Puff pastry Napoleon recipes. Quick Napoleon cake made from ready-made puff pastry
This cake is a favorite of many, but, unfortunately, not every housewife can boast of the skills to prepare it. The main problem is that you have to fuss with the cakes for too long. A cake made from ready-made dough with the most delicate custard turns out very tasty and is instantly swept off the table by those with a sweet tooth.
The dessert prepared according to this recipe is very simple to prepare and, nevertheless, very tasty. Even much better than store bought. If you want to prepare a quick dessert for tea, then buy ready-made dough and feel free to start preparing Napoleon.
Ingredients:
For the cakes:
- puff pastry without yeast - 3 packs;
For cream:
- flour -4 tbsp. spoons;
- milk -750 ml;
- sugar-1 glass;
- butter 200-400g;
- eggs - 3 pcs.;
- vanilla sugar - to taste.
Cooking process:
Thaw the dough, roll it out lightly to give it the desired shape.
If you want to make a round cake, use a plate. Cover the cake with it, cut off the excess dough with a knife and do not throw it away, but bake separately for topping.
Dust a baking tray with flour, bake the cakes on it, lightly cutting the dough in several places so that it does not rise and bakes well.
Bake puff pastry cakes at 220 degrees until done (15-20 minutes).
If some of the cakes turn out uneven, trim off the unsightly edges so you can make them into a smoother, more attractive cake.
Cream for Napoleon cake
To make a delicious custard for Napoleon, place a pan of fresh milk on the stove, add sugar, stir until it is completely dissolved. The mass needs to be heated, without bringing to a boil.
In a separate bowl, beat the flour and eggs with a mixer. Add a few tablespoons of milk to the egg mixture, whisk everything thoroughly so that there are no lumps.
Pour the whipped mixture into a saucepan with milk, put it on the stove again, and, stirring, bring to a boil. As soon as the cream boils, remove it from the stove and leave to cool.
Beat the slightly melted butter with vanilla. Add the cooled milk-egg mixture, continuing to beat.
The consistency of the cream should resemble sour cream or well-whipped cream. If you use only a stick of butter, the cream will not be as high in calories, but will be quite liquid. Using 400-500 g of butter in the recipe will make the buttercream thicker and the cake tastier.
Puff pastry scraps are also baked
and crushed into crumbs by hand.
Start forming the cake: spread the cream on the cooled cake layer, cover it with the next one.
Apply a layer of cream again and press lightly. Try to evenly distribute the entire amount of custard throughout so that all the cakes are coated. Cover the sides and top with cream too.
Garnish the top and sides of the torit with crumbles. It can be additionally decorated with berries and grated chocolate.
“Napoleon” should soak for several hours, the ideal option is to cook it in the evening and put it in the refrigerator overnight, then it will be ready by morning.
We thank Svetlana Kislovskaya for the recipe and step-by-step photos of Napoleon from the finished dough.
Bon appetit!
Best regards, Anyuta.
First I want to explain why "Cake Pie". Firstly, it’s done in a frying pan, a very quick, “lazy” option, so I still classed it as a pies. Well, in appearance and delicate, moderately sweet taste, it’s still a cake. All the same, choux pastry and another option for preparing a quick and tasty dish from it!!! Why "Fenechka"? The day before yesterday I received a letter from Irochka, fene4 ka’s cook. She asked if I had made cakes from this dough (which I recommend to everyone). So I went to the kitchen - my hands were itching to try it right away and not waste time. I thought a little and didn’t complicate anything. Choux pastry + custard from available products. That’s why I called this, albeit simple, but very tender and tasty cake “Fenechka”. This is Irishka’s idea, thanks to her! I think this cake will help me out more than once now! Or maybe it will be useful for cooks who don’t like to bother with baking or simply don’t have an oven. I don't claim originality. There is no goal to surprise anyone. The recipe is very simple.
1. To begin, take the previously defrosted dough and roll it out a little. After that, cut out squares of the same size.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Take a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper and bake the cakes for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees. To prevent the puff pastry from bubbling too much during cooking, it is better to pierce it in several places with a fork. 
3. Place the finished cakes on the table and let them cool completely, while at this time prepare the condensed milk cream for the Napoleon cake. 
4. Melt the butter a little and then beat it well. It should acquire a fluffy consistency. After this, you need to add condensed milk in small portions and simultaneously beat the mass until creamy. After this, you should place the container in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. 
5. When the cream and cakes have cooled, you can begin to form the cake. Each layer needs to be thickly greased with cream so that the dough is thoroughly soaked. It is better to cut off the uneven edges of the cakes to achieve an aesthetic appearance. 
6. It is advisable to place the trimmings in a separate container and chop them thoroughly. After this, sprinkle the top of the cake and the sides with the finished crumbs. You can also add peanuts or walnuts. 
As a result, you will get a delicious Napoleon cake made from ready-made puff pastry that you can please your whole family with. In addition, preparing such a dessert does not require much time or effort.
Cream:- 1 liter of milk
- 90 g flour
- 300 g sugar
- 3 yolks
- 1 p. vanilla sugar (10 g)
- 150 g butter
- juicy ripe fruits
- jelly for cake
I’m coming to you with a cake, and again with Napoleon :-) Recently I already prepared a “wet” juicy one, which consisted of homemade cakes, today’s cake is more “dry”, so to speak, but at the same time it is still well soaked and very gentle. Both of these Napoleon recipes are very tasty, they are just quite different, so choose which one you like best and feel free to cook it.
Thanks to the use of ready-made puff pastries, this cake is very easy to prepare. I again used custard as a cream, since, in my opinion, this is the best option for Napoleon. But you can use whipped butter or whipped cream if you wish. In principle, it is not necessary to decorate the cake with fruits, but they look so cool that they can be a great final touch that will blow your guests away, at least that’s what happened to my guests :-)
Preparation:
Thaw the puff pastry for about 30-40 minutes.
If you bought the dough rolled into a roll, then you need to carefully unroll it and cut it into several pieces. You can, if desired, roll out the dough a little in one direction.
I had the dough in the form of 8 pieces of thin individual plates, so I didn’t roll out or cut anything beforehand. I simply placed the sheets on a baking sheet and pricked each one with a fork to prevent them from puffing up when baking.
Bake the dough in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for about 15-25 minutes or until lightly golden.
Cool completely.
Preparing the cream.
Place the yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar in a container and mix well with a whisk.
Add flour and about a glass of milk, stir well until smooth.
Pour the rest of the milk into a saucepan with a thick bottom and bring until hot.
While stirring, pour the yolk mixture into the pan.
Cook the cream over medium heat while stirring for about 10-15 minutes or until thickened significantly.
Then cool the cream for about 10-20 minutes, add pieces of butter, stir well until the butter completely melts.
The cream is ready.
I cut each baked layer in half so that the layers in the cake were thinner and the cake was better soaked.
If you rolled out the dough before baking, you probably won't need to do this.
It is better to place the cakes in a deep baking tray so that all the crumbs remain inside it.
Assembling the cake.
Place two halves of the layer on a plate, concave side up.
Generously coat the top with cream.
Lay out all the cakes in this way (leave 1 cake for sprinkling).
Before covering the last layer with cream, lightly press the cake using a board.
Coat the sides of the cake with cream as well. Crumble the remaining cake with your hands directly on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the resulting crumbs onto the sides of the cake and up. If you, like me, decorate with fruit, leave the middle unsprinkled.
Place the cake in the refrigerator to soak for 8-24 hours.
Decorate with fruits or berries.
I decorated with orange slices, kiwi slices and blueberries, and an orange rose in the center.
If desired, coat the fruit with cake jelly using a brush.
You can also decorate the cake with chocolate chips, chopped nuts and much more to suit your taste.
And here is the cut.
The Napoleon cake made from puff pastry turns out to be very tasty, and this despite the fact that it is simply prepared. I hope that you, like me, will delight your loved ones or guests with such a wonderful masterpiece!
At the request of the workers, today I spent non-stop - preparing the Napoleon cake, beloved by many. I can’t say that this is a classic cake recipe, but it is the one that makes the most delicious Napoleon (for our family, of course). Quick puff pastry and custard Ice cream - a fabulous combination that you will fall in love with once and for all!
Traditionally, Napoleon cake is prepared with custard and in this regard I did not deviate from the original. But additionally, butter is added to it (many housewives do this, right?) and whipped heavy cream - the highlight of the Plombir custard. It really tastes like melted ice cream from our childhood.
The finished homemade Napoleon cake turns out to be impressive both in size and weight. 20 centimeters in diameter, 10 centimeters in height - a whole 1 kilogram 850 grams of amazing dessert. This cake is definitely enough for a large and friendly company, so don’t be lazy - prepare Napoleon for the Old New Year.
Ingredients:
Quick puff pastry:
Custard Ice cream:
Cooking the dish step by step with photos:
I suggest dividing the ingredients needed to make a homemade Napoleon cake into 2 parts: for the dough and for the cream. First, let's prepare a quick puff pastry, for which we will need the following ingredients: premium wheat flour (the total weight is indicated taking into account the flour for rolling), butter (with a fat content of at least 72%), ice-cold drinking water, a chicken egg (I have a large one, net weight about 55 grams), 9% table vinegar and a little fine salt to balance the taste. I never use margarine or spread instead of butter when making cakes, as well as these products in general in my kitchen!
Then add 150 milliliters of ice-cold (very cold) water to the egg mixture. You can guide yourself by the volume of the glass - add so much water so that there are literally 5 millimeters left to the edge. Mix everything thoroughly again with a fork and put the glass in the refrigerator.
You can knead this puff pastry either in a bowl (I prefer it in a bowl) or on a work surface. Sift 570 grams of premium wheat flour into a container of suitable volume to loosen it and remove any debris.
Then cut 400 grams of butter directly into the flour, which should not just be from the refrigerator, but straight from the freezer. Some housewives prefer to chop the butter on a coarse grater, but I prefer to chop it with a knife. I’ll say right away that I don’t make quick puff pastry in a food processor, so I’m not responsible for the results.
First, we chop the butter quite coarsely, after which we try to chop it as finely as possible. The size of the pieces of butter should preferably be no larger than hazelnuts.
In about 10 minutes (if you try, it can be done faster) the butter and wheat flour will turn into this buttery crumb. Outwardly, it will not look like crumbs, but like small pounded pieces of butter in flour.
Then transfer the contents of the bowl to the work surface. You see, the test still seems a long way off, but this is not the case at all.
We work quickly and accurately, preventing the oil from overheating from the heat of our hands. Using your palms, quickly collect the large crumbs into a ball. Do not knead for a long time, do not try to achieve smoothness and uniformity - here they are not only unnecessary, but contraindicated! If you overmix such puff pastry, the products made from it will not turn out flaky. If you feel that the dough doesn’t want to stick together, add a little more ice water. I always use Lida flour, so I know how much it is needed for each specific recipe, and you focus on yours. Once the crumbs have gathered into a lump, shape it into a rectangle or sausage to make it easy to cut into pieces.
Using a knife or scraper, cut the dough into 8-12 pieces (I have 11) so that they are approximately the same size. I deliberately did not weigh them, so I won’t tell you the exact weight. The number of pieces of dough depends on the desired diameter of the future Napoleon cake.
Quickly knead the pieces of dough, giving them a more or less rounded shape. Cover with cling film and place the pieces in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 hours. During this time, the butter will harden and it will be more convenient to work with the chilled dough.
While the quick puff pastry is cooling, let's prepare the custard for the Napoleon cake. Products needed for this: milk of any fat content (I used 2.5%), cream (fat content 30-33%), butter (fat content at least 72%), granulated sugar and vanilla sugar (I used homemade), medium-sized chicken egg size and corn starch. I will write all possible substitutions as the recipe progresses.
In a separate container, combine 200 grams of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar (I use homemade sugar with natural vanilla), 40 grams of corn starch and 1 chicken egg. You can flavor the custard with vanilla, natural vanilla or vanilla extract - use what you have in your kitchen. Of course, it is better not to replace corn starch, but if you have nowhere to get it, use potato or wheat flour.
When the milk almost boils, we begin to gradually pour it into the egg mass. It is important to take your time and pour it in a thin stream, while constantly actively stirring the contents of the bowl. If you pour in hot milk quickly and immediately, the eggs may curdle.
Gradually the mixture will become thicker and eventually begin to gurgle - the cream has boiled. Be sure to boil it over very low heat for about another minute after boiling if we use wheat flour (this cooking helps remove the characteristic mealy taste).
The result is a very tasty, tender, aromatic, smooth and thick custard butter cream. Of course, if you wish, you can add less butter or not add it at all, but believe me, the taste of the cream will differ, and greatly. In addition, this amount of puff pastry is designed specifically for this arrangement of products for the cream, so excluding butter or cream will lead to an increase in the remaining products for preparing the custard.
To cool the custard for the Napoleon cake, transfer it to a separate bowl. You see, the relief remains, which means the cream turned out thick.
We cover the cream with a piece of cling film or a new bag right next to it - this is necessary so that during the cooling process a crust does not form on the surface. Let it cool first to room temperature, after which you can put the cream in the refrigerator or take it out to the balcony.
If you are very tired, rest a little, after which we will continue to work with the dough. I bake puff pastries on a Teflon mat (I have 2 of them), but a silicone mat or parchment paper works great. At this stage, we will need the remaining wheat flour (in fact, the less the better): 70 grams was enough for me to roll out the dough, but you can use your experience as a guide. I rolled out the blanks directly on the mat, but you can roll them out on a piece of parchment. Sprinkle it with flour, flatten a piece of dough with your palm, and roll it in flour.
The diameter of the workpiece depends solely on your desire, but keep in mind that during the baking process the puff pastry shrinks by a couple of centimeters. Next you need to trim the layer to make an even circle. Personally, it’s most convenient for me to do this using a culinary ring - I made the diameter exactly 20 centimeters (the finished puff pastries were 17.5-18 cm). Alternatively, you can trim the dough using a pot or frying pan lid, as well as a regular plate and knife.
In any case, you should get an even circle and a small amount of scraps, which we collect from each piece of dough into a separate lump. Be sure to prick the dough with a fork so that during baking it does not swell too much and turn into a ball.
Bake the puff pastry until it has a beautiful soft golden color. I won’t tell you the exact baking time for this particular recipe, nor the temperature in the oven. I will only note that the oven must be well heated! It is very important to understand that the baking time can differ very much from that indicated in the recipe: it depends not only on the oven (I have a gas oven, but you may have an electric one), but also on its nature. My baking conditions: temperature 250 degrees, bottom heat. There is no simultaneous top-down mode in my Hephaestus stove, and there is no talk of convection. I baked each cake for 5 minutes on each side: since the top of the oven does not turn on at the same time as the bottom, the surface of the cake turns out pale. It is important that the workpiece is fully baked, flaky, crispy and crumbly.
In this way we prepare all the cakes - in the end I got 12 pieces (11 prepared pieces plus one more full-sized one from scraps). It is very convenient to do this at the same time: while one cake is baking, roll out the second and so on. By the end, I had gotten the hang of it and was rolling out the dough faster than it was baking. By the way, you can bake these cake layers in advance, cool them completely, then wrap them tightly with cling film and store them in a dry place for 2-3 days.
We collect those scraps that remain even after rolling out 12 cakes into a ball, roll it out and bake it in the same way, only we make the cake a little browner, trying to dry it properly. We'll need it later to top the homemade Napoleon cake.
While the puff cakes are cooling completely, let's finish preparing the Ice cream cream. The custard with butter had already cooled and thickened even more - I deliberately scooped it with a spoon to show the consistency.
To better and quickly incorporate whipped cream into it, beat the custard briefly (literally for half a minute) with a mixer.
