Napoleon is perhaps the most popular cake. The peculiarity of the cake is that not every custard is suitable for Napoleon. Therefore, you should always know several recipes for a suitable cream in order to diversify the delicacy or cook from what is at hand.
To experiment with the preparation of original and varied creams, you must first learn how to prepare a standard cream, which is used in all recipes.
We will need:
- Milk - 1 l;
- Sugar - 350 g;
- Butter - 300 g;
- Chicken eggs - 3 pcs.;
- Flour - 3.5 tbsp. l.;
- Vanilla sugar - a bag.
Step by step cooking method:
We need a saucepan with a thick bottom with a volume of 1.5 - 2 liters.
- Sift the flour into the prepared container and add sugar, not forgetting the vanilla sugar.
- Drive in three chicken eggs and gently mix the mixture with a fork or whisk, making sure that no lumps form.
- Pour the milk into the cream in a thin stream while continuing to whisk. We should get a liquid homogeneous cream.
- We put the cream to boil. Now - the most difficult thing, you need to constantly stir the cream so that it does not burn.
- Thus, we keep the cream on low heat until the first air bubbles appear.
- As soon as the cream begins to boil, remove it from the heat and leave to cool.
As soon as the cream reaches room temperature, add softened butter. Thanks to this, the cream will become more tender and shiny.
Little trick. If during cooking you could not avoid lumps of flour, do not be discouraged, all is not lost. All that is needed is to rub the mixture through a fine sieve, and you will get a homogeneous, delicate cream.
Various types of cream for "Napoleon"
"Napoleon" appeared in the distant Soviet times when they cooked deliciously, but without exotic products. However, this does not limit our freedom of action with you, and if the dough is essentially the same, then the Napoleon cream can be revived to your taste. Here are some options for making an unusual cream.
Cream with pears
In this recipe, we will use corn starch, which will make the cream even more tender and incredibly tasty, and a light note of rum will bring us memories of distant lands and exciting adventures.
We take the following ingredients:
- Milk - 1.5 cups;
- Chicken yolks - 2 pcs.;
- Sugar - 3 - 4 tbsp. l.;
- Starch - 1 tbsp. l.;
- Rum - 1 tbsp. l.;
- Lemon zest - from half a lemon;
- Pears - 2 pcs.;
- Vanillin - 10 g;
- Vegetable oil - for lubrication.
Let's prepare the cream in this way:
- We take our yolks, add half of the prepared sugar to them and beat the mass thoroughly into a lush light foam.
- Pour corn starch into the resulting foam (it is advisable to sift it before to avoid lumps) and lemon zest.
- The second half of the sugar is dissolved in milk with vanilla. We put the saucepan on low heat and, stirring constantly, heat the milk.
- Add the egg mixture to the warm milk and, without ceasing to stir the cream, bring it to a boil.
- After the appearance of the first bubbles, remove the mass from the heat and let it cool slightly.
- Add rum to warm cream and mix thoroughly.
Cream with boiled condensed milk
Condensed milk will saturate the cream with a dizzying milky taste. In general, you can add any ingredients to the cream, such as marshmallows, marmalade, and so on. The main thing is not to lose this indescribable caramel-milk taste.
We take the following products:
- Milk - 0.5 l;
- Condensed milk - a bank;
- Sugar - 3 table. l.;
- Butter - packaging;
- Flour / starch - 5 tbsp. l.
Cooking:
- Mix milk with flour with a blender until the lumps disappear.
- Add sugar and stir the mixture in the same way.
- We put the cream on low heat and, without ceasing to stir, cook for five minutes.
- Refrigerate the cream.
- Add the oil to the cold mixture. Make sure that the butter does not melt, this will interfere with whipping the cream.
- We beat the mass. The output should be a snow-white cream.
- Now you need to pour in a thin stream of condensed milk and beat the cream thoroughly.
Cream on yogurt and honey
To make the cream more liquid, thereby soaking the cakes more thoroughly, as well as add a new flavor note to the cake, you can add yogurt.
Let's try!
We will need:
- Yogurt - 200 g;
- Milk - 250 ml;
- Chicken yolk - 1 pc.;
- Honey - a tablespoon;
- Additives (raspberries, strawberries, coconut flakes) to taste.
We prepare the cream according to this recipe:
- Beat milk and yogurt with yolk and honey.
- We put the mixture on the fire, stirring thoroughly.
- We bring the cream to a thickening, then remove from heat and let cool.
- If you want to make the cream more tender, add butter of your choice.
- We add additives. We also decorate the finished cake with the chosen addition.
Cream for "Napoleon" with nuts
A new take on a traditional recipe. Rest assured, you will be surprised by the result.
We take the following products:
- Milk - 0.5 liters;
- Sugar - 250 g;
- Flour / starch - 160 g;
- Cream - 250 ml;
- Chicken eggs - 2 pcs.;
- Vanillin - 1 tsp;
- Walnuts - to taste.
We prepare the cream like this:
- We take a bowl, pour 200 g of milk there, add vanillin, sugar and starch.
- We drive in the eggs and beat everything thoroughly with a mixer until a fluffy mass is formed.
- Heat the rest of the milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
- In warm milk in a thin stream, constantly stirring, pour the previously prepared mixture with starch.
- Making sure that the mixture does not burn, bring it to the consistency of thick sour cream.
- When the cream is ready, remove it from the heat and let it cool completely.
- Add the cream to the cold mixture and beat everything thoroughly with a mixer.
- At the end, add chopped walnuts in a blender.
Delicate curd-banana cream
In general, such a cream needs to be made half a portion more, because it is unlikely to reach the Napoleon itself in its original amount.
We use the following products:
- Milk - liter;
- Sugar - 350 g;
- Eggs - 4 pcs.;
- Vanillin - a teaspoon;
- Flour - 5 tbsp. l.;
- Butter - 200 g;
- Cottage cheese - 400 g;
- Banana - 1 piece (you can use more, focus on your taste).
Cooking steps:
- In a saucepan with a thick bottom, break the eggs, pour out the sugar (leave 50 g per cottage cheese), pour in the vanillin and flour. Beat the resulting mixture with a mixer at medium speed.
- Pour the milk in a thin stream, beating the cream along the way so that no lumps form.
- We put the mixture on a slow fire and, without stopping stirring, bring the cream to the consistency of cream.
- When the mixture is ready, turn off the heat and let the cream cool.
- Add butter to the cream and beat the cream. As a result, we should get snow-white peaks.
- Grind the banana in a blender.
- Beat cottage cheese with banana thoroughly with a blender.
- We apply the cream in this way, cake - custard - cottage cheese-banana mixture.
sour cream
So tender and melting in your mouth, it will definitely not leave anyone indifferent. A light sourness will drive any gourmet crazy.
Ingredients for our cream:
- Sour cream - 250 ml;
- Sugar - 250 g;
- Lemon - 1 pc.;
- Milk - 800 ml;
- Vanillin - a bag;
- Flour - 4 tbsp. l.;
- Butter - a pack.
Step by step recipe:
- We take 250 g of milk and beat thoroughly with flour and 100 grams of sugar.
- We heat the remaining milk on the stove with sugar and vanilla.
- As soon as the milk begins to gurgle, while actively stirring, pour in the previously prepared mixture of milk and flour.
- Without stopping to interfere, cook the cream for about five more minutes.
- Let the cream cool down.
- Meanwhile, beat the butter until fluffy and airy.
- Add butter to the cooled cream.
- And the last stage - slowly, spoon by spoon, add sour cream to the cream, while whisking everything with a mixer.
Compound:
Cakes:
200 gr sour cream
200 gr margarine
2 eggs
some salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon soda
4 1/4 cups flour
Cream:
1 liter of milk
2 eggs
250 gr melted ice cream
1 cup of sugar
4 tbsp. spoons of flour
zest of 1 large lemon
250 gr butter
Cooking:
Add soda to sour cream and mix. Sift 3 cups of flour into a bowl and chop the margarine. Grind flour with margarine into crumbs. Then add eggs, sour cream, salt and mix, add the remaining flour and quickly knead soft dough. Divide the dough into 16 equal parts and roll into balls, put in the refrigerator for several hours. Take out one ball, flatten it slightly, put it on parchment. Sprinkle lightly with flour so that the dough does not stick to the rolling pin and roll it out very thinly. Then put a lid or plate on the rolled cake and cut it off, do not remove the trimmings. Prick the crust with a fork to keep it from puffing up. Bake cakes until golden brown. Remove pruning, they will be needed for sprinkling. While the cake is baking, roll out the second one.
For cream: grind eggs with sugar until white, add flour, melted ice cream and 1 glass of cold milk. On the site, the cook saw a recipe for Napoleon, where ice cream is added to the cream, she wanted to try it :), mix thoroughly. Heat the rest of the milk. Pour hot milk in small portions into the cream, stirring vigorously. Put the cream on the fire and bring to a boil over low heat, then increase the heat and cook, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove the thick cream from the heat and cool to room temperature, add the zest to the cooled custard lemon and mix. Beat room temperature butter, then add custard in portions to the butter, continuing to beat, beat well.
Put the cake on the dish, put about 4 tablespoons of custard on the cake cream and spread over the entire cake, cover with a second cake and so collect the whole cake. Coat the top of the cake and sides with cream. Grind the trimmings in a blender and sprinkle over the entire cake. Leave the cake to soak at room temperature for 1 hour. then put it in the refrigerator overnight. Get " Napoleon” from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.
Somehow I did not develop love with Napoleon. When I was little, it was customary in the family to bake pies, tastier than grandma's and great-grandmother's))) I have not tried pies so far, and I didn't like the cakes that I bought at all - the cream is tasteless, crumble into crumbs, fuu ...
Later, I baked from ready-made puff pastry, wanting to please my mother-in-law - she has Napoleon, just her favorite cake. The result did not inspire me, delicious, but not that, not HE).
It all ended when I made friends with chopped puff pastry from Irina - chadeyka
- made friends once and for all. Here with this dough - a puff cake, well, let's call it Napoleon, I don't know how correct it is - that's exactly the cake that you can fall in love with))) OH!
"Puff chopped I call unleavened dough- which consists of flour, butter, water and salt.
Proportions
2 parts flour, 1 part butter. For 200 grams of flour we take 100 grams of butter, a pinch of salt, 4-5 tablespoons of water.
Often in different books and magazines, different cooks give different recipes, such as 185 grams of flour, 110 grams of butter, and so on. I think all this is from the evil one, to give, so to speak, the recipe individuality. Essentially, nothing changes from this, neither the taste nor the texture.
Theory
It is important that the butter in this dough is not completely evenly mixed with flour, but is small pieces in a shell of flour. The tiny bits of butter in the dough flatten out when rolled out, layering it, and when baking, steam and fat (oil contains water) separate the dough into layers.
Salt is important for giving elasticity to the dough.
Butter must be taken cold, from the refrigerator, so that it does not soak the flour, but only wraps itself around it.
Practice
So that the butter is evenly mixed with flour and does not melt, you can grate it, rub it with flour with your hands, chop it with two knives (it’s convenient to do it with just two knives), you can use a combine, or you can use a special device for cutting dough.
Knead this dough with water, egg or milk, while the products should be cold. In this case, the butter will not melt during kneading.
In order to knead such a dough, in the oil-flour crumb obtained by any of the above methods, a well is made, liquid is poured and kneaded, gradually collecting everything into a lump. Once you get a lump, stop! No more kneading required. The structure of this dough should be heterogeneous, it will become smooth when rolled out.
Bakery
The easiest way is to roll out the finished dough immediately, put it in a mold and put it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour or in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.
Before baking, the surface must be pricked so that excess steam escapes through the holes, otherwise the dough will swell with bubbles. But if it is swollen - it's not scary, pierce the bubbles, and that's all.
If the filling is liquid, it can soak the dough, it will not bake, so often such a dough is baked in advance - first with a load, pressing the bottom with dry peas, for 20 minutes, and then without a load so that the bottom dries out, for 10 minutes.
If the filling is dry, no pre-baking is needed."
I love this dough with hot love. Everything works out with him; a tart with caramelized apples or other fruits and berries, a quick thin savory cheese pie and so on. other Simple products that are always at home, and there is always a temptation to bake something for dinner.
From the ingredients indicated in the recipe, I got 12 cakes of small diameter. I rolled it out with a rolling pin, sprinkled with flour and cut it out on a plate. It turns out fragile, "bubbly" cakes. Bake the rest of the dough, make crumbs, which at the end sprinkle the finished cake.
lemon cream .
1/3 st. lemon juice
1 st. l. lemon peel
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
350 gr sl. oils
Bring almost to a boil lemon juice, zest and sugar and 50 grams of butter. Lightly beat the eggs (at room temperature, or take them out of the refrigerator, put them in warm water to keep warm - otherwise they will curdle when mixed with lemon juice) and, with constant stirring, pour in a very thin stream into hot lemon juice. We return it all to a small fire and, stirring, bring to a boil. Cook for another 5 minutes (stirring constantly) until thickened. Cool down.
Beat the rest of the butter until fluffy light mass and combine with lemon custard, beat well.
Coat the cakes generously with cream and leave to soak at room temperature for a couple of hours, then refrigerate. Before serving, the cake should "infuse" for at least half a day. And the result is guaranteed!
The cake turns out delicious, budget in terms of products, these cakes can be stored for about a week before the desired event, and then quickly assemble the cake. Cream: very tasty, very simple, minimum fuss, maximum success.
For storage, the cakes should be folded into a plastic bag and tightly closed. Store in a dry place.
Whether or not to put lemon and lime in the cream is up to you. With citrus fruits, Napoleon is obtained with sourness. Lemons can be substituted for vanilla.
So:
we need:
butter or margarine - 400 gr (1.5 packs)
eggs - 2 pcs.
cold drinking water - 150 ml
flour 650 gr
vodka or cognac - 3 tbsp. spoons
vinegar 9% 1 tbsp. spoon
salt on the tip of a knife
Cream:
1.5 liters of milk + 0.5 liters
6 eggs
3 art. tablespoons of starch (without a slide)
8 art. tablespoons flour (no slide)
250 gr butter
1 st. Sahara
1 lime + 1 lemon.
1. Cooking cakes.
To do this, pour 150 ml of water into a cup. To water add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of vinegar and 2-3 tbsp. spoons of cognac or vodka. Mix everything.
Separately, beat 2 eggs into a bowl, stir with a fork, adding a pinch of salt. Don't beat.
Combine water and eggs. Stir. The liquid may come out in flakes. Do not worry.
In a large bowl, sift the flour (600 gr) and add butter or margarine, cut into cubes, to it. Chop the butter in the flour with a chef's knife, mixing everything. Better not to do it by hand. Hands change the structure of the test.
From the resulting oil-flour mass, make a slide with a recess in the center. Pour the egg mass into the center. Knead the dough.
Divide the dough into 12-14 balls, put on a large dish, cover with foil and refrigerate for 1.5 hours.
2. We bake cakes. Preheat the oven to 200-220 degrees.
We take out 1 ball from the refrigerator. The rest remain covered in the refrigerator. On baking paper, roll out the balls (this is so that later the shape of Napoleon does not change). Roll out thinly. Cut out the desired shape. I cut it out for a large plate, because. Napoleon planned to make round. Poke raw cake with forks, making holes. So the cake will not warp and will be as correct as possible.
I didn't remove the trimmings. So they baked them on a baking sheet. After they go to sprinkle.
We already transfer the baking paper with the cake to a baking sheet and bake.
So we bake all the cakes. While one is baking, roll out the next one. My oven allows you to bake on 2 baking sheets at the same time. I rolled out 4 cakes at once (two in the oven, two in line).
Ready cakes let cool. Fold them on something flat (tray, board). If the form for cooling is not perfectly even, then the hot cakes will take that shape.
From the indicated number of products for the test, I got 14 cakes 24 cm wide.
3. Cream.
In a saucepan, mix flour, starch, sugar. In a separate bowl, beaten eggs (no need to beat especially, just stir until smooth with a fork. Add 1.5 liters of milk to the eggs. Stir and then add the egg-milk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix well. Put on a small fire and constantly stirring prepare the cream until boiling.
As soon as bulbs appear on the cream, immediately remove from heat and transfer the cream to a glass bowl.
We put a bowl of cream in another wide bowl on ice water (water + ice + salt). Let's cool down. Cover the cream on top with cling film so that there is no air between the film and the cream. Otherwise, the cream will be crusty. You can do without ice water. If you are not in a hurry, just wrap the cream in clingfilm and let it cool somewhere safe.
We are waiting for complete cooling.
Whisk butter at room temperature. Add cooled cream in batches. Beat with a mixer. The cream will be thick. You can dilute it with milk. It took me half a liter. At the very end, add the zest of 1 lemon and the zest of 1 lime. I also added the juice of both fruits. Lemon and lime may not be added, but then it is better to add vanilla or vanillin.
4. We collect the cake.
We take a detachable form or a wide pan. We cover it with a film or baking paper so that all the walls of the mold are covered with paper and the edges of the paper protrude strongly beyond the pan. This will help pull the cake out of the mold after soaking.
At the bottom we lay out the first cake, on it 2-3 tbsp. spoons of cream, again a cake, again a cream ... and so on until all the cakes run out.
Since there will be enough scraps, all the cakes will be used for their intended purpose. The last cake is not smeared with cream immediately. We do not smear the last cake at all. We wrap the edges of the paper in the center, put them on the last ungreased cake and cover with a plate, send the cake to the refrigerator for impregnation for at least 4-5 hours. The plate serves as a light weight. We leave a little cream for the final stage (a little cream will go to the walls of the cake and part to the top cake).
When the cake is soaked, take it out of the mold. Free from paper. Put on a dish. Lubricate the top cake with cream and coat the sides of the cake. In a blender, grind the scraps into crumbs. Sprinkle the sides and top of the cake.
How to sprinkle? We take the cake in one hand, crushed crumbs in the other. We bring an open palm with crumbs to the cake and, as if slamming the edges, attach the crumbs to the cake. On the top cake just sprinkle on top.
If you decorate the cake like I do with chocolate, then I advise the edges of the cake, where the transition from the top cake to the edge, sprinkle well with crumbs. Otherwise, your cake will look crooked.
I made chocolate decor from chocolate dough. Working with chocolate is described here
Baking a real Napoleon cake is not so easy. Here http://www.videoculinary.ru/recipe/tort-napoleon/ you can find a detailed step by step recipe with a photo of the classic Napoleon cake. It is for those who are not lazy.
We will prepare something simple for you. Portion cake "Napoleon" from ready-made puff pastry with lemon cream and berries.
Ingredients
- one pack of ready-made puff pastry (preferably yeast-free);
- ¼-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon;
- a few pinches of granulated sugar;
- two glasses of whipping cream;
- 120 grams of cream cheese;
- lemon;
- ½ cup honey;
- fresh berries (any to taste).
Cooking steps
1. Grate the lemon zest on a fine grater. All you need is one tablespoon of zest powder. Squeeze juice from the pulp of citrus - two tablespoons.
2. Defrost the finished puff pastry and cut into rectangles or squares. It is more convenient to use the version of the test that is already sold in the form of small blanks for cakes.
3. Roll out the dough is not necessary. Simply place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Sprinkle each piece of dough with cinnamon and sugar.
4. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
5. Carefully divide the baked dough into several layers. If you have a yeast-free version, then it will be easy to separate it into three layers. If yeast dough, then, most likely, only two cakes will turn out. It is best to divide the hot dough, because as it cools it will diverge into layers heavier and heavier. Then let the cakes cool down.
After the dough has cooled, you can start preparing the cream.
6. Whip cream.
7. In another bowl, combine cream cheese, honey, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix thoroughly until smooth.
8. Combine whipped cream with cheese mass and mix well once more.
9. Lubricate each layer of the cooled dough generously with the prepared cream.
10. Put the berries on the cream. As a fruit filling for Napoleon cakes, you can use any berries: blueberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries. If you take larger berries, such as strawberries, they will have to be cut into small pieces.
This is all. The simplest portion cake Napoleon, prepared at home with almost no effort, can be served on the table.
P.S. Sometimes it happens that baked cakes are very difficult to separate into layers. They crumble into crumbs. Nothing works. This happens especially often when using yeast portioned dough, that is, one that is already initially small cakes.
You should not despair. As a rule, cakes that are difficult to separate are rather thin. And they can be used as layers of the cake as a whole.
