Napoleon is a cake from childhood

"Napoleon" is a truly royal cake. His taste is familiar to many since childhood, when in stores to buy it was very expensive pleasure, and the choice was not great. But to prepare a puff, custard-infused cake, to serve it on a huge dish to fragrant tea, it was under the power of any hostess. Before talking about how to make "Napoleon" at home, find out where the name of this cake comes from.

According to one version, the name of this delicacy was invented to the centenary of the victory in the war with the French in 1912, in Moscow. At first this dessert was not a cake, but a triangular cake. His form symbolized the cocked hat of Bonaparte. It's a bit strange, of course, that the cake was named after the emperor of the enemy. The more logical version is that Napoleon cake was invented in Italy, we'll talk about it later. The puff pastry, which is the basis of this cake, was invented almost two hundred years before the war of 1812 occurred. A confectioner, the Frenchman Claudius Gele, invented it, trying to cook a dough without sugar for his father, suffering from diabetes. Claudius took the flour, put oil and water in it, and several times rolled it. Looking into the oven, he found a layered loaf. Later, Gele went to develop his culinary skills in the capital and there, apparently, the recipe for puff pastry was stolen by the Italians. Arriving to their homeland, they invented a new recipe for a cake made from puff pastry. And later he was named "Napoleon", because the creator of the main ingredient of the pastry cake, was also a Frenchman, like Emperor Bonaparte.

How to make "Napoleon"? Hostesses will have to apply a little patience and effort. During the preparation of this magnificent dessert you must strictly follow the prescription in order to make it truly royal. "Napoleon" - a cake consisting of many thin layers of puff pastry, each of which must be impregnated with creamy-butter or custard. When the cake is ready, it should definitely stand, so that the puff pastry becomes tender, has acquired softness.

Napoleon, cake with custard

To prepare the delicious dessert from puff pastry, we will need:

Ingredients for the dough:

- margarine or butter - one packet;

- kefir or sour cream - one glass;

- Chicken egg - one piece;

- sugar - two tablespoons;

- Wheat flour of the first grade - four glasses;

- soda, slaked with vinegar - a teaspoonful;

- a pinch of salt.

Ingredients for custard:

- milk - two glasses;

- eggs of chicken - two;

- Butter - a hundred grams;

- Wheat flour - two tablespoons;

- sugar - one and a half cups;

- Vanillin - one sachet.

Let's start preparing the cake with baking cakes. To do this, four glasses of flour sift through the sieve to remove the lumps and enrich it with oxygen. Form a hill of flour on a dry clean table, from the top, a little press it. Take margarine or butter and cut it into small cubes. Then it is necessary to "chop" flour with cubes of margarine or butter with a wide knife, until such kind of oil lumps form. Continuing to "chop" the dough, add sour cream or kefir. Then one egg and sugar. Having cut the knife with a good knife, we will collect it in a large bowl, wrap it in a food film or simply put it in a bag and send it to the refrigerator for an hour.

After that, take the dough and divide into small lumps, from which we will then bake the cakes. The skin should be seven or eight. And one more small cake should go to the crumb for sprinkling. The dough for the cakes should be rolled very thin, approximately 1-2 mm. Bake on a baking sheet, sprinkled with flour, in the oven at 180 degrees. It is worth noting that the cakes are baked very quickly, but they are very fragile, so you have to get them out and cool them neatly. While the cakes will cool down, we prepare the cream.

To do this, take a saucepan and rub it to a homogeneous mass of eggs and sugar. Add a couple of tablespoons of flour, stir. Then it will be necessary to gradually add milk and stir evenly, so that no lumps form. Put the mass on the fire and bring it to a boil. In this case, you just need to constantly interfere with the cream. Remove from heat and cool it to such an extent that the mass can dissolve butter. Mix well and add the vanilla. Let's leave it cool.

When the cream is completely cool, you need to take a dish and lay the first cake on it. Gently spade apply evenly the cream over the cake, cover the second layer. With the other layers, the same manipulations should be carried out. The smallest cake will be rubbed into a crumb and sprinkle the finished cake. We'll take the dessert into the refrigerator for the night.

"Napoleon" - a festive cake, delicate, with a delicious creamy vanilla cream, will undoubtedly please your loved ones and your children. Bon Appetit!