(old proven recipe)

Napoleon's homemade cake is perhaps the most delicious for me. The recipe for this Napoleon cake with custard, which was inherited from my grandmother, was sent to us by Olga Tulupova (unfortunately, no photo). But when I began to prepare it for release, it turned out that this old Napoleon cake recipe was known to me, for many years I have been baking it at home on major holidays.

Anyuta.

On the Internet, I met a myriad of recipes for the deservedly beloved Napoleon. I used to cook it often, but somehow the result was not pleasing. And there was a reason for that. Our family has a recipe for the most delicious Napoleon cake, which is over 60 years old. The recipe came from Grandma Anya. Due to numerous moves, the recipe was safely lost in the bowels of numerous things. Grandma is already 87 years old and she does not remember the recipe exactly. But then I accidentally found it - there was no limit to joy. As a child, it seemed fabulously tasty to me. And even now my opinion has not changed.

For the test you will need:

• 1 liter jar (as a measuring instrument)
• 1 cup 250 grams.
• 350 g margarine or butter
• liter jar of wheat flour,
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vinegar or vodka
• water.

Take a large bowl and chop the margarine with flour in it. I rub margarine on a grater and then grind it with flour until fine crumbs. I break an egg into an empty glass, add water so that there is a full glass, and a teaspoon of vinegar or vodka there. I mix and pour the flour with margarine with this mixture and continue to chop with a knife until smooth on the working surface.

Then I take out the dough for "Napoleon" for 40 minutes. to the cold.

Next, the ball of dough must be divided into parts for cakes. Grandma's recipe makes 7-8 donuts. I have 12 or more donuts. The amount may depend on the size of the pan.

Each Napoleon cake layer is thinly rolled out. Before baking the first donut, I grease the baking sheet with vegetable oil, this is enough (you can just lightly sprinkle with flour).

Thin cakes (donuts) for the Napoleon cake are baked quickly, so do not go far from the oven. After baking, immediately cut off the edges, giving the desired shape.

Then I collect the Napoleon puff cake, spreading cream on each donut. Decorate the Napoleon however you like.

Traditionally, I make crumbs from scraps and sprinkle the cake on top and sides.

Now about the cream. I use custard.

Custard for cake Napoleon

For the cream recipe we need:

• 2 glasses of milk
• 2 eggs,
• 1 st. l. flour,
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 250 gr. butter,
• vanilla sachet.

How to make custard

To avoid lumps, I beat the eggs with sugar with a mixer until the sugar dissolves, then add the flour, as in a biscuit. There is a little secret - before you add flour to the cream, you need to fry it a little in a pan without oil until light brown - this improves the taste of the cream. Add flour, milk. We mix.

We put the custard to cook on the stove, bring to a boil over low heat, stirring all the time so that there are no lumps. As the mass thickens, remove from heat.

Cool the custard in milk and eggs, add it in parts to the softened butter,

and again beat with a mixer until smooth.

To spice up the taste of the cream, you can add lemon or orange zest.

Let homemade Napoleon cake with custard soak for at least half a day.

Happy tea!

Another recipe:

The well-known and beloved Napoleon cake by far not everyone knows how to bake themselves. Some are afraid to mess with a difficult dessert, and in vain, because there is nothing difficult in preparing this wonderful cake, the main thing is to follow the recipe exactly and not be nervous.

Homemade cake Napoleon with custard

Butter for making dough should be well chilled, and for cream - at room temperature.

More sugar can be added to the cream, especially if you prefer very sweet desserts.

Wheat flour for cream can be replaced with a little more starch, corn or potato.

Required Ingredients:

• fresh egg - 1 pc.,
• cold water - 250 ml,
• salt - a pinch
• butter - 250 grams,
• wheat flour - 700 grams.

• milk - 1 liter,
• fresh eggs - 6 pcs.,
• vanillin - a pinch,
• granulated sugar - 250 grams,
• butter - 200 grams,
• wheat flour - 120 grams.

Description of the cooking process:

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the diced butter to it.

Using a sharp knife, chop the combined ingredients into a homogeneous crumb.

Add a raw egg and a pinch of salt to cold water, and then carefully beat everything with a fork into a homogeneous mass.

Pour the resulting mixture into the flour crumbs and quickly knead the dough, and it is better to do this not with a spoon, but with your hands.

Finish kneading the dough on a floured table. The finished dough should come together in one lump and absolutely not stick to your hands. Wrap it in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for a while.

For the cream, combine and beat eggs and granulated sugar into a fluffy mass.

Heat the milk on the stove in a large saucepan. Pour about 1 cup of it into the eggs, and then add vanillin and flour in several stages, working intensively all this time with a whisk.

The egg mass is very carefully introduced into the hot milk and, stirring constantly, continue to cook over low heat for about 20 minutes after boiling. The cream should become so thick that the spoon leaves a mark on its surface. Once this happens, put the custard in a cool place to cool completely.

In the meantime, divide the chilled dough into 8-9 parts, and roll each of them alternately into a thin cake and prick with a fork. You can do this both on a baking sheet and on parchment paper - depending on what shape the cake you have in mind. It is important that while one piece of dough is rolled out, the rest are in the refrigerator.

Bake the cakes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, which will take about 10 minutes for each cake.

Allow the finished cakes to cool, and while this is happening, beat the cold custard with soft butter into a homogeneous lush mass. In principle, if you like lighter desserts, then you can not add oil to the cream at all.

Put the first cake on a dish and very carefully coat it with cream.

From above, carefully place the second cake and continue the steps as many times as necessary.

Trim each of the cakes a little so that their shape is perfect, and use the resulting crumbs as a powder for the top of the cake.

You can cut the Napoleon cake and enjoy it no earlier than 6 hours after assembly, otherwise the cakes will not have time to soak properly. However, for the sake of such a perfect taste, you can suffer a little, because then the pleasure will be unforgettable.

Another Napoleon Cake Recipe

Ekaterina Marutova's recipe

I want to immediately note that the size of the cake was quite impressive, so if you do not need such a large cake, you can reduce the number of ingredients in the recipe for this homemade Napoleon cake by at least 2 times. The cake in the photo turned out to be the size of a large square baking sheet from the oven.

Required:

For test:

• flour - about 1 kg - from the refrigerator.
• margarine - 4 packs (200 gr each) - must lie in the freezer before cooking.
• eggs - 2 pcs. also chilled in the refrigerator.
• salt -1 tsp
• vinegar - 2 tbsp. l.
• cold water - approximately 400 ml (I will write why approximately, in the preparation itself).

Custard for Napoleon cake:

• milk - 4 cups.
• sugar - 1.5 cups.
• eggs - 4 pcs.
• flour - 4 tbsp. l.
• butter - 300 g.
• vanillin - 1 pack.
• powdered sugar - 2 tbsp. l.

How to make a Napoleon cake with custard

Let's make the dough first.

Sift about half of the flour on the table, and three whole margarine on a coarse grater (which should lie before use in the freezer). When three margarine, at the same time it must be sprinkled with flour. Having rubbed all the margarine, add the rest of the flour and mix quickly.

We mix eggs, vinegar and salt in a deep bowl or a large measuring cup (with milliliter marks) and add water so that the entire volume is 500 ml. That is why the Napoleon cake recipe itself, which I gave above, indicates the approximate amount of water. We do everything quickly.

Pour this mass into the margarine-flour mixture and try to knead the dough as quickly as possible. We divide the finished dough into 4 equal parts, put each in a separate bag and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

While our dough is in the refrigerator - cook custard with milk and butter to soak the Napoleon cake.

Pour the milk into a deep saucepan, bring to a boil, adding sugar.

Separately, you need to combine the eggs with flour and gradually add half of the hot milk with sugar there, mix until smooth.

Then quickly pour the remaining milk with sugar into the mass.

Mixing well, you need to bring the custard in milk to a boil and immediately turn it off. DO NOT boil!

The custard base for the cream is ready, it must be cooled before being combined with butter. Separately, you need to beat the softened butter, gradually add the cooled custard and vanilla to it.

When the time for the dough to stay in the refrigerator is up, take out one part, roll it out (sprinkling the table with flour) 4 mm thick.

We spread the homemade dough (very similar to puff pastry) on a baking sheet (which needs to be moistened a little from the edges), press the edges a little and make punctures with a fork in several places over the entire surface of the cake. This is necessary so that the cake does not swell.

We send the baking sheet to the oven, heated to 200 degrees. The beautiful ruddy color that you see will hint to you that the cake is ready. We take out the finished cake for the Napoleon cake, put it on a wooden board.

The rest of the cakes are baked in the same way.

When all the cake layers for the Napoleon cake are ready, you can collect our cake: if you baked a small cake for only 2 cake layers, then you need to cut each cake in half. If the cakes are not quite even, they need to be shaped by cutting them with a sharp knife. Trimmings will come in handy for sprinkling the cake.

We spread the first cake on a board or on a baking sheet and pour over the custard, evenly distributing it over the entire surface. We lay the second cake, press lightly and again coat with cream. So we do with all the cakes.

When the assembly is completed, we also carefully cover the top and sides with the remaining custard, grind the trimmings from the cakes in a mortar or with a blender and sprinkle the whole cake with crumbs.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar on top and decorate as desired. It is advisable to let the cake soak for several hours in the refrigerator.

We cut a delicious homemade Napoleon cake with custard into portioned pieces, put the kettle on and serve our sweet dessert to the table.

I have been baking "Napoleon" according to this recipe for 10 years and this cake has become my signature dish!!! Napoleon cake is always a holiday in our family! If someone has a different opinion regarding this famous dessert, I can say with full confidence that you have not tried the real Napoleon. All quick options from ready-made puff pastry are not even close to it. Delicious, but not the same.

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 puff cake with delicate custard will be self-cooking at home. Troublesome, but worth it!

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

For cooking, you will need very simple and affordable products:

Ingredients:

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

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

Cooking cakes:

Please note that the dough for the cake must be kneaded with a knife. So the cold butter will not melt from the heat of your hands and will take the amount of flour that is needed. Otherwise, by overdoing it with flour, you risk getting a very tough dough. Whereas, ideally, thin cakes should be crispy and at the same time tender.

Lightly freeze margarine or butter, so it will be easier to work with. Sift flour onto a work surface. In flour, you need to finely chop the frozen butter with a knife, sprinkling it from the edge to the center. As a result, you should get 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 recess in it and begin to add liquid from the jar.

Again, everything will need to be “chopped” with a large knife,

Those. You don't even have to get your hands dirty in the dough.

Pour the liquid mixture in parts until it runs out 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 should be divided into 16 equal lumps, laid on a board, wrapped with cling film or a bag, sent to the refrigerator for 20 - 30 minutes. Or lightly freeze 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 possible, literally translucent. Any form. It is easier to roll out rectangles to the size of the baking sheet. With round cakes it’s a little more difficult, they need to be cut in raw or finished form, and their number will turn out to be greater.

The dough is quite elastic, do not be afraid to tear it when transferring to a baking sheet. Even if this happens, there is nothing terrible in it. Cakes can be pricked with a fork in several places so that they swell less.

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

As a result, you should get 16 ruddy puff cakes of a rectangular shape or a little more round.

Custard preparation:

Look no further for a better recipe, I assure you, this one is perfect!

To prepare it, you need to beat chicken eggs and wheat flour in a deep cup until smooth. It's 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 in no case do not use an enameled 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 the hot milk with sugar in a thin stream. In the meantime, stir constantly. Cook the custard on a quiet fire with constant stirring.

Cook until puree. Cool the custard mixture to room temperature. Stir several times while cooling to prevent a crust from forming.

Butter must be taken out of the refrigerator in advance so that it becomes soft. Before you combine with the cream, the butter must be beaten until smooth.

Only then, in small portions, add the cooled cream to the oil. Not vice versa!

Beat with a mixer until smooth.

It remains only to collect our gorgeous cake.

Assembly:

I'll show you how to make sure that the cake plate remains clean during assembly. A sheet of baking paper - this little detail is a little secret of your accuracy. 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 to make the cake denser.

Repeat until all layers are laid. Don't 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 crumble 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 crumbs. My sides are not sprinkled with anything. In this crumb, you can already add chopped walnuts or chocolate grated into crumbs to your liking, this will not make the cake worse.

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

I think I convinced you that cooking 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 culinary specialists from 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 a vanilla slice, but in Italy and France you can order at any Millefeuille cafe and they will bring you a piece of airy multi-layered cake, known to you as Napoleon, by the way, in translation millefeuille means "thousand layers". But the 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 big fan of hitting on pretty girls. So one day, flirting with another cute 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, that, it turns out, from which the girl blushed so much! The wife pretended to believe her missus, but demanded proof. Bonaparte hastily dictated the cake recipe, a complete improvisation. Of course, Bonaparte's chef made some adjustments to the recipe. As a result, for breakfast, the spouses 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 loved 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 this cake will become your signature sweet dish, like mine. I have been baking it for over 10 years, and I thank Natalia Pyatkova for the recipe.

The simplest Napoleon cake is a festive dessert without the hassle and expenditure of energy and money. Appearance and taste captivate at first sight and bite. An amazing harmony of crispy dough and delicate cream that melts in your mouth, making you experience a special pleasure from an incredible meal.

Comments on the recipes for the simplest Napoleon cake

The greatest number of questions and complaints (did not work out, curled up, exfoliated) gets the cream. Custard is capricious and may not come out the first time. Therefore, if you are looking for the simplest version of the famous dessert, you should opt for recipes with other creams. There are many. And with them, the cake does not lose its taste.

• Soak the cake first at room temperature (two or three hours), then in the refrigerator (at least a day).
• Serve after the cake has warmed up for at least half an hour. So it will be more tender and airy, and not frozen.
• Dessert is served in a minimalist way: a piece of cake and a sprig of mint or a few fresh berries.
• It happens that Napoleons are sprinkled with nut, chocolate chips and decorated with berries. But this is already a departure from the classics. The cake is so self-sufficient that it does not need exquisite decor and extra embellishments.

Cream options for the simplest Napoleon cake at home

As already noted, let's call non-brewed compositions:

1. butter + condensed milk (detailed in the step-by-step recipe below or in another simple cake from);
2. whipped cream + boiled condensed milk (beat boiled condensed milk with a mixer and stir in whipped cream);
3. curd cheese (mascarpone, ricotta) + powdered sugar + sour cream ();
4. milk butter cream with cream cheese.

Recommendations for making cream with milk, butter and ricotta

• 1 st. milk;
• 3⁄4 tbsp sugar;
• 200 g butter;
• 100 g ricotta (sour cream 25% fat).

Heat the milk in a saucepan with granulated sugar until all grains of sand disappear (do not boil!). Wait for complete cooling.

Softened butter (left out of the refrigerator for more than three hours), beat with a mixer. Add a third of the chilled sweet milk, beat. Pour in half of the remaining mixture, beat. Add leftovers and beat again. You shouldn't hurry. It should take about five minutes to prepare the cream.

When the butter becomes tender, homogeneous and lush, you can add cheese. Mix with a whisk. If you use a mixer, the sauce may separate. Instead of sour cream, some people add sour cream. It doesn't affect the taste too much.

The simplest homemade Napoleon cake recipe has yet to be chosen and mastered. But with the cream it is already quite possible to decide. We recommend starting with simple options in order to be sure to be in a situation of success. After conquering the simplest recipes, you can also perform the custard version.

Custard for lovers of the classics

What do we take

• 5 st. milk;
• 2 chicken eggs;
• 250 g sugar;
• 2 g vanillin;
• 3 art. l wheat flour.

How do we cook

1. Heat half a liter of milk in a saucepan.
2. Pour vanillin, granulated sugar, beaten eggs, flour into the remaining 500 ml.
3. Beat everything together with a mixer.
4. In the boiling milk, add the beaten eggs with a thin stream. Cook, stirring, until it thickens. Five minutes is enough. The fire is not big and not small.
5. When it boils for another 1-2 minutes and that's it, turn off and transfer to a cold container.
6. When it becomes a little warm, you can use it to soak cakes baked according to one of the best recipes for a simple Napoleon cake.

There are few options for a simple basis, everything can be reduced to three ways:

• from ready-made puff pastry;
• from puff pastry (ears, tongues, etc.);
• from a sand base.

We will consider these recipes so that the hostess has the opportunity to choose the simplest Napoleons from the existing ones.

1. Number one - puff pastry

Defrost puff pastry according to the manufacturer's instructions. We roll out the factory rectangles to a thickness of 2 mm on a board sprinkled with flour. We bake the blanks on parchment laid in a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 250 degrees for 3-4 minutes. Reddened - it's time to get it.

We also bake all the dough. You can get more, and the cake in the end is thicker and more natural.

For the optimal height of the simplest Napoleon cake, we recommend taking two (one and a half) packs of 450 g dough.

Ready cakes are impregnated with one of the creams described above and left at room temperature for 3 hours. Then sprinkle with crumbs from one cake - and in the refrigerator for a day. Simple steps lead to great results.

2. Number two - a recipe for a lazy napoleon from cookies ears

Famous ears or puff sugar tongues (1 kg) are dipped in any of the above creams, folded into a slide or in layers. Coated with cream and sprinkled with cookie crumbs, nut sprinkles or chocolate. Cake Prague - recipe at home

Hooray! It is found - the easiest Napoleon cake recipe! Products - a minimum, labor - too, but there are no difficulties at all! According to this recipe, even a novice hostess can easily bake a delicious homemade Napoleon. Checked repeatedly - by my friends and by me personally!

I love Napoleon cake!! This is my favorite cake since childhood, and when I was little (and not so little, up to 20 years old for sure!) - I always asked my mother to cook this particular cake for my birthday! And now I delight my family with my favorite treat. Everyone in our family loves Napoleon, and I think that many readers agree that this is the most delicious cake in the world!

Only one moment - Napoleon seemed to me also one of the most difficult recipes. I tried several of them: starting from the classic, from homemade puff pastry, continuing with a simplified shortbread version - also tasty, but easier; and finishing with a quick puff pastry cake - with strawberries or cherries. All of these options are delicious and good in their own way. But once I was treated to a delicious, delicate cake, soaked in fragrant cream, sprinkled with delicate crumbs, and the cakes melted in my mouth!

And how I was surprised by the recipe for the simplest Napoleon with its minimalism. It turns out that the pinnacle of culinary skills and the crown of gourmet fantasies can be baked quickly and easily! I suggest you try it too! The cake is very big and delicious.

The volume of the glass is 200 ml, flour = 130g, sugar = 200g.

Ingredients:

For cakes:

• 3 cups flour (390-400 g);
• 250 g butter;
• 100 ml of water;
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.

For custard:

• 1 liter of milk;
• 2 eggs;
• 300 g sugar (1.5 cups);
• 2 sachets of vanilla sugar or a couple of pinches of vanillin;
• 2 heaping tablespoons of flour.

How to bake:

Knead the dough for the cakes: after sifting the flour into a bowl, grate cold butter on a coarse grater.

Grind with hands into crumbs and pour in cold water.

We quickly knead the dough with our hands and blind it into a lump - well, let it be heterogeneous, the main thing is that it is stuck together! You don’t need to add a lot of flour, for example, you can put a lot of flour in excess of the norm, but flour can be different; at first it seems that the dough is sticky, but then you will realize that the dry and liquid ingredients are just in balance.

Having rolled a bun from the dough, put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. That's how simple! Much lighter than puff pastry.

In the meantime, the dough is cooling, prepare two sheets of parchment, a rolling pin, a baking sheet, a knife and what you will use as a template for cutting cakes: a lid from a large saucepan, a plate or cardboard. The cake can be given a round, square or rectangular shape.

Take out the dough, roll it into a plump sausage and cut into 8 pieces. To make them equal, it is convenient to do this: cut in half, then each half in half again - into quarters; and cut them in half again - into eighths.

Turn on the oven, let it warm up to 200C.

We put a sheet of parchment on the table, sprinkle with flour. We put one piece of dough on the paper, also sprinkle with flour and roll it out, dusting with flour and turning it over, into a thin cake. The thinner, the better - so that it directly “shines”! Just try to roll it evenly, otherwise it may bake unevenly: in thin places it is already fried, and in plump places it is still underbaked. So we roll out evenly and thinly, 2 millimeters. And we prick with a fork so that it does not swell during baking. It is even more convenient to roll out the cake between two sheets of parchment.

We transfer the cake directly with parchment to a baking sheet and put it in the oven.

Thin cakes are baked very quickly: 5 minutes at 200C, and you're done! It is not necessary to overdry, because they will become brittle. Golded - and enough!

In the meantime, one cake is in the oven, on the second sheet of parchment we roll out the next one, as when baking a honey cake - thanks to such a “conveyor”, things are going cheerfully and cheerfully.

Having taken out the cake, immediately, hot, we apply the template and cut it into shape. If you hesitate, it can crumble. But that's okay, broken cakes can be placed in the middle of the cake. For now, put the scraps in a bowl - they will be needed for the crumbs. And carefully stack the cakes in a pile on a dish.

Here are all the cakes ready! You can make custard. Usually I make a special "Napoleonic" cream for this cake, here the recipe is a little different, but I liked it for its simplicity.

So, we divide a liter of milk in half. We put one half on the fire with a non-stick saucepan, let it warm up.

In the second half-liter of milk, add sugar, eggs, vanillin, flour and beat everything with a mixer or whisk, so that no lumps remain.

When the milk begins to boil on the stove, pour the whipped mixture into the boiling milk in a thin stream. Stir before pouring if the sugar has had time to settle to the bottom of the bowl after beating.

And cook the cream, stirring all the time, until thickened. I cooked for 5-6 minutes over medium heat and, after boiling, for a minute or two on a light less than average.

At first, the cream is liquid, but don’t let that worry you: in the end, it will turn out to be the desired density. At first it pours like milk; then, starting to boil, it becomes thicker, gurgling like semolina. The finished hot cream may still seem watery - but as it cools, it becomes even thicker. Room temperature cream is just the right consistency to spread and soak the cakes well.

We coat the cakes, stacking them on top of each other. Handle the cakes with care - they are very fragile.

We also grease the top cake and sides of the cake with cream. We crumble the trimmings into small crumbs with our hands and sprinkle the cake on top and sides.

And now a little patience ... lick on the cake and wait for it to soak.

Ideally, until the morning, but if you really want to, you can taste it in a couple of hours.

But it is better to cultivate willpower, since the soaked cake is much tastier!

This is exactly the "same", familiar from childhood, the taste of the real "Napoleon"! And I am very glad that it turned out to be so easy to prepare your favorite cake. I am happy to share with you; It's great if your family loves the recipe!

The name of the person who invented how to bake a Napoleon cake, unfortunately, has not survived to this day. But on the other hand, we absolutely know Napoleon's recipe. This classic cake is made with lots of thin, savory puff pastry layers that are soaked in custard or buttercream.

Home Napoleon is divided into 2 varieties - this is the so-called "wet" cake and "dry". To prepare the “wet” version, you will need custard, and lovers of a denser and crispier consistency choose oil. Which option to prefer is a personal matter for everyone, but you need to try to bake a Napoleon cake at least once. Only by preparing it at home, you can appreciate its delicious taste.

Although it is believed that making a Napoleon cake on your own is very difficult, it is not. The process of preparing this dessert is rather painstaking and time-consuming, but even a novice cook can master it. And step by step instructions will make your work much easier.

Napoleon cake - a classic recipe

According to this recipe, a Napoleon cake is prepared with. Cooking a cake begins with kneading the dough.

Ingredients:

• butter - 400 gr;
• eggs - 2 pcs;
• cold water - 1 tbsp;
• wheat flour - 700 gr;
• table vinegar 9% - 1 tsp;
• fine salt - a pinch.

Cooking method:

1. In one bowl, mix vinegar with water, in another - eggs with salt. Then mix all the ingredients in a common bowl.
2. Flour and butter must be turned into a kind of crumb. This goal can be achieved in 2 ways:
   - the flour is sifted on the table, the softened butter is cut into small pieces, placed in a loose mass and finely chopped with a knife with energetic movements;
   - the flour is sifted into a cup, the frozen butter is rubbed on a fine grater to twist the ingredient, the butter lambs should be regularly mixed with flour, at the end the mass is rubbed between the palms.
3. We collect the butter-flour mass in a hill, make a recess in the middle, carefully pour the liquid ingredients into it.
4. Mix everything together and begin to knead the elastic dough.
5. We divide the resulting dough into 15 equal parts, roll balls out of them, put them in bags and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
6. Napoleon cake layers are baked at a temperature of 180°C.
7. After 1 hour, we begin to take the dough balls out of the refrigerator one by one and roll them into thin cakes. We select a plate of the required diameter, put it on top of the rolled out dough and cut a circle around the circumference.
8. Carefully transfer the cake to a baking sheet, prick in several places with a fork (so that it is less deformed) and bake until golden brown, about 6 minutes.
9. While the 1st cake is being baked, we begin to perform similar manipulations with the second ball of dough, then with the third, and so on.
10. Lastly, we bake the dough scraps, but more browned. A real Napoleon cake is sprinkled with crumbs from such remnants of cakes.
11. Ready cakes must be allowed to cool. And only after that they can be smeared with cream and collected in a cake.

For custard:

• milk - 1 l;
• sugar - 1.5 tbsp;
• butter - 300 gr;
• eggs - 3 pcs;
• wheat flour - 3 tbsp;
• vanillin - 1 sachet;

It is convenient to start using cream while the dough is resting in the refrigerator.

Custard preparation:

1. In a saucepan, carefully combine the eggs, sugar and flour. Slowly add milk, stir again and bring to a boil. Cook until thickened, stirring occasionally with a spoon. We don't boil.
2. Beat room temperature butter with a mixer for 4-5 minutes, add vanillin and custard, mix again for 3-4 minutes. We remove the finished cream in the refrigerator.

Cake assembly:

1. We put the 1st cake on a plate, soak it with 2-3 tbsp. custard.
2. Put the 2nd cake on top, pressing it lightly.
3. So we do with all the cakes.
4. After the processing of the last cake is completed, the sides of the cake must be smeared with cream.
5. Grind the dough trimmings baked to a dark golden color with a blender or just a rolling pin and sprinkle them liberally over the entire surface of the cake, not forgetting about its sides.

As you can see, the Napoleon cake recipe is quite simple. It should not cause difficulties with preparation, even when using it for the first time.

This cooking method is as close as possible to the classic recipe of the Soviet era.

Napoleon cake with butter cream, step by step recipe

These cake recipes differ only in the preparation of the cream, while the cakes are baked in the same way.

For buttercream you will need:

• butter - 300 gr;
• condensed milk - 1.5 cans;
• vanillin - 1 sachet.

Cooking:

1. The butter softens to room temperature and is whipped with a mixer for about 3-4 minutes.
2. Vanillin is poured in and condensed milk is gently introduced. The total whipping of all ingredients is approximately 8 minutes.

The method of collecting cakes and oiling them with cream is the same as in the classic Napoleon cake recipe described above.
Now you know how to make Napoleon cake at home.

In addition to the 2 above recipes, there are a great many others. The fastest option is to bake a cake from ready-made store-bought dough or use puff pastry instead of cakes.

In addition to the usual condensed milk, boiled or caramelized milk can be added to the butter cream. The cakes themselves can be modified if cottage cheese, marscapone or cocoa are introduced into their composition.

The dough can be yeast, shortbread, cooked in a pan. As a layer, along with cream, you can use various berries and fruits.

The surface of the cake can be decorated not only with cake crumbs, but also with chopped nuts, chocolate or coconut chips. But all these options, of course, are far from the Napoleon cake recipe according to GOST.

The classic Napoleon cake recipe is made from a specific set of products. However, there are a few little tricks that will make it easier to prepare:

• butter in the recipe can be replaced with margarine;
• ready-made cakes can be stored for 2-3 days, so they can be baked in advance;
• to reduce the baking time of the cakes, try placing them 2 pieces on one baking sheet;
• cakes really “love” the cream, do not feel sorry for it;
• in order for the cakes to soak really well, the finished cake must stand in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, and preferably 24.

Now that you know all the secrets and nuances, and the delicious Napoleon cake is ready, we wish you bon appetit!