beat, in small portions add condensed milk (not boiled). It turns out a very airy gentle cream. And it takes very little time to prepare.

In the meantime, the cakes have cooled down and are ready to be smeared with a sweet and delicate cream.

We make crumbs from the scraps of dough, sprinkle the cake on top and sides with it, and put our finished culinary miracle in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours, so that the cakes are well saturated, become tender and just melt in your mouth. Now our task is to make sure that none of the household, unable to withstand the expectations, cuts off a piece of cake ahead of time.

Cake "Napoleon" from ready-made puff pastry - a simple recipe with a photo

We have already told you that a cake baked at home is always tastier than a store-bought one. But now, if you buy puff pastry in a store, and bake a cake at home and make the cream yourself, then such a “Napoleon” will also be very tasty. We offer you another recipe by which you can quickly prepare this delicious dessert.

Ingredients:

• ready-made puff pastry without yeast - 5 pcs., 275g each
• milk - 1 liter
• vanilla sugar - 2 pcs
• sugar - 230g
• starch - 3 tablespoons
• eggs - 4 pcs
• butter - 100g

The recipe states that puff yeast-free dough packages weighing 275 grams are used. But in your store there may not be such packages, then buy as many packages of larger weight so that you can end up with 5 cakes of 250-275 g each.

We roll out 5 identical cakes, prick with a fork and bake in the oven at a temperature of 200 degrees until golden brown.

Cooking cream. Boil milk and pour vanilla sugar into it. Let's mix well.

Pour sugar, starch into another pan, add eggs and mix everything well.

Pour hot milk into the resulting mass, stirring constantly to obtain a homogeneous mass.

We put the resulting mixture on a slow fire, stir vigorously and cook until thickened.

Cool the cream to room temperature, add butter to it and beat well.

Four cakes are generously smeared with cream, it is convenient to smear the sides with a silicone brush.

Tear the fifth cake into small pieces with your hands.

Sprinkle these airy pieces of cake on all sides. We put it in the refrigerator so that the cakes are soaked. For beauty, you can sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Bon appetit!

The classic Napoleon cake recipe from Grandma Emma (video)

And another recipe for a classic cake. Grandmother Emma will tell about it and show all the stages of making a cake. You can trust her: like any housewife, she stood at the stove for many years, preparing food for the whole family. In addition, she cooks with such love that it is simply impossible for it to turn out tasteless.

See for yourself by watching the video.

Dough Ingredients:

• flour - 750 grams
• butter or margarine - 600 grams
• eggs - 2 pieces
• salt - 1 teaspoon
• vinegar 5-7% - 1.5 tablespoons
• water - approximately 220 milliliters

Cream Ingredients:

• milk - 1 liter
• sugar - 300 grams
• eggs - 4 pieces
• flour - 120 grams
• butter - 320 grams
• vanilla sugar - 10-15 grams
• powdered sugar for sprinkling - 3 tablespoons

No matter what recipe you like, your holiday table will be decorated with a culinary masterpiece, beautiful and tasty.

Be prepared for the fact that the guests will not praise you. They will simply forget to do it, all their attention will be captured by this indescribable pleasure of the delicate taste of the cake.

I was joking. Of course they will. Then, when not a crumb remains.

And you smile and invite them to visit again.

Bon appetit!