Write a comment
Classic Napoleon Cake with Custard
The Classic Napoleon Cake with Custard has been a favorite among home bakers for many decades. There are many ways to make this cake. Almost every homemaker has her family recipe for the classic "Napoleon" cake. The dessert has an interesting preparation method, which will be described in detail below. The dessert is easy to make, using accessible ingredients. To deliciously prepare the classic Napoleon Cake with Custard, take our step-by-step recipe with photos.
Ingredients
Show ingredients
For the layers:
- flour – 340-360 g;
- egg – 1 pc;
- butter – 200 g;
- ice water – 110 ml;
- vinegar (6%) – 1 tbsp;
- salt – 1-2 pinches (or to taste).
For the cream:
- cornstarch (or flour) – 60 g;
- eggs – 3 pcs;
- milk – 800-900 ml;
- sugar – 150 g;
- butter – 150 g;
- vanillin – ¼ tsp.
Preparation
- The cake is prepared in three stages – baking the layers, making the custard and, actually, assembling the cake. You can experiment with the cream and dough, and your cake will always be unique. For making the Napoleon layers, all ingredients should be very cold, almost from the freezer.
- Let's start making the layers. Take cold, almost ice-cold water, egg, salt, and vinegar.
- Transfer the egg and the other ingredients into a glass with water.
- Whisk or use a fork to mix the mixture in the glass thoroughly. For a while, place the container with the egg mixture in the freezer.
- Sift the flour in advance, filling it with oxygen. You will also need butter from the freezer.
- Coat the butter in flour. You can chop it with flour using a knife or grate it.
- Quickly rub the flour with the butter into fine crumbs using your hands. This should be done very quickly.
- Pour the very cold egg mixture into the flour mixture, and initially mix it with a spoon.
- Combine the mixture into one ball. Do not knead the dough for too long, so the butter does not warm up from the heat of your hands. We need to achieve flaky dough, not a homogeneous one.
- Divide the dough into eight to ten parts and place them in the refrigerator to cool. We will let the dough rest for fifteen to twenty minutes.
- During this time, we will prepare the cream. Prepare the ingredients for the cream; they should no longer be cold, as we will make the custard on the stove. Gather the ingredients as listed.
- In a bowl, crack the eggs and add sugar.
- Mix with a whisk.
- Add flour or cornstarch to the eggs. This ingredient can be chosen according to your preference, but with cornstarch, the cream will be softer.
- Mix the mixture until homogeneous.
- In a clean saucepan with a thick bottom or a small pot, pour a couple of tablespoons of water and turn on the stove. This step is necessary to prevent the milk from scorching during heating. Pour all the milk into the saucepan and heat it up.
- The milk should be heated almost to boiling, but not boiled. Steam should appear above the milk. Remove the milk from the stove. In a thin stream, or using a ladle, pour the milk into the egg mixture. At this moment, constantly stir the egg mixture so that the eggs do not scramble from the hot temperature of the milk. Pour half of the hot milk into the mixture. Mix it well.
- Return the egg-milk mixture to the saucepan with the milk and place it on the stove to heat up.
- While preparing the cream, constantly stir the milk-egg mixture, watching that the cream does not stick to the bottom. A silicone spatula will help with this.
- The preparation of the custard will take approximately ten minutes. Keep the cream on the heat until the first bubbles appear. As soon as they appear, you can remove the saucepan with the cream.
- Immediately add butter and vanillin to the cream. Stir with a whisk until homogeneous.
- Now the cream needs to cool quickly. Place the pot in a bowl of very cold water, almost icy. You can add ice cubes to the bowl of water for even better results. Stir the cream with a whisk so that it cools evenly.
- While the cream is cooling, the dough has also cooled, and we can bake the layers. Roll out the dough immediately on parchment paper into a round sheet with a thickness of one to two millimeters. Use a fork to make holes so the dough doesn't puff up.
- Take a plate or pot lid of the needed diameter and place it on top of the dough. Our lid diameter is 20 mm.
- Press down the lid and we get ready, round layers. Any irregularly shaped dough that doesn't fit into the circle should not be removed. We will also bake it. This will be the crumb for the classic Napoleon topping.
- Bake the layer for eight to ten minutes at t-180⁰C.
- Transfer the browned scraps to a blender bowl and grind them into crumbs.
- The crumbs can also be easily crumbled by hand if there is no blender.
- Here are the even layered cakes we have made.
- On a flat serving dish, apply a spoon or two of cream so that our future cake holds firmly on the plate and does not slide around.
- Place the layer on top and cover it with cream as well.
- Assemble the cake layer by layer. Apply cream generously with two to three tablespoons. Form the cake until all layers are used up. Cover the top and sides of the cake with cream too.
- Sprinkle the entire cake with crushed crumbs. Put the dessert in the refrigerator for several hours, or better yet, overnight.
- The classic Napoleon cake with custard is ready. How long the dessert stays in the refrigerator depends on your personal taste. If you like crispy layers, take the cake out sooner, but if you prefer it well-soaked with cream, leave it in the cold longer.
Enjoy your meal!
